Open Educational Resources: Overview

Your campus librarians are ready to help, so please don't hesitate to contact us!

Auburn Hills:
Johnna Balk jmbalk@oaklandcc.edu

Highland Lakes Campus:
Beth Garnsey bagarnse@oaklandcc.edu
Allison McFadden-Keesling acmcfadd@oaklandcc.edu

Orchard Ridge Campus:
Nadja Springer-Ali nmspring@oaklandcc.edu
Ann Walaskay aawalask@oaklandcc.edu

Royal Oak Campus:
Carol Benson ctbenson@oaklandcc.edu
Darlene Johnson-Bignotti dxjohnso@oaklandcc.edu

Southfield Campus:
Stacy Charlesbois-Nordan sbcharle@oaklandcc.edu

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use. They include a multitude of formats, including textbooks, full courses, modules, videos, labs, assignments, and assessments. (Source: EDUCAUSE)

OER are licensed in such a way that enables adopters to utilize the 5 Rs:

1. Retain a copy of the content
2. Reuse the content in a range of ways
3. Revise the content as needed
4. Remix original or revised content with other material
5. Redistribute the original, revisions, and remixes with others

Creative Commons licenses are often applied to OER to license these rights to adopters.

Students save money:

Between 2006 and 2016, the cost of a college textbook increased by 73%, over four times the rate of inflation. High textbook prices have a disproportionate impact on students at community college. (Source: Open 101: an Action Plan for Affordable Textbooks)

Because of the high cost of textbooks, significant numbers of students report not purchasing the required textbook, taking fewer courses, earning poor grades, and dropping courses. (Source: Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2017.)

Pedagogical freedom: Faculty can add, remove, and modify content to fit their classroom rather than having an expensive textbook dictate topics and order.

Immediate and lasting access: Resources can be accessed immediately, retained, and returned to again and again.