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Music

Open Educational Resources (OER): What Are They and Why Use Them?

What are OERs?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are informational materials freely available through the public domain or specially licensed to facilitate unobstructed retention, remixing, revision, reuse, and redistribution of the contents for educational purposes. These materials provide several benefits when used to replace textbooks and other course materials that students are frequently expected to buy when enrolled in courses.

Why should I consider using OER?

For students, OER can significantly reduce or eliminate the direct costs of enrolling in a course and ensure they have immediate and reliable access to the information they need to be successful. OERs can ensure that the student's economic circumstances do not hinder access to high-quality learning opportunities. 

For faculty who choose to use OER in their courses, they have more opportunities to customize content delivery to match their lesson plans, more opportunities to incorporate a broader range of formats and delivery modes for that content, and ensure their students have immediate access to the course content from the first day of classes. The customizability of OER also provides opportunities to include additional perspectives and expose students to different voices than might be included in traditional textbooks. 

Music and OER

Here are some resources related to music instruction.  If you know of other examples, feel free to contact us and we'll add to the list!

Finding OER Materials

Basic Directories and Catalogs

A more extensive list of directories and catalogs is available on our OER Guide

How Can I Create My Own OER?

University Libraries

One Bear Place #97148
Waco, TX 76798-7148

(254) 710-6702