Skip to Main Content

Faculty Services

Adopting OER

You can decide to use the OER that you find “as is,” by printing or downloading them, or sharing the links with your students. 

Steps to Adopting an OER

  • Find the right materials 
  • Review and Evaluate 
  • Decide if you want to use it as is or modify (adapt) it 
  • Include attribution
  • Distribute to your students 
  • Report OER adoption to OER repository (if option available)

OER Adoption Guide from BCcampus

A reference for instructors, institutions, and students on adopting open textbooks.

Steps to adopting an OER adapted from Steps to Adopting an Open Textbook by Lauri M. Aesoph, licensed under a CC BY 4.0. 

Adapting OER

Before adapting an OER ensure you have the correct copyright permissions to adapt and reuse the resource as you wish. Check the license details and the exact terms of reuse to see if there are any restrictions on modifying the resource to create something new. You can also receive permission from a copyright owner before adding new content to an OER if you cannot find a pre-assigned license.

One of the benefits of using an openly licensed OER is that you are free to adapt it to fit your curriculum needs.

Reasons to Adapt an OER

  • Adapt OER for different audience/education level 
  • Adapt OER to make it more accessible 
  • Insert local or cultural references 
  • Mix OER with your own material 
  • Translate into another language 
  • Change the format 
  • Correct errors

Ways to Adapt an OER 

 

Common ways in which an existing openly licensed resource may be modified include the following: 

  1. Mixing: A number of OERs are mixed together and additional content is added to create an altogether new resource.  
  2. Adaption: you may adapt the resource in multiple ways to include local case studies and/or examples appropriate to the Canadian context 
  3. Extract and re-mix: You may extract only some of the assets of a resource or course and use them in a completely different context. for example: photos, illustrations, and graphs.   

Reasons to adapt an OER adapted from Why remix an Open Educational Resource? by Liam Green-Hughes, licensed under a CC BY 2.0 UK license. The resource can no longer be linked to because its host has stopped providing service.

Ways to adapt an OER created by Queen’s University Library, licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.