What is OER?
OER is an acronym for Open Educational Resources. OER are openly licensed, high quality educational resources that bring textbook costs down for students and give faculty more freedom in choosing learning content. OER are freely available, openly licensed resources — textbooks, media, videos, articles, and more — that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes.
This short video (44 seconds) provides an easy to understand explanation of OER in one state’s context:
This longer video (1:39) offers a complete explanation of OER – including the 5 R’s.
How does OER/ZTC benefit me as a student?
OER = Open Educational Resources. ZTC = Zero Textbook Cost
OER has been shown to increase student learning while breaking down barriers of affordability and accessibility.
Textbook Affordability at PCC
This (2:46) video examines the high cost of college textbooks and how it affects the student experience at Portland Community College, presented as part of the Beta Pi Rho 2017 College Project, PCC Southeast’s chapter of the national honor society for community college students.
Benefits of Using OER
This 4:41 video reviews research benefits of using OER.