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Open Educational Resources (OER)

Additional Educator Resources

Video: Active Learning and OER: Innovating in the Classroom

The Floe Inclusive Learning Design Handbook

Created by Floe, a project of the Inclusive Design Research Centre from OCAD University. The Floe Inclusive Learning Design Handbook is a free Open Educational Resource (OER) designed to assist teachers, content creators, Web developers, and others in creating adaptable and customized educational resources that can accommodate a diversity of learning preferences and individual needs. This is a work in progress and we are constantly adding more content to this handbook. The information in this handbook is structured in the following sections:

  • Introduction: Provides an introduction to the handbook and describes who can benefit from using it
  • Perspectives: Contains articles that discuss the main issues related to education and inclusive learning
  • Approaches: Provides best practices, guidelines and resources for creating inclusive content and learning experiences
  • Techniques: Contains practical tools and techniques to produce inclusive content and assess its accessibility

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources: This document is intended to support authors, teachers, professors, librarians, and all open educators in evaluating when and how they can incorporate third party copyright materials into Open Educational Resources to meet their pedagogical goals.

OER Mythbusters

OER Mythbusting  by SPARC addresses the top seven myths about OER in North American higher education, as voted on by more than 100 faculty, librarians, students and other members of the OER community. 

Myth #1: Open simply means free. Fact: Open means the permission to freely download, edit, and share materials to better serve all students.
Myth #2: All OER are digital.

Fact: OER take many formats, including print, digital, audio, and more.
Myth #3: "You get what you pay for." Fact: OER can be produced to the same quality standards as traditional textbooks.
Myth #4: Copyright for OER is complicated. Fact: Open licensing makes OER easy to freely and legally use.
Myth #5: OER are not sustainable. Fact: Models are evolving to support the sustainability and continuous improvement of OER.
Myth #6: Open textbooks lack ancillaries. Fact: Open textbooks often come with ancillaries, and when they do not, existing OER can provide additional support.
Myth #7: My institution is not ready for OER. Fact: Any institution can start with small steps toward OER that make an impact for students.