"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. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge." [1]
The Open Education movement is built around the 5Rs of Open [2]
- Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content
- Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
- Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
- Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
- Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)
OER can be found on many websites. Choose from the list below or navigate to the Subject-Specific resources page: https://libguides.messiah.edu/oer/general
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Free online learning materials. Requires creating an account.Saylor Academy
Free online learning materials.
LibreTexts-
Courses selected from within the general education categories… at a public community, technical, four-year college or university in Washington stateHigher education resources from Florida. Modules, texts, and tools in all disciplines.Ohio Digital BookshelfA pilot project of Ohio Textbook HQ that aims to provide quality textbook options for faculty and better learning outcomes, while also saving students money.The Global Text ProjectA free library of thousands of texts for undergraduate level courses in a variety of subjects.
Joint venture between the Terry College of Business of the University of Georgia and the Daniels College of Business of the University of Denver.HathiTrust and Internet Archive - Two websites that provide access to books published prior to 1923. These are in the public domain and are freely available (ex. Pride and Prejudice, On the origin of species, etc.). Full texts are keyword searchable.The California State University
This site offers users the ability to search for free online materials that are similar in content to many popular textbooks.Search thousands public books created on the Pressbooks Authoring & Editing Platform. The Directory includes public domain literature, CC BY open textbooks, and a vast variety of open educational resources (OER) published all along the license spectrum.
Washington 45
Orange Grove
Thousands of resources are just a click away!
600,000+ ebooks : All disciplines. Especially strong in religion, psychology, and medicine (coming soon)
Listed in the library catalog. Persistent links available for embedding. Read online, as a PDF, print selected pages, or download chapters. Alert librarian to ensure availability for multiple users. Citation information exportable to Refworks or Zotero.
90,000 Streaming videos : Documentaries, interviews, theater performances, case studies, newsreels, field recordings, commercials, and raw footage
Listed in the library catalog. Persistent links available for embedding.
Journal articles from databases : 115,000 periodical titles available
Persistent links available for embedding. Citation information exportable to Refworks or Zotero.
Don't forget to create stable links to embed into Canvas!
Messiah's EZ Proxy link starts with: http://ezproxy.messiah.edu/login?url=
Get Informed
Choose the right license for you and your work.
BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide
A reference for individuals or groups wanting to write and self-publish an open textbook. This guide provides details on the preparation, planning, writing, publication, and maintenance of an open textbook.
Content includes a checklist for getting started, publishing program case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources and an overview of useful tools.
A five-step guide for faculty who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types are included.
BCcampus Open Education Accessibility Toolkit, Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, and Tara Robertson, BCcampus
Importing Open Content With Pressbooks, Steel Wagstaff, UW-Madison
Self-Publishing Guide, Lauri Aesoph, BCcampus
Authoring Open Textbooks, Melissa Falldin & Karen Lauritsen, Open Textbook Network
Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know, Cheryl Cuillier, Amy Hofer, Annie Johnson, Kathleen Labadorf, et al., Open Textbook Network
A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students, Robin DeRosa, Rajiv Jhangiani, Timothy Robbins, David Squires, et al., Rebus Community
The Evolution of Affordable Content Efforts in the Higher Education Environment: Programs, Case Studies, and Examples, Kristi Jensen and Shane Nackerud, Editors, University of Minnesota
UH OER Training, William Meinke, UH OER
Faculty OER Toolkit, Shannon Moist, BCcampus Open Education
Print-on-Demand Guide, Lauri Aesoph, BCcampus Open Education
Publishing in Pressbooks, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far), Rebus Community
Tools
PDFs or ePubs are generally ideal for text OER.
OERPUB - open-source tools for authoring, adapting, remixing, and publishing open education resources and then delivering them to the web, mobile, tablet, and print.
OER Commons - Use Module Builder to create interactive content or Open Author to create course materials using text, files, images, etc. You will be prompted to set up an account to use this platform.
iBooks Author - Available free on the Mac App Store allows anyone to create Multi-Touch textbooks for iPad (with galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, mathematical expressions, and more).
Where to Publish
Messiah College's Institutional Repository - Mosaic at www.mosaic.messiah.edu
Open Textbook Library - If you've created (or found) an openly licensed, complete, and downloadable textbook whose license allows adaptation or derivatives, consider submitting it to be listed in the Open Textbook Library. Contribute material here
MERLOT - New user registration Contribute material
OER Commons - Contribute material
OpenStax - New user registration Login to contribute material
PowerPoint Presentation from May Development Week 2018. Beth Transue.
College Board. (2017). Understanding college costs. Retrieved May 4, 2018, from https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/college-costs/quick-guide-college-costs
Donaldson, R. L., Nelson, D. W., & Thomas, E. (2010). 2010 Florida Student Textbook Survey. Florida Virtual Campus.
Frederick, L. (2008). Retention and the cost of college textbooks. Retrieved from http://www.pacific.edu/Documents/oit/TextbookCost.pdf
Hilton, J., & Laman, C. (2012). One college’s use of an open psychology textbook. Open Learning, 27(3), 265–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2012.716657
Open Textbook Alliance. https://opentextbookalliance.org/
National Association of College Stores. (2017). Higher Ed Retail Market Facts & Figures. Retrieved May 4, 2018, from https://www.nacs.org/research/HigherEdRetailMarketFactsFigures.aspx
Senack, E. (2014). Fixing the broken textbook market: How students respond to high textbook costs and demand alternatives. Student Public Interest Research Groups. Retrieved from https://uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
Senack, E., & Donoghue, R. (2016). Covering the cost: Why we can no longer afford to ignore high textbook prices.Student Public Interest Research Groups.
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. (n.d.). Open Educational Resources. Retrieved from https://www.hewlett.org/strategy/open-educational-resources/
Williams, L. (2013). Textbooks on Reserve. University Business, 16(4), 14–14.
Winitzky-Stephens, J., & Pickavance, J. (2017). Open Educational Resources and Student Course Outcomes: A Multilevel Analysis. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 18(4), 35–49.