LIBRARY GUIDE TO Open Educational Resources for Faculty

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research resources released under an open license that permits their free use and repurposing by others, in accordance to their Creative Commons license.

Open Educational Resources are broadly considered to meet the “5Rs Framework,” meaning that users are free to:

• Retain: Users have the right to make, archive, and "own" copies of the content;
• Reuse:  Content can be reused in its unaltered form;
• Revise: Content can be adapted, adjusted, modified or altered;
• Remix: The original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new;
• Redistribute: Copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed form.

OER's are part of the Open Education movement that believes knowledge should be free and open to use and re-use. Read more about OER on wikipedia and in the Free to Learn Guide produced as a result of a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Textbook prices have risen steadily, and in the last decade, have increased in price by 88% or four times the rate of inflation.¹ The high cost of textbooks is an obstacle to student success, is associated with dropout and failure, and contributes to the heavy burden of student debt following graduation. The College Board estimates the average undergraduate university student pays $1,250 per year for textbooks and supplies.²
 
As reported by the student chapter of the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG):^2,3,4 

• 66.6% of students have decided not to buy a textbook because of the cost.
• 94% of students believe that not purchasing a textbook will hurt their grade.
• Nearly all students said that the cost of the book was a factor in deciding whether to take the class.
• 29.7% of students in 4-year public institutions use financial aid to cover 70% of the cost of textbooks which can amount to more than $300 per semester.
• American students are paying $1,575 billion per semester or $3.15 billion per year in financial aid on textbooks.

 Open Educational Resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes. OER include full courses, course materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. Open Textbooks are a form of OER that are widely used and provide free, adaptable, openly licensed peer-reviewed quality textbooks and supplemental resources. Studies have shown that students in courses that use OER more frequently had lower failure and withdrawal rates, and in some cases better grades, than their counterparts in courses that did not use OER.^5,6,7,8  Recent reports suggest minority and non-white students are benefiting at greater rates from OER, as well as those students at financial risk who often get stopped out owing very small sums.^{9 ,10}
 
Incorporating OER into courses and redesigning courses with open content provides an opportunity for employing a variety of pedagogical strategies. When students are engaged as creators of information rather than simply consumers and asked to demonstrate understanding through the creation of content, this practice is called open pedagogy. “Open pedagogy is a high-impact practice that empowers students by providing them an opportunity to engage in information creation through the use of renewable assignments.”¹¹ 
 
 

@OUSCofficial made this great "call to action" video last year about textbook prices. I didn't see it shared so I'm releasing it into the twitterverse #OER @OULibraries pic.twitter.com/Bc1IpziqVq

— Julia E. Rodriguez (@JujuRLib) September 12, 2019

U.S. bills and legislation
Open Textbook Pilot funding was secured through the two-year bipartisan budget deal for Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019, which included $2 billion per year in designated funds to aid college completion and affordability.

Spending has been renewed annually, totalling $24 millio for open textbook programs that benefit students across the country. 

In 2021 - Department of Education has awarded the $7 million to 
fund 9 projects submitted during the November 2020 competition. 

Savings Reports
"OpenStax estimates that the 2.2 million students are saving $177 million by using the free, openly licensed books"
 

What are some examples of OER Materials?   

• Full university courses, complete with readings, videos of lectures, homework assignments, and lecture notes.
• Interactive mini-lessons and simulations about a specific topic, such as math or physics.
• Adaptations of existing open work.
• Electronic textbooks that are peer-reviewed and frequently updated.
• Elementary school and high school (K-12) lesson plans, worksheets, and activities that are aligned with state standards.

• Open Access resources for Faculty
• Textbooks* @ OU and beyond

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

OER Resources

• LibreText - Library of open textbooks and ancillary materials produced in partnership with U-Cal System and the U.S. Department of Education. 
• Mason OER Finder - George Mason University's real-time federated search engine for OER materials, searches include public domain library of congress, JSTOR open access, directory of OA books etc.  
• MERLOT - Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
• 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.
• OASIS -  search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. 
• OpenResources for STEM - Open Education Consortium (OEC)
• Pressbook Directory - Index of openly published books using Pressbooks network - includes a filter for H5P activities
• SkillsCommons - Free and OPEN digital library of Workforce Training Materials

Open textbooks and monographs:

• Affordable Learning Georgia - List of courses and the adopted OER resource for top 100 undergraduate courses
• BC OpenCampus - Search open textbooks created by BC OpenCampus and partners
• LibreText - Library of open textbooks and ancillary materials produced in partnership with U-Cal System and the U.S. Department of Education. 
• Openstax College: 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. collaboration with Rice University
• OpenCulture - over 200 free textbooks pulled from a variety of openedu sites.
• Open Textbook library - search tool to help instructors find affordable, quality textbook solutions. All textbooks in this library are complete and openly licensed. (created by University of Minnesota with university partners like Purdue, Cleveland State, Oregon State)
• Open Research Library - Access and download openly published monographs from multiple university presses and other publishers
• Open SUNY Textbooks - large subject catalog of open textbooks available for adoption and reuse
• Rebus Community - platform for creating and publishing open textbook

Open Courses, homework systems and supplemental materials (some with $ structure) 

• Openstax partner Lumen Learning offers a wide array of open content that you can access for free. Their Waymaker and OHM modules are low-cost homework platforms that can be integrated with Moodle.  View all Openstax partner companies. 
• MIT OpenWare - is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world.
• OEDd - Open Education database - A tool that lets you explore over 10,000 free open courses and interactive resources from top universities around the world.
• Study.com - ($) courses and supplemental content fee-based  

• Creative Commons Search (beta)
• WikiMedia commons
• Flickr creative commons images website
• SoundCloud  place for creators looking to share and distribute music and audio online.

This is a growing list of resources based on requests from faculty. If you would like a subject list created contact your librarian. 

• Anatomy
• Anthropology
• Art
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Counseling
• Criminal Justice
• Economics
• Education 
• History
• Linguistics 
• Modern Languages
• Music
• Nursing 
• Nutrition /  Metabolism
• (Intro) Political Science (CUNY guide)
• Psychology 
• Philosophy
• Sociology
• Social Work 
• Statistics textbooks
• Women and Gender Studies
• Writing

If the subject you are looking for is not listed above try checking the following guides:

• BCOopen Campus Discipline Guide -  lists a range of open educational resources organized by discipline. This guide is updated as new resources are identified.
• McMaster University’s OER by Discipline Guide - broad range of open textbooks and OER organized by academic programs available at McMaster University
• BMCC-CUNY Subjects Guide - open and affordable textbook program
• OERI (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative) - Subject resources Full course content included with syllabi 
• OASIS -  Search engine developed by SUNY to make the discovery of open content easier.
• Michigan Colleges Online subject list
• UConn Library open textbooks by subject guide.
• UOklahoma Libraries discipline guide 

Teaching online with OpenStax to support emerging social distancing requirements - blog post

OpenStax Community Hubs - view resources created to enhance Openstax textbooks

OER and Online Learning: Faculty Quick-Start Guide - California CC 

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Edcuational Resources 

COURSE ADOPTIONS

• Affordable Georgia course adoption list
• Cood4Ed - University of California system adoptions
• OpenTextbook Library (University of Minnesota) - discover books - read reviews
• OpenSuny - list of books
• Grand Rapids Community College - adoption list 
• Lansing Community College - adoption list by year 

Creative Commons licenses are legally enforceable licenses that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other right with the aim of expanding the range of things available for others to share, quote, adapt, and build upon.

Creative Commons licenses do two things:

• They allow creators to share their work easily
• They allow everyone to find work that is free to use without having to obtain permission

As long as you obey the terms of the license attached to the work, you can use Creative Commons licensed material without fear of accidentally infringing someone’s copyright. 

The nonprofit Creative Commons organization works to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in “the commons” — the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing.

• Learn about Creative Commons licenses
• Creative Commons license for Education

For more on each CC licenses and how they are used read descriptions on the CC website and or download this guide.

Types of Creative Commons licenses:

graphic borrowed from https://theindiedesign.co/creative-commons-royalty-free-public-domain-licenses/
 

Using a CC license enables for open educational resources to allow for the 5R's 

• Retain
• Reuse
• Revise
• Remix
• Redistribute

When a creator or copyright holder assigns an open license to their work they are specifying how they want others to reuse it. Open licensing does not replace copyright. Open licenses work with copyright to promote shared use. This changes the copyright from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”  More info https://www.cccoer.org/learn/open-licensing/

1. You can use the license chooser to determine which license is right for you. 
   Or
2. Download creative commons license logos and use on your work 

1.  Colvard, N. B., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018). The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 262-276. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1184998.pdf

2. Bliss, TJ (2015, Ja, 6.) Z as in zero: Increasing college access and success through zero-textbook-cost degrees. William & Flora Hewlett Foundation. Retrieved from https://hewlett.org/z-as-in-zero-increasing-college-access-and-success-through-zero-textbook-cost-degrees/

3. Johnson, J., Rochkind, J., Ott, A., & DuPont, S. With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them. n.d. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED507432.pdf

4. M. Cochrane, D., & Cheng, D. The Institute for College Access & Success. Student Debt and the Class of 2016, Twelfth annual report. Published September 2017. Retrieved from https://ticas.org/sites/default/files/pub_files/classof2016.pdf

5. Senack, E., & Donoghue, R. (2016). Covering the cost: Why we can no longer afford to ignore high textbook prices. Student PIRGs Center for Public Interest Research, Inc. Published 2016. Retrieved from https://studentpirgs.org/2016/02/03/covering-cost/

OpenEdGroup - an interdisciplinary group of people working to promote research on the OER. 

Open Education newsletter - can subscribe or read past newsletters 

International Journal of Open Educational Resources - peer-reviewed research for quality academic research with an emphasis on representing Open Educational Resources in teaching, learning, scholarship and policy.

Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) - webinar series 

OER and Equity Guide with videos and resources


#OER on Twitter