Once you have found an OER, and are happy for it to be used by your students as is, add the details and link to a My Unit Readings form to have it added to your reading list.
When selecting an OER using Faculty Select, simply click on the button to "Request a course friendly link".
Complete the form to automatically send a notification to the My Unit Readings team to add the title to your My Unit Readings list.
OERs can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, or redistributed, which gives you the option of adapting OERs to suit your teaching needs.
Image by BCOER Librarians, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
For more details on the 5 Rs, see Defining the "Open" in Open Content and Open Education Resources.
There are a number of things to consider when adapting an OER. For an in-depth guide on adapting OERs, see the Adaptation Guide produced by BCcampus OpenEd:
Before adapting an OER, you will need to make sure all the works you pull information from have a license that allows for adaptation.
To find out if works are able to be remixed:
Note: When remixing an OER, you must apply the most restrictive licensing associated with original works to the final product. See the Creating OERs tab for more information.
Public domain |
CC0 |
CC BY |
CC BY-SA |
CC BY-NC |
CC BY-ND |
CC BY-NC-SA |
CC BY-NC-ND |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Public domain |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
CC0 |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
CC BY |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
CC BY-SA |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
CC BY-NC |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
CC BY-ND |
✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
CC BY-NC-SA |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
CC BY-NC-ND |
✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
This table, "Creative Commons license compatibility chart", is adapted from "License compatibility chart" by creativecommons.org, used under CC BY 4.0. "Creative Commons license compatibility chart" is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by Murdoch University Library.
The OER Commons repository has built-in authoring tools to help you adapt OERs:
Other tools that can be used to adapt and then publish an OER are shown in the table below.
Original format | Editing tools (web-based) | Editing tools (desktop) |
---|---|---|
Word or Open Office | Google Docs, PressBooks | Microsoft Word, OpenOffice |
ePub | PressBooks | Sigil, Calibre |
Text | Google docs, PressBooks | Word, OpenOffice |
LaTex | ScribeTex | TeXworks, Texmaker |
HTML | Google Docs, PressBooks, Media Wiki | Dreamweaver, MS Expression Web |
OpenStax College | Connexions | n/a |
Information on authoring an OER is available from:
Guide for getting started including case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources, and an overview of useful tools
Guide to assist teachers in selecting appropriate technology and free services for authoring OER
Live demos by expert users and creators of a selection of free platforms for authoring OER
Apply a Creative Commons license for the re-distribution of your OER.
Consider how you would be comfortable with your OER being reused - what permissions will you give others to share and use your creative work.
Murdoch University Library recommends you upload and store your OER at OER Commons. Authors can directly upload material and assign it to the Murdoch University Group.
For more on publishing OERs, see our Publishing Research guide: