����APP����

(March 2-6) is a series of annual events dedicated to sharing the latest achievements in open education and dispelling myths about Open Educational Resources (OERs). 

What are “Open Educational Resources” (OERs)?  

OERs are educational materials of any type licensed under an open license, making them free to use, share, and adapt.  

These materials can be used to support teaching and learning for educators and students in the classroom or for other educational needs like workshops, handbooks, tutorials, and more!  

What are some of the myths about OERs? 

OERs are not high quality. OERs are written by the same experts as textbooks from commercial publishers. As OERs have advanced, commitment to creating high quality OER and inclusion of peer review has improved. A is open textbooks published by OpenStax or check out our for other places to find OER. 

OERs are not really free. Open Educational Resources are considered ‘free’ for end users like students and educators because they are available under that allow anyone to use and modify them freely following the license permissions granted. While there may be costs during the creation of OER, for end users there shouldn’t be any monetary costs or login barriers for accessing OER digitally. This is something to watch out for as OER has be included in some textbook platforms with purchasable access, but a free copy will be available elsewhere.  

OER are only available digitally. Many OER are available in a digital format now, but many platforms where they live can have downloadable offline file options that can also be printed either as the whole book or by section. LCR’s has all these options for creating and hosting your OER materials, plus other interactive features. 

OER are only open textbooks. OER can be any kind of materials created to support learners, including videos, slide decks, handouts, lab manuals, assessments, instructional support materials, and more! Check out the made for the ����APP���� community to find OER in your discipline and other learning subjects. 

Educators are too busy to adopt or create OER. Educators already take time to evaluate and develop course materials to use in the classroom. Evaluating OER is much the same and LCR has to help educators find, evaluate, and create OER. This includes our where we find OER for your course. 

OER means giving away your intellectual property rights. Publishing OER actually allows educators to maintain the copyright of their work with the use of . Educators apply an additional open license to direct the advanced permissions for use by others, while with traditional publishers their copyright may transfer to the publishing company. Always read the author agreement to understand your rights when publishing educational and research works! 

Open Education Week Events

Learn more about open education and OERs through these online events:

• Open Education Talks (weekly themed sessions)
• Open Education Community of Practice –  

Open Education Resources

• OE Global Open Education Week 2026 website (shared events and open assets):
• LCR OER Guide:
• OER by Discipline Guide: University of Calgary:
• Open Course Materials Matching Service (OCoMMS):
• Open Education Alberta:
• Open Scholarship Services:
• Copyright and Open Licensing Guide: