Open Educational Resources
About Open Educational Resources
Benefits of OERs
- customisation - allows academics to customise course materials
- currency – material can be quickly updated to reflect new knowledge
- cultural diversity – can reflect the diverse student voice and include first nations representation
- student affordability – help to lower the cost of study
- accessibility – ongoing access to free learning materials from anywhere at any time
- equity - all students have access to the same learning materials
- deeper learning – the multiple format content may enhance the learning experience, increasing student engagement, and course completion.
Find OERs
We have curated a list of collections and search tools to help you find OERs:
Library Shorts: Finding OER Textbooks
Learn how to find Open Education Resources (OER) textbooks using several search engines, how to access the texts, and how to identify the Creative Commons licence so you can use them in your teaching. (4:38 mins)
How the Library can help you
Ask the Library's OLT team for
- OER recommendations for Comprehensive Program Review (CPR) activities, new course development for RMIT University, and RMIT Online
- advice on how to replace commercial textbooks with OERs
- advice on embedding OER content in Canvas
- help with adopting, adapting or creating open content, including textbooks
- advice on open licensing and Creative Commons.
Open Education at RMIT
RMIT University Library developed the Australian and New Zealand Open Textbook Initiative to encourage the use and adoption of open educational textbooks as an alternative to paid resources. As part of this initiative, we partner with RMIT learning and teaching staff to curate open course resources and facilitate the adoption of OER textbooks.
The Library is a member of the Open Educational Practice Special Interest Group advocating for open education in Australia.
Are you an Open Textbook Hero?
Are you already using an open textbook in your course? We would like to acknowledge your contribution to saving students’ money.
To become one of our Textbook Heroes, just fill out the textbook adoption form.
Ed Talks: Open Educational Resources
James Glapa-Grossklag, the Dean of Educational Technology from the College of the Canyons in Southern California talks about the importance of Open Educational Resources during his visit to RMIT. (3:14 mins)