Many governments and institutions have begun to put their data in the open for others to use. Find out more about open data!
"Open Education Resources (OERs)" by TRU Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Based on a work at http://open.bccampus.ca/bcoer-librarians/bcoer-guides/.
Contact the OEWG Chair to join the TRUOpenEd@news.tru.ca listserv to stay current in what's happening in Open Ed at TRU.
"The understanding of and opportunities for use of Open Educational Resources" by Javiera Atenas, Martin Ebner, Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, Fabio Nascimbeni, and Sandra Schön is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Open educational resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others. Examples include textbooks, readings, images, videos, other multi-media files, software, assessment tools, and entire courses.
Open license refers to a license (such as Creative Commons) that respects the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner and provides permissions granting the public the rights to access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt and redistribute educational materials. [Definition adapted from UNESCO]
This guide provides links to just a few of the many tools available to educators and students.
What does it mean for a learning resource to be "open"? The 5R framework, proposed by David Wiley, defines the major characteristics of "open" content. 
Retain
the right to make, own, and control copies of the content
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 open content 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)
This material was created by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at: http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221
Keep your finger on the OER pulse!
