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OER: Home

What are OERs?

"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]

OER Videos

OER Quick Search

Finding OERs

Goals for this tab:

  1. Review a few quality examples of OERs
  2. Decide if you want to explore OERs further

Check out the OERs at Openstax: https://openstax.org/

Why Openstax?

  • They provide a small set of open textbooks that will not overwhelm you with searching and finding
  • High Quality - Openstax is a nonprofit entity associated with Rice University and backed by funders like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Titles are peer reviewed and authorship is transparent
  • A user interface that is easy to use and navigate

Tips:

  • Register and sign up for a faculty account to see instructor materials
  • Math, Science and Social Science titles make up the bulk of the titles. There is a US History title
  • Titles are available in electronic form for free. Students who can afford print titles and choose to can order them
  • Like what you see, but your subjects aren't covered? Want to see some more variety? Click on the next tab in this box to explore OERs a bit further

 

Goals for this tab:

  1. Explore additional sources of OERs
  2. Examine evaluation methods 

Open Textbook Sources:

Open Textbook Library - The Open Textbook Library provides a growing catalog of free, peer-reviewed, and openly-licensed textbooks.

Open Textbook Library review process: We leave quality judgments to faculty with expertise in the subject area. When institutions join the Open Textbook Network, faculty are invited to review an open textbook. Around 60% of books in the Open Textbook Library have been reviewed. In addition, most open textbooks are reviewed during production, using systems implemented by the authors and publishers.

OER Commons -  OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners.

OER Commons review process - There are a number of ways for you to rate resources on OER Commons:

  • One of the quickest ways is to apply a one-to-five-star rating to a resource, with five stars being the highest quality.
  • You can provide feedback on any of the resources you find on OER Commons. This is an opportunity provide suggestions and recommends on how to use or improve a resource. You can also add a link to related resources.
  • You can use the Achieve OER Rubrics to evaluate resources          

Goals for this tab:

  1. Review more complete sources of OER

Link to original file location http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=library_staff

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections, all intended to enhance the teaching experience of using a learning material. All of these items have been contributed by the MERLOT member community, who have either authored the materials themselves, or who have discovered the materials, found them useful, and wished to share their enthusiasm for the materials with others in the teaching and learning community.

All the materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive "peer review" for which MERLOT is famous. MERLOT presents annual awards for various categories of materials added to or used in the collection. As described in Material Link Checking and Removal, all material URL's in the collection are reviewed frequently for stainability.

  • Mason OER Metafinder
Search: Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)

 

Principles of OERs

The terms "open content" and "open educational resources" describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like "open source") that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

  • 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
  • Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself
  • Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new
  • Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others