OER, OA, and Other Resources for Faculty: Home

OER

Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed materials that are used for teaching, learning, and research. They’re designed to remove barriers to education by making high-quality content available to anyone, anywhere—no paywalls, no subscriptions, no strings attached.

What Counts as OER?

These materials are either in the public domain or released under an open license (like Creative Commons), which allows users to use, adapt, remix, and share them with few or no restrictions. Formats can include textbooks, lesson plans, videos, quizzes, software, and full courses.

Benefits of OER

• Reduces costs for students

• Increases access to education globally

• Encourages collaborative teaching and learning

• Supports innovation in instructional practices

Challenges

• Quality and accuracy may vary

• Requires effort to adapt and implement

• Licensing and attribution can be confusing for new users

Most contemporary OER are going to be made available through a Creative Commons license. This license will tell you what you can (and cannot) do with the resource, legally. 

Creative Commons licenses are applied by the copyright owner to their own works. There are four possible components to the licenses that are arranged in six configurations:

• BY - Credit must be given to the creator (Attribution).
• NC - No Commercial use. (Licenses that do not include NC allow the work to be used in a commercial setting.)
• ND - No Derivative works. (Licenses that do not include ND allow the work to be altered and adapted for use.)
• SA - Share Alike - Adaptations must be shared under the same terms. You cannot adapt the work and refuse to share your adaptation.

The ND and SA components are mutually exclusive, as SA only applies to derivative works. 

The six licenses are:

• CC-BY
• CC-BY-SA
• CC-BY-ND
• CC-BY-NC
• CC-BY-NC-SA
• CC-BY-NC-ND

A creator may also opt for CC-0, claiming no copyrights whatsoever, effectively placing the work in the Public Domain.

The chart below shows the various permissions and restrictions associated with resources in the Public Domain or under the various Creative Commons Licenses. This chart was adapted by the University of Pittsburgh Library System from a larger graphic by Foter.com.

Below is a screenshot of an example of a Creative Commons license notice from Building-Integrated Photovoltaics : A Technical Guidebook, by Nuria Martín Chivelet, Costa Kapsis, and Francesco Frontini, an ebook from the EBSCO Open Access (OA) Ebook Collection. Click the image to see it full size. The CC-BY-NC-ND license means that to use this resource legally, we must give attribution to the creator, the work cannot be used for commercial purposes, and derivative works are not permitted, meaning we must use the work as-is. But the book can be accessed and shared by faculty and students, including the production of hardcopies on a cost-recovery basis.

For more information on Creative Commons licensing see:

“About CC Licenses.” Creative Commons, 28 Sept. 2023, creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/.

“Guides: Copyright and Intellectual Property Toolkit: Creative Commons, Copyleft, and Other Licenses.” Creative Commons, Copyleft, and Other Licenses - Copyright and Intellectual Property Toolkit - Guides at University of Pittsburgh, pitt.libguides.com/copyright/licenses.

For more on Copyright see our guide on Copyright Compliance.