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Open Educational Resources
What is Open Educational Resources?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are defined as instruction, self-learning and intellectual materials that use suitable tools, such as open licensing, to permit their unrestricted re-use, constant upgrading and repurposing by others for educational purposes.

The definition given by UNESCO is – “Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. OER form part of ‘Open Solutions’, alongside Free and Open Source software (FOSS), Open Access (OA), Open Data (OD) and crowdsourcing platforms”

David Wiley defines the terms “open content” and “open educational resources” as any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like “open source”) that is either (1) in the public domain OR (2) licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

1. Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate,
store, and manage)
2. Re-use - 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)
3. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
4. 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)
5. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions or remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

Above texts are adopted from Defining the ”Open” in Open Content and Open Educational Resources was written original writing by David Wiley , which was published freely under a Creative Commons Attribute 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.

Reference:
Patel, K. J., Prakash, K., & Parekh, Y. R. (2021). Open Educational Resources: An Overview. Towards Excellence, 13(2), 295-306. ISSN 0974-035X. https://doi.org/10.37867/TE130224
Open Access
What is Open Access?
 

Open Access literature refers to scholarly publications that are freely available for internet access without any restrictions or fees. This type of literature is digital in nature and can be read without any cost (gratis). Additionally, Open Access literature is often exempt from most copyright and licensing limitations. The term "barrier-free" access could be utilized.
 
“Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder”. -Peter Suber
 

Models of Open-Access Publishing
  • Gold Open Access
  • Green Open Access
  • Hybrid Journal
  • Mandate (Open Access)
  • Embargo Open Access
  • Institutional Repository (IR) Open Access
 
What can be made available under Open Access?

There are serious, practical, successful campaigns to provide many kinds of content useful toscholars which includes.
  • Archival records and manuscripts images (artworks, photographs, diagrams, maps) teaching.
  • Government data source code conference presentations (texts, slides, audio, video) scholarly learning materials (“open education resources” and “open courseware”) monographs textbooks novels, stories, plays, and poetry newspapers.
  • Peer-reviewed research articles.
Open Access Benefits

Preprints
Open Access Books
Open Books
Open Resources