Open textbooks and other open educational resources (OER) remove cost barriers to education and help professors tailor course materials to meet their needs.
About Open Educational Resources (OER)
What are OER?
- Textbooks, curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, audio, video, animation, and more
- Free for anyone to use
- Usually licensed through Creative Commons to allow adaptation and revised editions
Why use OER?
- Free (no cost barrier for students, the library, or anyone else)
- Immediately available online (no waiting for shipping or other delays)
- Adaptable (can be revised to better suit the needs of your class)
Where do I find OER?
- Open Textbook Library: A collection of openly licensed online textbooks with reviews by faculty
- OER Commons: A digital public library containing OER of all types
- OASIS: A search tool for open textbooks and other materials, created by SUNY Geneseo
Creating and Adapting OER
How do I make changes to existing OER?
- Most open textbooks and other OER are licensed so that anyone can adapt the content to meet their needs.
- Modifying an Open Textbook: A guide to revising the content of an existing textbook
How do I create new open material?
- Authoring Open Textbooks and The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) provide detailed information on how to plan, license, and produce an open textbook.
