Open Education Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are made freely available that you may use and reuse at little or no cost. Unlike resources under strict copyright terms, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. OER are made available in a variety of digital and print formats.

(Adapted from OER Commons).

OER provides unique opportunities for both instructors and learners. 

Instructors: 

• Supports academic freedom to modify or add course content to your specifications
• Provides opportunities to publish and share non-traditional materials 
• Provides access to content that may not be available through the university's library collections or subscriptions
• OER provide clearly defined rights to users and do not require interpretation of Copyright and Fair Dealing laws
• Allows instructors to have a direct impact on the cost of a course by providing low- or no-cost learning materials

Learners: 

• Removes cost as a barrier to learning (See 2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey, Florida Virtual Campus)
• Able to access course materials from day one
• Can provide learners with perpetual access to course materials, deepening their level of understanding in a given subject area

The University Library, the Office of the Provost, and the Office of Teaching and Learning Services have collaborated to establish an Open Textbook Fellowship Grant program. This pilot program supports instructors in the creation or adaptation of open textbooks for use in MacEwan University courses,  including the creation or adaptation of complementary ancillary materials for use with existing open textbooks, such as test banks, instructor manuals, and multimedia materials. 

The fellowship program is a 20-month facilitated process. Individual and collaborative applications will be considered, with awards of up to $5000 per project. Tenured, tenure-track, or sessional extended MacEwan faculty members are eligible to apply as lead applicants. Sessional members are encouraged to apply as collaborators with lead applicants. 

For more information, please visit https://library.macewan.ca/services/oer, or contact Ali Foster (fostera25@macewan.ca).