Understanding Open Educational Resources
According to UNESCO, Open Educational Resources (OER) describes any educational resource designed and licensed for teaching and learning. OER includes curriculum maps, textbooks, streaming videos, multimedia applications, podcasts, or any other freely available materials that do not require royalties or license fees.
There are multiple ways to lower the cost of education for students using OER materials. Faculty members can help in this endeavor by using an open-licensed book that costs nothing to students and is always available on the Internet. Another efficient method to help reduce educational resource costs is redesigning the class using courseware already built for the subject matter. Furthermore, authoring an OER textbook is an advantageous option to help students save money on academics and a gratifying undertaking for faculty.
