Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): Creating OER

Why Create OER?

You might be interested in creating your own OER if the content you need doesn't already exist. OER you create can take the form of lesson plans, syllabi, videos, websites, guides, textbooks, and more.

OER Licenses

Open educational resources (OER) are not just openly available and free to download, but are also licensed in a way that allows for their reuse. This reuse option is a very important part of the usefulness of OERs and is frequently referred to as the 5Rs:

Retain - the right to maintain your own copies of a work
Reuse - the right to use a work in multiple different ways (in a class, on a website, in a paper)
Revise - the right to modify the work to suit your needs
Remix - the right to combine the work with other content
Redistribute - the right to share copies of the work (including any revisions or remixing you may have done)

Check out the Creative Commons License page to learn more about applying licenses to OER content.

Tools & Resources for Creating OER

Of course there's OER on creating OER! Check out some of these guides, checklists, and other resources to help you get started.

The OER Starter Kit This starter kit has been created to provide instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of open educational resources (OER). The text is broken into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER. Although some chapters contain more advanced content, the starter kit is primarily intended for users who are entirely new to Open Education. [Version 1.1. Revised September 5th, 2019.]
The OER Starter Kit Workbook The OER Starter Kit Workbook is a remix of the OER Starter Kit to include worksheets to help instructors practice the skills they need to confidently find, use, or even create open educational resources (OER). We welcome instructors, librarians, instructional designers, administrators, and anyone else interested in OER to explore the OER Starter Kit Workbook.
Authoring Open Textbooks 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.
The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) is a living repository of collective knowledge, written to equip all those who want to publish open textbooks with the resources they need. Representing two years of collaboration, innumerable conversations and exchanges, and a wide range of collective knowledge and experience, the Guide is a book-in-progress and will evolve and grow over time.
BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide The BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide is a reference for individuals or groups wanting to write and self-publish an open textbook.This guide provides details on the preparation, planning, writing, publication, and maintenance of an open textbook. Copyright, open-copyright licences, and the differences between citation and attribution are discussed as well as the importance of copy editing and proofreading. Checklists and templates are also provided. This guide replaces the BCcampus Open Education Authoring Guide.
Guide to Developing Open Textbooks This how to guide has been developed to assist teachers, teaching support personnel and educational technology administrators to: understand the value of open education, OER and open textbooks for teaching and learning; appreciate the potential value of developing an open textbook platform; select appropriate technology to build an open textbook platform, using either existing services offered free on the Internet or open-source tools, based on local needs and resources; and build, manage and maintain an open textbook platforms.

Attribution

Content in this guide page is derived from Open Educational Resources by The University of Texas Austin Libraries under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 Generic License