Research Guides: Open Sources: Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resource Gateways

Open Textbooks:

Open Textbook Library Textbooks in the Open Textbook Library are free to use and distribute, and are licensed to be freely adapted or changed with proper attribution.
OpenStax Except where otherwise noted, textbooks on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Open SUNY Textbooks Open SUNY Textbooks (OST) is the open textbook publishing program from which SUNY OER Services evolved. OST offers peer-reviewed open texts that can be immediately adopted and easily customized via the SUNY OER Services editing platform.
College Open Textbooks Over 600 open and affordable textbooks, with an emphasis on peer-reviewed titles.

OER Repositories:

Galileo GALILEO Open Learning Materials brings together open educational resources throughout the University System of Georgia, including open textbooks and ancillary materials.
LibreTexts LibreCommons hosts curated Open Educational Resources from all 16 LibreTexts libraries in one convenient location. LibreCommons, the LibreTexts Libraries, and all of our resources are accessible to everyone via the internet, completely free.
MERLOT The MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers. MERLOT allows you to search, browse by discipline, and read reviews.
OERCommons Browse OER by subject areas, education level, or material type. See ratings given by other educators.
VIVA Open

Open Courses:

MIT Open Courseware Find openly-licensed MIT teaching materials and approaches.
Open Course Library The Open Course Library (OCL) is a collection of shareable course materials, including syllabi, course activities, readings, and assessments designed by teams of college faculty, instructional designers, librarians, and other experts. Some of our materials (also called open educational resources, or OER) are paired with low cost textbooks ($30 or less). Many of the courses can be taught at no cost to students. Unless otherwise noted, all materials are shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY) license.OCL courses and materials have undergone testing for accessibility and have been designed using the industry-standard Quality Matters (QM) rubric for assessing the quality of online courses.
Saylor Academy Open Textbooks Browse open textbooks in a variety of disciplines.

VIVA

Textbook and related costs are a well-known barrier to college affordability for students. VIVA’s Open Education Network (OEN) System Membership--of which Mary Baldwin is a part-- allows VIVA to train open education leaders to hold workshops for faculty across the state to support them in using openly available educational materials, including textbooks.

By promoting the use and creation of high-quality educational materials that are free for students, this initiative will increase affordability in higher education, promote student success, and empower Virginia faculty to contribute to the growing field of open course materials.

As part of this initiative, VIVA sponsors up to five faculty reviewers per institution. Reviewers receive training and are paid $200. If you're interested, please contact Carol Creager, University Librarian.

Don't Forget Library Resources!

You don't have to have to go full OER.

OER are great! So are library resources and traditional textbooks and materials! You can use them in combination, though you probably can't adapt paid resources. Leveraging resources that the library already subscribes to helps to boost library usage and gives students access to resources at no additional cost!

Always feel free to link to eBooks, articles, videos, etc. accessible through Grafton Library. Looking for something? Wondering how best to link to resources? Contact your librarian!

Suggestions?

Have you already adopted OER in your classes? Found a resource you'd like to share? Let us know!

Email the library ask@marybaldwin.edu with your suggestions and happy adoptions.

About

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. Unlike copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights."

Definition from: OER Commons. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

OER:

don't have to be textbooks
do allow others to:
- retain
- reuse
- revise/remix
- redistribute

Creative Commons (CC)

Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding access to creative works. CC licenses allow creators to clearly communicate rights relating to the use and reuse of their work. Most, but not all, CC licenses are suitable for OER.

Creative Commons is a great resource for creators and users of content. All Creative Commons licenses require users to attribute works to their author. Learn more about attribution under Creative Commons licenses here.

"Range of OER" (c) Anita Walz of VA Tech CC-BY 4.0.

"Creative Commons." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 9 May 2018. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons. Accessed 14 May 2018.
Creative Commons. "What we do: What is Creative Commons?" creativecommons.org/about. Accessed 14 May 2018.

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