​​​​​​​​​​​​​Open Educational Resources (OER) are materials that reside in the public domain, or have been created under an open license that permits instructors to use or re-purpose them. In the spirit of OER, these materials and the content made using these materials are also shared back out for others to make use of. What this means is that OER allow instructors to develop courses (face-to-face or online) that do not require students to pay for additional materials, like textbooks or access codes.

Relatedly, "no-cost" materials accomplish the same goal but may not technically be open by definition. An example of this would be a course that makes use of resources from the College's library databases. These are are at no additional cost to students, as the College already pays for a subscription to these resources.

OER @ RCSJ

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An OER Steering Committee has been formed to help the College work towards its goal of providing OER materials in as many courses as possible. If you're interested in joining the committee, if the idea of using OER in your course sounds appealing to you, or if you have questions about the process, please feel free to reach out to us by emailing [email protected] 

OER Resources

To view information about OER that has been complied by RCSJ's Research Librarians, you can visit their OER LibGuide​. The LibGuide has links to specific OER textbooks, as well as links to search engines that can aid you in your own search for OER materials.