The openness of educational resources is decided by how they can be used by others. That’s how David Wiley understood openness when he created the 5R rules. A resource is truly open if everyone has the right to:

• Reuse - use the content in a wide range of ways,
• Revise - adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself,
• Remix - combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new,
• Redistribute - share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g. publish the resource for free download by others),
• Retain - make, own, and control copies of the content.

Source: The 5R Permissions of OER. Lumen Learning. after: Exploerer online course.

To simplify, an open resource is one that we can download, copy, change according to our needs, and upload to the Internet for others, who can modify the content as well (all derived from the original material).

Want to learn more about open educational resources?
We recommend resources from OE Week Library.