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Open Educational Resources (OER)

Provides information on open educational resources

Grant Applications

OER grants are available to help instructors create or adapt OERs for use in their classes.

We currently have funding available for OER adoption and creation. The Open Educational Resources (OER) Implementation Grant application is now closed. We will place a notice here when the next grant is open for applications, expected to be early 2025.

To learn more about the UND grant, please see our FAQs on the Open Educational Resources Grant webpage.

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) = teaching, learning, and research resources that are free for use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

The 5 Rs-- OERs allow users to:

  • Retain -- users have the right to make, archive, and own copies of the content
  • Reuse -- content can be reused in its unaltered form
  • Revise -- content can be adapted, adjusted, modified, and altered
  • Remix -- original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new
  • Redistribute -- copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed form

Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to use, build upon and share.

The CC website provides a set of copyright licenses and tools that help users create a balance from the traditional copyright law of "all rights reserved."  Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, but they are based upon it.

Choosing a Creative Commons license for your own original works will allow others share, use, and remix your work. 

The CC website has an explanation of the six licenses and they are listed below. There are four rights that Creative Commons licenses allow you to do.

  • Attribution by - all creative commons licenses have the attribution by, which means that the author gives the users the ability to copy, distribute, display, perform, and make derivative works based on it only if they attribute the author. 
  • NonCommerical - other authors can use, adapt, remix, or build upon the material as long as they do not try to sell the material.
  • ShareAlike - anyone that uses the work have to share it under the same creative commons license 
  • NoDerivatives - other authors can use the original work but cannot change or create a derivative of it 

  
             Types of Licenses

 

  Attribution CC BY 
This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

 

   Attribution-noDerivs CC BY-ND
This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

 

  Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.

 

  Attribution-Share Alike CC BY-SA
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.  This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.

 

  Attribution- NonCommercial CC BY-NC
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

 

  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND

This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

OER Tools

Related Topics

Below is a list of additional research guides that overlap with OER-related content. If you have questions about any of these guides, reach out to your Subject Librarian or our Scholarly Communications Librarian.