Educational resources are any tools used in a formal teaching situation to share knowledge and skills with a pupil or student. These tools can be text, images or video, but other materials and forms are also possible. All educational resources may be copyrighted.
Educational resources may be made available under a general free licence such as a Creative Commons licence. This means they are 'open'. The most important characteristics of open educational resources are:
- They are digitally available and can be used freely.
- They have been released to the public.
- They come with a licence that permits their (re)use and distribution.