Under the Umbrella of "Open"

Open resources are publications, including educational materials, research, data, and source code, that are freely and publicly available. These teaching, learning, and research resources reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others using open licensing.

What is an open license?

A license is a document that specifies what can and cannot be done with a work (whether sound, text, image, or multimedia). 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. (A full set of conditions that must be met for a license to be open is available in the Open Knowledge Definition 1.0.)

For example, a piece of writing on a website made available under an open license would be free for anyone to:

print out and share,
publish on another website or in print,
make alterations or additions,
incorporate, in part or in whole, into another piece of writing,
use as the basis for a work in another medium, such as an audio recording or a film,
and do many other things …

Openly licensed works are hence free to be shared, modified, and improved upon!

The exact permissions granted depend on the full text of the open license that is applied. Different projects may require slightly different sets of permissions or restrictions, and a range of licenses is available to cater to these different purposes. Some open licenses stipulate that the work can be freely reused or redistributed, as long as the original author is properly credited. Some licenses state that any derivative works - or works that incorporate all or parts of the original work - are made available under the same license as the original work.

For a list of the most common open licenses, see the Open Knowledge Licenses page.

What are Open Educational Resources (and why are they uniquely "Open")?

The video below gives a brief introduction to OER:

Defining the "Open" in Open Educational Resources

The term “open” in “open educational resources” describes any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is characterized by other words like “open source”) that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

Why do authors choose an open license?

Works that are published without an explicit license are usually subject to the copyright laws of the jurisdiction in which they are published by default. These laws typically grant several exclusive rights to the copyright holder, including the right to reproduce copies and create derivative works. These rights prohibit unauthorized redistribution and reuse by third parties and can remain in effect until 70 years after the author's death. While the protections offered by copyright laws are appropriate in many cases, there are also instances where these protections may be overly restrictive.

Open licenses allow creators to grant more freedom to others in what they can do with their works. Benefits of this freedom include:

allowing others to circulate the work freely - potentially giving it a greater circulation than if a single group or individual retained an exclusive right to distribute;
not forcing users to apply for permission every time they wish to circulate a copy of the work in question, which can be a time-consuming affair, especially if the work has many authors;
encouraging others to improve and add value to their work;
encouraging others to create new works based on or derived from the original work - e.g., translations, adaptations, or works with a different scope or focus.

Why do instructors choose OER?

The video below provides further explanation into OERs and why instructors use OERs.

Free versus "Open"

Just because something is easily accessible does NOT make it open.

As with all library-licensed resources, the New York Times is free for all UC Davis affiliates to access. However, you cannot share NYT articles beyond the UC Davis community. That would be a violation of our subscription. You also cannot use the text or images from a NYT article in your own publications without first obtaining permission.
The Guardian Newspaper has a "free to read" model, meaning that anyone can access and share their articles without a subscription. However, you cannot include the text or images from a Guardian article in your own publications without first obtaining permission. You can share, but not reuse these materials.
Articles and Books published with Open Access are available to download and share without a subscription. These publications have a Creative Commons license that stipulates how the text and images can be used, but at minimum, they can be incorporated into future publications. However, some authors may stipulate that you cannot revise the content of their work to republish your own version of the text.
Resources that are considered OER allow anyone to use and revise. However, you must adhere to the Creative Commons license conditions that may require you to provide attribution to the original creator.

free versus open 2.png

Resources in the Public Domain do not have any stipulations about their use or reuse. However, it is considered "Best Practice" to provide attribution for the original creator.

Key Takeaway:

OERs are both available free of charge and openly licensed -- but what does that mean? An open license allows users to engage in certain, specific activities that are usually reserved only for the copyright holder of the work in question. Learning to find and understand these licenses will help you use these resources in the way that the authors intended.

Attribution

Adapted from ASCCC OERI — OER Basics. by Rachel Arteaga and Suzanne Wakim is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.