Open Educational Resources Commons

Southwest Tennessee Community College and the Tennessee Board of Regents have partnered to provide the college with the Tennessee Open Education Resources hub, a statewide digital learning platform for faculty. 

TOER is part of OER Commons, a digital public library for teachers and educators from around the world where they can enhance their curriculum and engage and connect students with instructional material by sharing, downloading and uploading resources. 

At Southwest, students can avail themselves of free resources, textbooks and materials through the college’s Open Educational Resources hub. 

OER is made possible through TBR’s Open Educational Resources Grant Program.

Criteria for Sharing Resources 

TBR welcomes all faculty to share, download and even upload open education resources here at our very own hub with the OER Commons website. These resources can be anything from a PDF textbook to a video link.  

OERs describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, defined in terms like “open source”) that is either (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

• Retain - make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep your copy)
• Revise - edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language)
• Remix - combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)
• Reuse - use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class)
• Redistribute - share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend) 

This material is an adaptation of Defining the “Open” in Open Content and Open Educational Resources, which was originally written by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.

Upcoming Events

vol. 1 issue 1 of the Tennessee RepOERter

 

Related Links

• Current OER Resources
• TBR’s Open Educational Resources Grant Program