Open Educational Resources (OER)

The Texas Education Code Section 51.451 defines OER as:

a teaching, learning, or research resource that is in the public domain or has been released under an intellectual property license that permits the free use, adaptation, redistribution, of the resource by any person. The term may include full course curricula, course materials, modules, textbooks, media, assessments, software, other tools, materials, or techniques, whether digital or otherwise, used to support access to knowledge.

Texas Education Code, Section 51.451 Link opens in a new window. 

An Introduction to Open Educational Resources

Video created by Abby Elder to serve as an introduction to OER for college professors. 

Texas Legislation Related to OER

The SPARC State Policy Tracker provides information on what states are doing to promote OER. Texas has five legislative bills related to OER.  

All links open in a new window.

HB 1027 (2021): Requires institutions to disclose automated textbook billing ( inclusive access) costs in their course schedules. HB 1027 also requires itemization of any course material fees charged to student accounts to appear on billing statements. Vendors must make related vendor agreements public record.

HB 3652 (2019): This bill requires the state board to contract with a high-quality open educational resource repository to develop and maintain a web portal customized to meet the needs of individual institutions of higher education, students, and others who may benefit from access to open educational resources. –The repository launched Fall 2020 as OERTX

HB 3650 (2019): This bill amends existing law and requires agreements between school districts and public institutions of higher education that provide dual credit programs to consider the use of free or low-cost open educational resources in courses offered under the program.

SB 810 (2017): Requires that each institution of higher education compile a course schedule indicating, among other things, whether the textbook required for each course is an open educational resource. (Course Marking) Institutions shall make reasonable efforts to disseminate information to students, including the availability of courses and sections of courses that require or recommend only open educational resources. Further, this bill would establish the open educational resources grant program to encourage faculty at institutions to adopt and develop courses that use only open educational resources.

HB 33 (2011): Requires institutions of higher education to make information about required and recommended textbooks for each course available to students and to disseminate information about available programs to assist students with purchasing textbooks. Requires textbook publishers to provide information to faculty about textbook prices and revision information.

SPARC, “OER State Policy Tracker,” accessed October 1, 2020 via https://sparcopen.org/our-work/state-policy-tracking/

Some content on this page reused and/or adapted from "ACC Learn OER" by Carrie Gits licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Links open in a new window. 

"An Introduction to Open Educational Resources" by Abbey Elder is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 International license.