What is Open Access?
Is this the same thing as OER?
Answer
"Open access" (OA) refers to publications that are free for anyone to access- no purchase or subscription needed. It's a powerful way to get knowledge to the people. And it's one way an instructor can make sure a course is Zero-Text-Cost (ZTC). Our OneSearch tool automatically searches a dozen OA scholarly databases in every simple search. OA isn't the same as openly licensed, though. While creators who choose open access publishing don't want paywalls to keep people from seeing their work, they have not given anyone else permission to appropriate, edit, transform, or distribute that work. So while OA and Open Educational Resources (OER) are both ZTC, you can't mix the two into the same book.