A big benefit of OER is their adaptability. Not only are they free to students but they carry an open license so they can be modified to your individual needs.
The 5 "Rs" of Open, from David Wiley at OpenContent https://opencontent.org/
The Creative Commons Website has great information on licensing and OER.
When can you use copyrighted material and when do you need to get permission?
Copyright issues can be very confusing for educators. There can be exceptions to the copyright law that allow us to use copyrighted material in our courses, those exceptions are spelled out in the copyright law. But sometimes we can claim "fair use" as a defense for using the material, and because these are guidelines there are many grey areas that are hard to navigate.
The resources in our copyright guide will help you answer four questions:
** From A Framework for Analyzing Any Copyright Policy
Of course, the librarians can help you with all of these questions, so feel free to use our online guide linked here or view the video below, but please contact me if you have any questions or need assistance obtaining copyright permission.