OER are educational materials that are freely accessible and openly licensed, allowing users to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute them without legal restrictions. Faculty find, adapt, or create OER to use as free and effective course materials. As defined by UNESCO, OER are:
"learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others."
The Affordable Instructional Materials Initiative recognizes the importance of OER in fostering affordable, accessible, and effective learning experiences for our students. As part of this initiative, teaching faculty are supported by both the Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) and the UCF Libraries. OER created at UCF can be added to the Pressbooks platform (supported by CDL) or the institutional repository (supported by the UCF Libraries).
Depending on your preferences, you may want to watch videos, learn from others, read articles, or work through a short course to learn about OER. Examples are listed below. If you have any remaining questions, please contact the Textbook Affordability Librarian.
OER come in numerous formats, sizes, and styles. Start with the most common sources for OER below, then peruse finding-related tabs on this guide for additional options. You can collaborate with librarians or instructional designers to find content.
Once you have found OER, evaluate the content to ensure it suits the needs and learning outcomes of your course. Some rubric examples are below.
If you have found the right OER for your course, then the next step is to adopt it. If you have questions regarding implementation or design, or if you need to make changes to an OER or would like to create your own content, then instructional designers and librarians are available to collaborate and consult with you.