Open Educational Resources (OER) in 2025: Free Textbooks & Courses

Paying hundreds for books every term? Open Educational Resources (OER) in 2025—including high-quality, peer-reviewed OER textbooks and full open courses—can slash your study costs without sacrificing learning. This guide explains what counts as OER, how to find trusted OER textbooks 2025, how Creative Commons licenses work, and a step-by-step plan to switch fast.

OER 2025 Basics: What Counts as “Open”

The 5R permissions (what OER lets you do)

• Retain — keep a copy forever.
• Reuse — use in class, study groups, LMS.
• Revise — adapt, update, translate.
• Remix — combine with other open content.
• Redistribute — share with classmates.

Common OER formats

• OER textbooks (PDF/HTML/ePub) with problem sets and slides.
• Open courses (syllabi, readings, videos, quizzes).
• Ancillaries (question banks, simulations, labs, slide decks).

How to Find Quality OER Textbooks in 2025

Where to search (high-yield hubs)

• Well-known open publishers and national OER repositories (search by course code: BIO 101, ECON 102).
• Statewide OER catalogs and community college transfer pages (often map OER to gen-ed outcomes).
• Discipline associations (math, chemistry, business) that curate peer-reviewed open texts.

Quality filters (avoid “free but flimsy”)

• Peer reviews: look for multi-review ratings and instructor notes.
• Adoption signals: how many campuses use the text? Are there instructor resources (test banks, slides)?
• Freshness: updated in the last 2–3 years; check errata and version history.
• Accessibility: alt text, headings, captions, MathML/LaTeX, screen-reader friendly PDFs.

Licensing 101: Creative Commons for OER

Pick the right permissions

• CC BY — most flexible (credit required).
• CC BY-SA — share alike (derivatives must use the same license).
• CC BY-NC — non-commercial (good for classes; check tutoring/printing contexts).
• CC0 — public domain (no restrictions).

Simple attribution template

“Chapter 3: Elasticity,” from