The milieu of postsecondary teaching and learning is changing, and universities need to be responsive by providing quality resources that are cost effective, sustainable, and innovative (Alberta Advanced Education, 2021). Open educational resources (OER) are "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others" (Cooney, 2017; Hewlett, 2016, para. 7). The advantages of using OER's is that they are accessible, are of comparable quality to traditional textbooks, and inclusive (Cooney). Inclusivity of OER is reflected in integration of content that reflects multiple perspectives as well as incorporation of videos, interactive simulations, and written text to acknowledge diversity of learning styles in student populations. As content can rapidly change in the time from textbook publication to distribution, OER facilitates provision of current information and fosters development of learners’ ability to access information (Cozart et al., 2021; Taylor, 2016).

OER are emerging as learning resources in nursing education. A current search of OER Commons results in 57 resources relevant to nursing (Creative Commons, 2022). Compared to traditional textbooks, interactive virtual resources can facilitate nursing students’ active engagement with content to develop critical thinking, clinical judgment, and virtual literacy aptitudes. Additionally, integrating OER as required resources for learning activities, assignments, quizzes, examinations can be a strategy to facilitate student engagement and accountability in learning (Taylor, 2016). The purpose of this study was to explore students’ experience and perceptions of OER in an undergraduate health studies professional communication course and relationships with demographic variables.