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Open educational resources (OERs) are a recent trend in higher education. With an Internet connection and a computing device, students can utilize OERs anytime-anywhere as primary or supplementary resources for learning. OERs and other free materials eliminate a major barrier to student learning: cost. During a first-year biology major ecology course, three free educational materials are utilized: OpenStax Biology textbook, Lucidchart online diagraming tool, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) BioInteractive. Although all three are available digitally and at no cost to students, only one meets the definition of OER. The difference is in copyrights. OpenStax textbooks are licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0 International License (CC), which allows anyone to use, reuse, change, and republish the content (with attribution only). Lucidchart is a commercial (and copyrighted) subscription web tool that currently provides free access for educational use. BioInteractive materials are created specifically for educational use, in accord with HHMI’s mission; however, the copyrights held by HHMI, and their contracted partners do not permit changing and republishing the content. Instructors who search specifically for OERs may miss a rich body of content freely available to educators and students alike. |
