Open educational resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes. They are free, customizable, and most importantly, students and faculty can retain them permanently.

Open Education "...is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Web in particular provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge."

Smith, M. Casserly, C. , “The Promise of Open Educational Resources. ,” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 38, no. 5 ( 2006 ): 8-17.

     Reuse: Use the content in its unaltered form 
     Revise: Adapt, adjust, modify, improve, or alter the content 
     Remix: Combine the original or revised content with other OER to create something new 
     Redistribute: Share copies of the original content, revisions or remixes with others 
     Retain: Keep access to materials after the learning event 

Creative Commons Licenses are granted by the copyright-holder of a work and give users specific permissions to use, copy, and adapt it to their own purposes.  OER creators assign CC licenses to their work in order to share it with other faculty and students.  Creative Commons licenses make OER possible!