Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): How to use OER

Important Considerations

Incorporating OER into your course might be an easy switch, or it might require radically rethinking your approach. Before taking the first step, you might explore the following considerations:

Know the cost of your current course materials. Talk to your students about how they are impacted by textbook costs.
Consider the benefits of customizable course content that can be tailored for your students.
Review available options for OER content in your discipline.
Evaluate whether the OER content you find is "move-in ready", or if you will need to adapt or remix it.
Talk with colleagues and librarians, ask questions, and share ideas.

Make OER work for you

There are several different ways to go about including OER content into your courses.

Adopt

Very easy. If you find high quality OER material that would be effective for your course as it is, no changes necessary, then you can go for it!

Adapt

Maybe you can't find any OER material that is "move-in ready". That's okay. You can edit, update, expand, reorganize, or alter the material so that it best fits your needs. Make sure to check the license and confirm that it allows creating derivatives.

Combine

If you are considering multiple OER materials, perhaps you could merge and combine them in a useful new way. Make sure to check all the licenses and confirm that they allow remixing and creating derivatives.

Create

If you can't find high-quality OER materials for your course, maybe you could create your own. If you're not sure how to get started, explore some of the additional resources provided in this guide, or make an appointment with a librarian to discuss possible options.

Tools for Adapting and Remixing

The ability to customize content for your own courses is one of the most useful characteristics of Open Educational Resources. Some larger OER platforms have built-in tools for remixing, while others depend on your own skill and initiative.

Adaptation Guide: A reference for adapting or revising an open textbook
A practical reference about how to customize — or adapt — an open textbook so that it better fits your needs in the classroom and elsewhere. This guide defines the term adaptation and discusses reasons for revising a book, why this is possible with an open textbook, and the challenges involved. Produced by BCcampus.
Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know
Published by the Open Education Network, this ebook provides helpful guidance for remixing and reformatting textbook content. You can find step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types, as well as a general overview of accessibility considerations.
Creating a Remix on OER Commons
The repository OER Commons contains a built-in tool for remixing content.
Creating a remix on LibreTexts
The repository LibreTexts includes a self-service tool for customizing open textbooks on this platform.

Attribution

Every OER you use, adapt, or remix must be properly attributed. Creative Commons licenses require attribution. While there is no exact standard, good attributions typically include the title, the author, the license, and an indication of any modifications. Include a hyperlink to the original content and also to the license, if able.