Finding & Selecting OER

Finding OER in your discipline

For the last 15 plus years, the amount of high quality OER have been growing, and there are large collections for you to search on the City Tech OER site. Resources available to you range from collections of entire open textbooks like the University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library, to advanced search settings that enable you to limit your Google image search by license type (select “usage rights”).

Start your search

We recommend getting started by searching from open textbook collections, OER repositories, and search tools.

• OpenStax Textbooks
  “Our free textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed by educators to ensure they are readable, accurate, and meet the scope and sequence requirements of your course.”
• Open Textbook Library
  “Textbooks in the Open Textbook Library are considered open because they are free to use and distribute, and are licensed to be freely adapted or changed with proper attribution.”
• Open Textbook Hub (OER Commons)
  Collection of open books and course materials across disciplines, curated by ISKME’s digital librarians.
• O.E.R. 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.”
• MERLOT
  “Find peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials. Share advice and expertise about education with expert colleagues. Be recognized for your contributions to quality education.”
• Search: Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)
  The Mason OER Metafinder searches: American Memory Project (Library of Congress), AMSER (Applied Math and Science Education Repository), BC Campus Textbooks, Digital Public Library of America, Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), HathiTrust (Full View Available), MERLOT II, MIT OpenCourseware, OAOpen.org, OER Commons, OER at Internet Archive, Open Textbook Library, OpenStax CNX, Project Gutenberg, World Digital Library.
• OASIS search tool under development by SUNY Geneseo
  “Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 61 different sources and contains 160,717 records. OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library in consultation with Alexis Clifton, SUNY OER Services Executive Director.”

Considerations

As you search for materials, check to see if the following information is included with the learning object:

• ​Authorship and credentials
• Peer review and affiliations
• Intellectual property licensing:
  • Is the license displayed?
  • Are there terms of use? Terms of service?
  • Is there a fee model associated with this resource? Is it provided by a company or a non-profit?
  • Are users required to register or pay for any services?

Remember two things:

1. You are the subject expert so trust your knowledge base.
2. Not all subject areas are represented equally in the form of OER. If you’d like additional support finding materials – especially if you think your course subject would be better represented through library resources, contact Cailean.

This short guide (PDF) can help you during the search process.

Extra tips for finding relevant course materials!

• Conduct a Google search of your subject + “OER”
  • Ex.: “chemistry oer”
• Use Google Advanced search & add “edu” after keywords.
  • For example: child welfare edu

Evaluate your materials

Think about the licensing of the course material and how students will be able to access it.

• Is it in the public domain?
• Is it Creative Commons licensed?
• Can students access it in a variety of ways? Online, in file format, etc.

More info: Evaluate & Adopt OER

Culminating Assignment

• Option A: Use the knowledge you’ve gained to find and select a a cost-free course material / learning object that you can incorporate into the curriculum for any of the courses you teach. Describe the material, why you chose it, and how students will be expected to interact with the material. Feel free to select any type of learning object– don’t limit your options to textbooks.
• Option B: Create an instructional object from scratch. Examples of self-authored materials can include: a scaffolded assignment, an in-class activity, a PowerPoint slide deck for a particular lecture, a demo, case study, etc.

The material you submit should have the following licensing:

• OER – the course material is Creative Commons licensed with permission to adapt.*
• in the public domain – the material is not copyright protected; examples include government documents / resources, and works with a copyright term that has expired

*Materials created by you should be openly-licensed.

Submit assignment