LibGuides: Open Educational Resources : OER Home

Introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER)

This guide is intended for Truman College faculty who are considering adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) for their courses, as well as for faculty who are revising, remixing, or creating their own OER.

What is OER? "Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities" (Creative Commons). (Learn about the 5Rs below).

Why OER? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26 states that "higher education shall be equally accessible to all." Textbooks account for a major portion of students' expenses, along with tuition and housing. Over half of students do not purchase course materials because of the expense or issues with accessibility, which severely impacts performance and retention. In contrast to these fundamental concerns, using OER allows free and expanded access to learning materials, increased flexibility for faculty and students, more current and diverse content, and many more advantages. (See OER & DEI below).

The 5 Rs of OER

OER & DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion)


Diversity: Multiple identities and experiences represented within an organization.	Equity: The fair treatment of all people to ensure full participation and advancement.	Inclusion: Thoughts, ideas, and perspectives of all individuals matter.

Some of the ways OER address DEI issues include:

No-cost course materials allow equal access, especially for historically underrepresented and/or economically disadvantaged students. OER provide an essential alternative to expensive course materials that may be difficult to access for many reasons.
OER give instructors more options, bringing diverse authors, perspectives, and voices to the table; OER extends teaching beyond the traditional classroom, increasing accessibility. OER allow instructors to compile or create their own diverse and inclusive course materials.
Ready access to OER texts by BIPOC, women, and other underrepresented or marginalized communities fosters a culture of inclusion.

Access Truman College's DEI guide for DEI resources, including OERs, on various DEI sub-topics.

Further Reading

Bali, M., Cronin, C., & Jhangiani, R. S. (2020). Framing Open Educational Practices from a Social Justice Perspective. Journal of Interactive Media in Education. 2020(1), 10. OEP (open educational practices), inclusive of open pedagogy, is often understood with respect to the use of OER (open educational resources) but can be conceived with more expansive conceptualisations (see Cronin & McLaren 2018; DeRosa & Jhangiani 2017; Koseoglu & Bozkurt 2018). This article attempts to build on existing OEP research and practice in two ways. First, we provide a typology of OEP, giving examples of practices across a continuum of openness and along three axes: from content-centric to process-centric, teacher-centric to learner-centric, and practices that are primarily for pedagogical purposes to primarily for social justice (Bali 2017). Second, we employ Hodgkinson-Williams and Trotter’s (2018) conceptual framework, which builds on Fraser’s model of social justice, to critically analyse the ways in which the use/impact of OEP might be considered socially just, with a particular focus on expansive, process-centric OEP. We analyze for whom and in which contexts OEP can (i) support social justice along economic, cultural and political dimensions, and (ii) do so in transformative, ameliorative, neutral or even negative ways. We use the typology and framework to analyse specific process-centric forms of OEP including collaborative annotation, Wikipedia editing, open networked courses, Virtually Connecting, public scholarship, and learner-created OER. Analysing specific practices highlights diversity across the axes and subtle differences among them, such as when a particular practice is considered good pedagogy and how it can be modified to be more oriented towards social justice. We discuss limitations of each practice not just from its discourse and design, but also how it works in practice.
Colvard, N. B., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018). The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 262-276. There are multiple indicators which suggest that completion, quality, and affordability are the three greatest challenges for higher education today in terms of students, student learning, and student success. Many colleges, universities, and state systems are seeking to adopt a portfolio of solutions that address these challenges. This article reports the results of a large-scale study (21,822 students) regarding the impact of course-level faculty adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER). Results indicate that OER adoption does much more than simply save students money and address student debt concerns. OER improve end-of-course grades and decrease DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal letter grades) rates for all students. They also improve course grades at greater rates and decrease DFW rates at greater rates for Pell recipient students, part-time students, and populations historically underserved by higher education. OER address affordability, completion, attainment gap concerns, and learning. These findings contribute to a broadening perception of the value of OERs and their relevance to the great challenges facing higher education today.
DOERS3 Equity Work Group. (2021, July 13). The OER Equity Blueprint: The Role of OER in Advancing Equity. DOERS3. An overview of research into why and how OER programs have worked to improve access and affordability, deepen student learning, and close equity gaps for historically underrepresented and minoritized students used for the DOERS3 OER Equity Blueprint.
Robertson, T. (2017). Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Open Research and Education. Tara Robinson Consulting. Read Tara Robertson's summary of her 2017 OpenCon presentation about DEI and Open Education initiatives.

Pros and Cons of OER

The pros for using OER typically outweigh the cons:

Advantages	Challenges
Affordability	Technological access issues
Expanded access to learning	Quality control sometimes lacking
Improved student engagement	Intellectual property/copyright concerns
Greater control over content of course materials	Less incentive for updating content than traditional publishing
Enhancement of course content	Language/culture barriers
Increased flexibility for students and instructors
Faster publication of scholarly information, including some updates
Diverse viewpoints
Environmentally-sustainable production and distribution