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Open Educational Resources (OER)

What are Open Educational Resources?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.."  From The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The OER Starter Kit provides instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of OERs.

 

Image goes through six steps to integrate OER: Step 1 - Set aside time by searching for OER, which takes time and persistence; Step 2 - Look at your current text to see if it is available for free through library databases; Step 3 - Locate an OER text and check if an entire OER textbook already exists for a course; Step 4 - Browse many open repositories to see what content is available; Step 5 - Supplement by looking at the learning objectives for a class and find different materials for different topics; Step 6- Ask for assistance from a librarian to get help finding OER for your class.

"Six Steps to OER" by Lesley Library, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

How Can the Library Help?

​​​​​​Schedule a consultation with a reference librarian to discuss how the library can help you find, evaluate, and use open educational resources. 

  • Library Resources as Alternative Textbooks

    • Purchase requests

    • Direct link creation

  • Searching for OER

  • Creating Course Specific Guides

  • Canvas Embedding

  • Copyright Assistance

Student Perspective (Video)

Introduction to Open Educational Resources (Video)