Why Use OER?

Adopting and Creating Open Educational Resources (OER)

OER has been shown to increase student learning while breaking down barriers of affordability and accessibility. Feldstein et al. (2012) conducted a research study at Virginia State University, where OER were implemented across nine different courses in the business department. Researchers found that students in courses that used OER more frequently had better grades and lower failure and withdrawal rates than their counterparts in courses that did not use OER.

Benefits of Using OER

Open Educational Resources (OERs) provide many benefits for students, teachers, and researchers at South African universities. By using OERs, educators can improve the learning experience and help students succeed in their studies in many ways including the following:

The Five Rs of OER

The power of open educational resources comes from a set of permissions known as the "5 Rs of OER", which allows you to:

1. Reuse: Utilise the resources in their original form (e.g., in a class, on a website, in a presentation).
2. Revise: Adapt or modify the resources to suit specific needs (e.g., update or translate the content into another language).
3. Remix: Combine or integrate different OERs to create new materials (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup).
4. Redistribute: Share and distribute the resources with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a classmates or colleagues).
5. Retain: Keep copies of the resources for personal use or reference (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage).

Image by BCOER Librarians from BCcampus (CC 4.0)

Explore Further Resources

Adopting and Creating Open Educational Resources (OER)

To gain a deeper understanding on OERs explore the following resources:  

The continued importance of Open Educational Resources (OER)