Coordinator of Electronic Resources & Discovery
Librarian
About OERs
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What are OERs? Open educational resources (OERs) can range from textbooks to articles, assessments to study guides, provided that these teaching, learning, and research resources are available at no cost.
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Why? Unlike traditional textbooks or library subscriptions, OERs are a particular type of open access information with the power to advance the common good of students through a reduction in costs associated with classroom learning.
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Are they good? In terms of quality, OERs (including open textbooks) tend to be written by experts in their field, and they typically undergo peer review and/or professional editing. That being said, it is still important--as is the case with any publication--to assess the content for quality.
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Brief history: Expanding access to resources for the common good has been at the core of the OER movement since 2002, when the term was coined at a UNESCO forum with a goal to “develop together a university educational resource available for the whole of humanity.”
Quick Links
- Open Textbook Library This link opens in a new window
Collection of open textbooks which are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost, or printed at low cost. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions; or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization. - Directory of Open Access Books This link opens in a new window
DOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers. All DOAB services are free of charge and all data is freely available. - OpenStax This link opens in a new window
Peer-reviewed open textbooks in science, math, business, and the social sciences. Maintained by Rice University. - Directory of Open Access Books This link opens in a new windowDOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers. All DOAB services are free of charge and all data is freely available.
