Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely available and shareable, increasing the access to the materials. Accessible also means that materials should be available for those with differing abilities (e.g. use a screen reader) and for those who may not have access to higher-end technology, including high-speed internet.

The principles of open not only allow, but rely on the ability for anyone to create/modify, collaborate and share materials.

Examples of this include instructors collaborating on an adaption of an existing open textbook to better meet the needs of their students, and students engaging in the creation of learning materials to demonstrate their understanding of a concept.

Whoever creates the materials may decide on the license they wish to put on their materials, allowing them to dictate how the materials may be used, changed, and shared. In addition, choice means providing creators/adaptors of materials, including students, to determine the format for the materials that they create.

For example, for a particular assignment students may be given the option of writing a paper, updating a Wikipedia article, or creating a poster for presentation.

As most research is publicly funded, the data and results should, ideally, be made freely available to the public. In addition, such sharing of data and results allows for greater collaboration in addressing major issues facing the world such as COVID-19, environmental challenges, inequality, etc.

Reflecting on what has worked and what hasn’t in our teaching and learning allows us to learn from our successes and mistakes. Sharing those reflections with others through publications, blogs, and conversations allows others to learn from our experiences and the opportunity to offer us both support and potential solutions to problems.