# Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are **free to access, adapt, and share** thanks to open licenses that explicitly permit retention, reuse, revision, remixing, and redistribution —the “5 Rs”.

## Why Use OER?
- **Cost savings** for students by replacing high-priced textbooks with free alternatives.  
- **Pedagogical freedom** for instructors to customize, localize, and update materials.  
- **Equitable access** for learners worldwide, removing paywalls and permission barriers.  

## Major OER Platforms & Repositories

| Platform | Primary Focus | Key Features | License Scope |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [**MERLOT**](https://www.merlot.org/merlot/) | Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning & Online Teaching | 100,000+ peer-reviewed learning objects across disciplines; member ratings and comments | Varies; most under Creative Commons |
| [**MIT OpenCourseWare**](https://ocw.mit.edu/) | Full course content from MIT (syllabi, lectures, assessments) | 2,600+ courses; high-quality STEM & humanities materials; translated into multiple languages | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 |
| [**OER Commons**](https://oercommons.org/) | Aggregator of lesson plans, textbooks, simulations, etc. | Advanced search, alignment to curricula, authoring & remix tools, hubs for institutions | Predominantly CC licenses |
| [**Open Textbook Library**](https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/) | Peer-reviewed open textbooks | 1,400+ titles; faculty reviews; PDF & editable formats | CC BY or similar | 
| [**Wikimedia Commons**](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) | 95+ million media files (images, audio, video) | Free cultural & educational media; integrates with Wikipedia; category and quality ratings | CC BY, CC BY-SA, or public domain |
| [**OpenStax**](https://openstax.org/) | High-quality college textbooks | Professionally developed textbooks with ancillaries; print copies at low cost | CC BY 4.0 |
| [**LibreTexts**](https://libretexts.org/) | Dynamic, modular textbooks & homework systems | 400+ books in STEM, social sciences, humanities; Remix tool; integration with LMS | CC BY-NC-SA (default) |
| [**Teaching Commons**](https://teachingcommons.us/) | Aggregated scholarly teaching materials from university repositories | Faculty-authored syllabi, modules, multimedia | Varies; mostly CC licenses |
| [**Open Case Studies**](https://www.opencasestudies.org/) | Real-world case studies (public policy, health, environment) | Editable case repositories; interdisciplinary | CC BY  |

## Creating & Sharing Your Own OER
- Author in open formats (Markdown, HTML, [Pressbooks](https://guide.pressbooks.com/).  
- Apply a suitable [CC license](https://creativecommons.org/chooser/) (e.g., CC BY for maximal reuse).  
- Deposit in a visible repository ([BI Research Repository](https://repository.berlin-international.de/home), OER Commons, MERLOT).  
- Supply editable source files (e.g., .docx, .xml) to enable remixing.

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