Open Educational Resources: Opening the Materials
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to access, openly licensed, and designed to be adapted.
Unlike traditional copyrighted resources, OER can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed[1]; giving educators real control over their course materials and giving students immediate, equitable access to learning from day one (or even before day one if a syllabus is openly shared!)
OER are often the most tangible entry point into Open Education. They turn the values of accessibility, flexibility, and care into something practical: readings, textbooks, videos, activities, and assessments that can be shaped to fit your learners and your context at Trent. Have a look at eCampusOntario’s Open Library Impact page (link will open in new window) to see the savings to date that have been reported.
The Call: An Invitation to Act
Use Open Educational Resources to:
- Lower or eliminate student costs
Ensure all students have access to course materials on the first day of class. - Adapt materials to your context
Modify examples, language, structure, or scope so resources reflect your discipline, students, and values. - Share your teaching more openly
Contribute back so others can build on your work, just as you’ve built on theirs.
Make an intentional change that opens things up.
Examples from Practice
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An instructor replaces a commercial textbook with an open textbook and supplements it with locally relevant case studies.
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A faculty member adapts an open chapter rather than assigning an article behind a paywall.
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Students are invited to help improve an OER by suggesting examples, editing summaries, or creating study aids that can be shared with future classes. They gain an author credit that inspires them to do more scholarly work in the future.
OER shift materials from being fixed and expensive to free, flexible and shared.
Your Response: A Short Action Plan
Take a few minutes to respond.
Identify one course material you currently use.
It could be a textbook, article, handout, slide deck, or activity.
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Could an open alternative replace it?
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Could part of it be adapted or supplemented with OER?
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Who would benefit most from this change?
Below is just an empty space to envision your response. Feel free to keep track of your responses in your own way. You will be asked to make a short response in each chapter, so collecting them all in one space would be a very learner-centred thing for you to do for yourself!
My first OER action will be:
(Small is powerful. One resource is enough.)
Looking Ahead: Connecting to the Next Chapter
In this chapter, you explored what OER are and why they matter, focusing on materials. The next chapter moves from resources to practice. Chapter 3 will explore Open Educational Practices (OEP): how educators and students use openness to collaborate, create, and learn together in more participatory ways.
If OER open the materials, OEP open the learning.
Deep Dive: Learn More About OER
The eCampusOntario OER Adoption Guide AND The Open Library
The guide is an overview of reviewing, selecting, and adopting OER; ideal for Trent educators who want step-by-step support with how to bring OER into their courses. The library itself is a curated collection of peer-reviewed open textbooks across disciplines, with clear licensing and adoption guidance.
Why this resource?
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Trusted starting point for educators new to OER
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Discipline-spanning and easy to search
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Focused on adoption and adaptation
- Set in our own (Ontario) higher ed context
This is an excellent place to go when you’re ready to take your first concrete step with OER.
- Wiley, D. (n.d.). Defining the “open” in open content and open educational resources. OpenContent. https://opencontent.org/definition/ ↵
