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OER & Affordable Learning Materials (ALM)

Open Educational Resources (OER)--What are They?

OER Logo UNESCO"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions" (UNESCO, 2019).

What Types of Materials are Included in OER?

  • OER can include all of the following and more: textbooks, videos, tutorials, entire courses, tutorials, learning activities, lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes, software, code for creating resources and more...
  • OER materials are generally accessed electronically but some items, such as textbooks, can also be accessed or purchased to be used as print resources. The Library has samples of print copies of OER textbooks available for checkout. See the Find OER to Use with Courses page and scroll to the Printed Copies of OER Available box for a list of titles and brief descriptions.

OERTX How To Guide

OERTX: An OER Collection and Hub for Texas Education

  • Initiated by the THECB and Digitex in September, 2020, OERTX is continuing to develop and grow as more Texas higher education institutions and faculty are creating and sharing teaching/learning materials to be used in place of expensive commercial textbooks for courses.
  • Visit the OERTX Help Center to learn about OER more generally, find materials, and/or create resources to be used by your own students and others seeking to reduce students' educational costs and to make higher education more inclusive.

OER - Featured Work

book cover for OERigin Stories book edited by Ursula PikeNew Open Book from Ursula Pike, Associate Director of DigiTex

This text chronicles the history and roles of six women of color working in the open education movement around the United States and Canada. Pike captures the words and stories of the women, covering topics such as what originally drew them to the open education movement, why open education efforts matter, and how their work opens up paths to others for bringing greater representation into the space.

OERigin Stories: Pathways to the Open Movement  is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Featured OER

Laptops with evidence of students working on them arranged in square on tableConsidering Using OER for a Course?

The OER Starter Kit (Elder, 2019) published by Iowa State University Digital Press is a helpful guide to getting started with open educational practices. Written mainly for beginners with some jumping off points to delve deeper, the guide is divided into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER. Elder touches on important considerations including how to work toward diversity and inclusivity in OER content and involving students in contributing to course materials.