Social determinants of learning (SDOL) impact students’ abilities to successfully complete their courses. An economic barrier for vulnerable students is the skyrocketing cost of textbooks. An innovative strategy to promote equity in educational delivery is the adoption of open educational resources (OER). The Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN) project published five OER textbooks with input from over 65 contributors and 300 reviewers. Open RN textbooks have received widespread national and international usage. Analysis of student outcomes indicates similar successful course completion rates by all students in OER course sections and increased rates of successful course completion by non-White students.

This guide is for faculty authors, librarians, project managers and others who are involved in the production of open textbooks in higher education and K-12. Content includes a checklist for getting started, publishing program case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources and an overview of useful tools.

A rubric designed by educators from Lawrence Public Schools to be used in its annual review process of openly licensed educational resources.

This guide will provide you with more information about open licensing and walk you through all the steps needed to apply an open license on your work.

Please note: This guide is provided for informational purposes only. Nothing in this document should be considered as legal advice.

If you haven’t discovered already, there are myriad open resources that exist. Often the trouble lies in locating those that fit precisely what you need. We’ve broken down these resources with the intent of making the search process more efficient and effective. For each you’ll find a list of unique traits, licensing information, and an example of how to attribute the source. Click one of the media sources in the Find Resources sub-menu for the details.

A rubric designed by the Grossmont Unified High School District to be used when assessing the quality of resources.

ISKME's Design Lab 2011: Make an OER Maker Faire participants collaborate in ISKME's Design Lab to brainstorm, prototype, and present new ideas in teaching and learning. This wiki page showcases photos and video from the Design Lab and a step by step guide through the design process used.

ISKME's OER Commons Teacher Training Initiative offers teachers a collaborative professional development model centered on engagement with Open Educational Resources (OER). The OER Commons Teacher Training Initiative is rooted in the idea that equitable access to high-quality education is a global imperative. Open Educational Resources, or OER, offer opportunities for systemic change in teaching and learning through accessible content, and importantly, through embedding participatory processes and effective technologies to engage with learning for all.

Der Landesbildungsserver Baden-Württemberg ist die Standard-Plattform Baden-Württembergs für alles im Umfeld Schule.
The german "Educations-Server" of Baden-Württemberg provides a great variety of educational stuff. Well tested and approved for the teachers every-day-life.
All free.

A license is a document that specifies what can and cannot be done with a work. It grants permissions and states restrictions. Broadly speaking, an open license is one that grants permission to access, re-use and redistribute a work with few or no restrictions (definition from Openedefinition.org).

In previous modules we had a chance to discuss the background of open licenses and what they are. We learned that Creative Commons (CC) is the most widely used open license for open educational resources. In this module, we will discuss CC licenses– what they are, to what they pertain, and how to mark our works with them.

Why do open educational resources matter? What is the point of using OER? Below are some of the benefits of using open educational resources that I have seen while working with OER over the past several years.

Open Educational Resources (OER) offer opportunities for increasing equity and access to high-quality K–12 education. Many state education agencies now have offices devoted to identifying and using OERs and other digital resources in their states. To help states, districts, teachers, and other users determine the degree of alignment of OERs to the Common Core State Standards, and to determine aspects of quality of OERs, Achieve has developed eight rubrics in collaboration with leaders from the OER community.

The toolkit is made up of three elements:
1). information and resources to support your evaluation activities
2). an interactive tool to guide you through our Evaluation and Synthesis framework, providing an opportunity to submit findings, observations and links to evidence AND which feeds this back to you for inclusion in your project reporting mechanisms
3). examples of evaluation materials, instruments and reports from other UKOER projects

The OEL Toolkit is openly available and openly licensed. The guidance generated by the OEL Toolkit is of primary relevance to educators and developers working within Australian higher education institutions. The OEL Toolkit web application has been designed with a focus on ease of use. It provides relevant information for users seeking guidance on using, creating, modifying or sharing a specific Open Educational Resource.

Asynchronous self-guided workshop series designed to guide college faculty through the process of develop, adapting, and/or creating Open Educational Resources for their courses. These workshops were designed specifically to support faculty and staff participating in the Open Western OER Fellowship program at Western Technical College in La Crosse, WI.

Each workshop includes video tutorials, written instruction, and editable templates to support each phase of OER development. Each of the four workshops guides participants through one phase of the OER development:

Workshop 1: Project Planning guides participants through an initial planning phase, in hopes of laying the groundwork for a successful project. It's designed to help participants think through their end product and what will be needed to make it a reality.

Workshop 2: Project Creation covers the core activities of content adaptation, remix, and original creation. This is also where important practical tasks are introduced including using outside source material and prioritizing accessibility.

Workshop 3: Revising and Publishing takes participants through a guided revision process and then leads into final publication.

Workshop 4: Teaching with OER has participants evaluate the creation process and plan for the future. This workshop also discuss ways to use your OER with students and begin to incorporate concepts of open pedagogy into their classrooms.

Rio Commons is a collection of OER content created by Rio Salado College. Rio Commons is also a portal to other established OER providers. Content provided within Rio Commons is selected by College faculty, managed by Rio Salado Instructional Design Services, and maintained by Rio Salado Course Production. The Rio Commons site serves many purposes including the following: Allows students access to practice basic skills; Provides a means for remediation and enrichment; Meets grant requirements that specify OER publication; Links to other OER portals and repositories; Contributes to the OER body of content.

A template for developing openly licensed educational resources from Grossmont Union High School District.

A brief video where OER experts give their reasons for working in the field of Open Educational Resources. Primary reasons include empowering teachers, equalizing access to education, reducing teachers' worries about copyright, reducing educational costs, and facilitating the open flow of information.