Feb 13, 2025 By: hzeng
Before we begin with OER myth-busting, we must first define OER. OER stands for Open Education Resources. These materials are in the public domain or have a specific license enabling users to retain, revise, remix, reuse, and redistribute said materials (Wiley).
Image Source: Open Education: A "Simple" Introduction by David Wiley, Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer, Lumen Learning Published on Jun 5, 2014 (Slide 44)
Now without further ado, OER myth busting!
- Instructors don’t use OER
Many instructors employ OER unconsciously. Suppose you have used a Google image, YouTube video, podcast, or CNN article—congratulations—you have used an item in the public domain. You are an OER adopter, albeit inadvertently.
Instructors at the undergraduate level's English, Sociology, Computer Science, and Math departments have adopted and integrated OER into their courses (many without library intervention).
- OER is poor quality and unreliable
Instructors worry that OER textbooks are not “up to par” with commercial textbooks. OpenStax’s (a nonprofit OER textbook publisher) textbooks final drafts are vetted and peer-reviewed by various faculty members across multiple institutions (Palmiotto 2024).
- OER has some insidious nature
Many wonder why an author would publish a textbook in the public domain for zero to no cost. Even though the materials are free, the authors receive payment during the development of the OER textbook (Newton 2022).
John McMurry’s latest edition of Organic Chemistry [the gold-standard Organic Chemistry textbook] was published as an open education resource (OER), making this originally costly textbook freely available to students online in honor of his late son (Josephs 2022). McMurry’s textbook transitioned to OER, but others have been published as OER outright.
- There is only one way to be zero-cost
A drawback to OER is that transitioning from a traditional textbook to OER materials can be challenging. Like commercial textbooks, the OER textbook may not include everything. But one does not have to exclusively use OER. Additional cost-free materials can be supplemented through library-licensed materials like e-books or journal articles.
Posted by Emily Apterbach
Research and Instruction Librarian
