What are open educational resources?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are easy-to-access teaching and learning materials that are shared under an open license, making most free to use, adapt, and copy. They are generally licensed using less restrictive licenses such as those from Creative Commons.
OER include open textbooks, open access journals, open courses, open data, and so much more!
The most well-known type of OER are open textbooks, which are online and free to access for students and instructors. These are beneficial as they remove financial barriers for students and allow instructors greater flexibility in terms of course materials.
OER at UCW
Since 2019, UCW has been making strides to support the adoption and creation of OER through the Open Educational Resource Committee (OERC). This committee supports OER adoption by:
- Educating stakeholders about the benefits of OER,
- Advocating and supporting the use of OER on campus, and
Creating targeted initiatives to increase the use of OER including our funded Zero Cost Textbook Initiative (ZCT).
In 2021, the OERC supported the MBA Foundations program in becoming UCW’s first program that fully transitioned to using only open-access and library-licensed resources. Several other courses across various programs have since made the move toward OER with assistance from our ZCT Initiative. Students can find more information about OER integration in their courses by reviewing their course outlines.
The OERC also publishes annual review with highlights of the efforts happening across the institution:
If you would like to know more about OER at UCW, visit our website or contact [email protected].
