In its purest for, "open educational resources" refer to materials that are free of cost and free of copyright restrictions. However, implementation of "OER" in a course could actually take many forms if your goal is primarily to reduce the cost of course materials for students. A distinction can be made between "open" materials - those which can be remixed, reused, and redistributed without restriction - and "free" materials - those which do not cost the student anything but might have copyright restrictions and/or be funded by the library/institution). For the purposes of these examples, the term OER will be used to refer to any materials that replace costly commercial textbooks.
OER implementation in a course could take the form of:
Use Follett Discover - a tool available through Canvas - to automatically apply an OER message to your course's bookstore listing:
The Faculty OER Toolkit is an information resource about and guide to adapting and adopting Open Educational Resources. Included are definitions and examples, information about Creative Commons licensing, and tips on how to adapt and/or adopt OER for classroom use.
Published by BCcampus