"Open Educational Resources (OERs) are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others." (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation).
Why use OERs?
More and more, OERs are coming up in conversations pertaining to higher education because:
Student Debt: Use of OERs can reduce the average annual cost of textbooks
Student Success: Use of OERs can remove student motivations to take fewer courses, illegally obtain course content, or attempt to complete a course without course texts or content
Faculty Collaboration: Use of OERS encourages collaboration, growth, and sharing globally
Faculty Freedom: Use of OERs allows customization and localization of course materials to fit specific needs.