Learn about OER and Affordability efforts at BYU
What are open educational resources (OER) and affordability?
Affordability: This refers to efforts used by educational institutions to reduce or eliminate course materials costs while maintaining the expected high quality of a higher education experience.
Open Educational Resources: “teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities,” (Creative Commons) that is, retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute (Wiley). Further, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation defines open education as “the myriad of learning resources, teaching practices and education policies that use the flexibility of OER to provide learners with high quality educational experiences.”
Open Educational Resources: “teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities,” (Creative Commons) that is, retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute (Wiley). Further, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation defines open education as “the myriad of learning resources, teaching practices and education policies that use the flexibility of OER to provide learners with high quality educational experiences.”
News & Highlights
BYU Faculty Highlight
Thom Edlund--OER in Russian Literature
Thom Edlund (retired), librarian at BYU's Harold B. Lee Library, taught Russian literature classes for years. He found that teaching using Open Educational Materials benefits the students as they are able to explore a greater breadth of literature options.
Recent OER & Affordability News
McGraw Hill and Cengage Merger Stopped
Early 2019 saw two large textbook publishers (McGraw Hill and Cengage) proposed a merger causing push-back from academics worldwide. Thanks for the efforts of many, including SPARC, the merger was called off in early May 2020.