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Winter Park - OER and Open Access Basics: Home

This is a brief guide for Winter Park Campus students on the topic of Open Educational Resources and Open Access.

OER and Open Access Basics

Welcome to the OER and Open Access Basics page for Winter Park Campus faculty and students. 

  • Open Access (OA): a method of publishing scholarly research and data that allows the material to be freely available in order to benefit the creator(s) and contribute to the advancement of their field. OA is "digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open access stands in contrast to the existing “closed” system for communicating scientific and scholarly research (1)." 
     
  • Open Educational Resource (OER): "education materials that are shared at no cost with legal permissions for the public to freely use, share, and build upon the content (2)." Using OER materials is part of the Open Education movement, and many believe this is the path most institutions will use to help reduce the cost of education. Many groups are producing quality materials that meet a high standard.
     
  • Together, OA and OER are part of the movement that has been made possible by the internet. Because digital content can be reproduced infinitely for no extra cost, traditional print-born restrictions should be updated for digital information. This global change has been possible because of organizations like Creative Commons and OA journals. 

OER Textbooks on WP Campus

Winter Park Campus is already utilizing OER materials. Professor Prusick uses "Biology 2e" as the main textbook for Biology (BSC 1101). This text book can be printed, downloaded, and accessed online free of charge - you can even order a physical copy for a much lower price than a traditional textbook. 

OpenStax is one of the many organizations that give students and instructors access to dozens of subjects, removing the financial barrier of traditional textbook costs.  

Click here to explore Biology 2e

Traditional vs. Open Access Publishing

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“Research Article Cycles,” by Billymeinke. CC BY 4.0.

Open Educational Resources

 

OER by Annie Rogers CC BY 4.0

Open Access

 

OA by Annie Rogers CC BY 4.0

Additional Resources

Credits

"OER and Open Access Basics" is a derivative of the June 2020 Creative Commons Certificate Course by Creative Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0. Annie Rogers adapted content from the Creative Commons Certificate Course Unit 5 on Creative Commons for Librarians, adding to this LibGuide.

(1) "Open Access" is from Unit 5.1 Open Access to Scholarship of the June 2020 Creative Commons Certificate for Educators and Librarians, by Creative Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0.

(2) "OER" is from Unit 5.2 OER, Open Textbooks, and Open Courses of the June 2020 Creative Commons Certificate for Educators and Librarians, by Creative Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0.

 

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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