Open educational resources (OER) are any digital materials designed to support learning and teaching that have been released into the public domain or licensed in a way that allows their use, adaptation, and distribution. Open educational resources can include, for example, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), textbooks, assignments, games, images, or videos.
Open educational resources benefit both learners and teachers. Teachers can use open materials created by others in their own teaching, and likewise it is worthwhile to make one’s own materials available for others to use. Sharing open educational resources brings out the teacher’s expertise and enables new forms of collaboration.
For learners, open educational resources offer opportunities to learn and develop skills regardless of time, place, or life situation. High‑quality open materials provide an accessible pathway to reliable information.
Where to find open educational resources?
Open educational resources and other open materials can be searched for in various national and international search services and learning environments.
The Guide for Open Publications Searching (UEF Library) provides support for finding open materials.
- Library of Open Educational Resources (aoe.fi): A national service that brings together learning materials for different educational levels and subjects in Finland. It is also the recommended place to upload information about your own open educational resources.
- Finna.fi: In the Luokkahuone section (in Finnish only), you can explore curated material packages and ready-made assignment ideas created by Finnish libraries, museums, and archives, or browse open educational resources and reading packages. The content can be used across educational levels as well as for personal competence development. Finna also includes materials from the Library of Open Educational Resources (aoe.fi).
- DigiCampus and UEF MOOC courses: Open online courses and materials. Some course materials can be accessed by logging in as a guest in the DigiCampus environment.
- Open educational resources from UEF Library’s courses: The library’s website offers open materials related e.g. to information retrieval, open science, and research data management.
- OERSI: A European portal that aggregates open educational resources from higher education institutions. Materials from the Finnish Library of Open Educational Resources (aoe.fi) are also available through OERSI.
- OpenLearn: A free learning platform maintained by The Open University (UK), offering open courses, articles, videos, and learning materials without registration. Some courses also provide digital badges.
- MERLOT: An international community and digital library that promotes open education by offering teachers and students free open educational resources across various disciplines.
- Open Educational Global: An international network that promotes open education and supports institutions and educators in developing and sharing open educational resources.
- OER Commons: An international digital library for finding and sharing open educational resources.
- Zenodo: An open access research repository where researchers and research communities can store and share open research publications, data, software, and other digital materials, including open educational resources. It is a useful place e.g. to search for open publications and datasets to support teaching. Many research funders recommend using Zenodo.
When you find an open educational resource that interests you, pay attention to the following:
- Who is the author or which organization has produced the material?
- What are the terms of use? How is the material licensed, and does the license allow the use you intend?
- When was the material last updated, and is it still current?
- Is the material suitable for its intended purpose?
- Are the sources used in the material properly cited?
Terms of use and licenses
When using open educational resources, it is important to consider their copyright, terms of use, and licensing conditions.
The use of open educational resources or other works created by others in teaching must be based on:
- the copyright holder’s permission / an agreement made with the author, or
- a license that permits such use (e.g., CC licenses).
Creative Commons (CC) licenses are recommended for open educational resources. CC licenses are open copyright licenses that allow works to be legally shared, used, and adapted under the conditions defined by the author. The license must always be checked before using the material in teaching or publishing.
You may use open educational resources created by others if the author has given permission or if the material is licensed with an open license, such as a Creative Commons license.
How to open educational resources?
Open educational resources can be created by both teachers and students. When producing open educational resources, the author should pay particular attention to the content, accessibility, usability, findability, and lifecycle of the material. This helps ensure that the educational material is high‑quality, useful, and genuinely open.
Creating open educational resources offers teachers and students an opportunity to share their expertise and improve access to learning. Producing open materials can be part of a course assignment, a thesis, or another project. For teacher education students, open educational resources provide visibility even before graduation, and these materials can serve as teaching resources when entering working life. Developing educational resources together strengthens pedagogical skills and promotes collaborative learning and networking.
Every creator of open educational resources can start from their own level and plan, develop, and share their materials step by step.
Getting started:
- Use the national Quality Criteria for Open Educational Resources (AVOTT) to support your work.
- More detailed instructions for creating open educational resources can be found on UEF Intra Open educational resources (OER) page.
UEF Open education support service
Support and guidance for using and producing open educational resources is available from UEF Open education support service at [email protected]. The service is coordinated by the UEF Library.
Do you have questions about open educational resources?
Looking for guidance on how to open your own learning materials?
Contact our support service!