"Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open licence, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others. Open licence refers to a licence that respects the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner and provides permissions granting the public the rights to access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt and redistribute educational materials" (Paris OER declaration).
Open Educational Resources include:
Learning content: full courses, course material, content modules, learning objects, collections, and journals.
Tools: software to support the creation, delivery, use, and customization of open learning content including searching and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and online learning communities.
Implementation resources: Intellectual property licences to promote open publishing of materials, design-principles, and localization of content.