Open Educational Resources (OER)

The traditional textbook model has existed for a long time, and existed before Open Educational Resources. It has supported many generations of learners and teachers, and for good reason. Textbooks successfully introduce many topics in accessible ways and facilitate learning.

Open Educational Resources, also called OERs, are not only textbooks, they are also videos, audio, modules, worksheets, full courses, games and more. They differ from traditional learning materials because they are freely available online to use, whether you are an instructor, student or self-learner, and this free use expands beyond just being allowed to view them, it also allows you, or anyone, to freely retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute them. 

©opyright is the exclusive legal right to publish, print, perform, or record an original work. It is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship. To expand those rights to other people such works can be licensed by the author or copyright holder. You may have heard about a book being licensed to be made into a movie, or music being licensed to appear in a movie. 

Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to   large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a   copyrighted work answers the question, “What can I do with this work?”

https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/