According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others. Open license refers to a license that respects the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner and provides permissions granting the public the rights to access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt and redistribute educational materials.
UMass Dartmouth encourages the use of OER for several reasons.
In a 2015 OER survey by the Scholarly Communication Committee at UMass Dartmouth with 40 faculty members responding, 55% reported that they are already using OER in some fashion in their courses. 10% report having created their own OER. 43.2% reported interest in learning more about OER.
In the 2021 UMass Dartmouth Climate Survey, 63% of student reported having difficulty affording course materials. This hardship ranked above tuition, food, and housing.
The following are some trusted OER sources for those interested in learning more. For those seeking additional information or assistance please contact Emma Wood, Scholarly Communication Librarian at the Claire T. Carney Library.
Provides college-level open textbooks from higher education institutions around the world. Search for the education level and subject area using the search features on the left side of the page.
Initiated by Rice University, their free textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed to ensure they meet the scope and sequence requirements of college courses.
Collection of freely available open textbooks for download, online reading, and sharing.
Creator, publisher, distributor, and seller of open textbooks and ancillary materials to college-level students.
The Washington 45 are “courses selected from within the general education categories… at a public community, technical, four-year college or university in Washington state that will be able to transfer and apply a maximum of 45 quarter credits toward general education requirement(s) at any other public and most private higher education institutions in the state.” Read more information on the Washington 45.
Collection of freely available open textbooks for download, online reading, and sharing.
With the initiative of the SUNY Libraries, Open SUNY Textbooks publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed textbooks for use in higher education.
The Open Textbook Library was started so that faculty could find open textbooks in one place. More technically, the Open Textbook Library is a comprehensive referatory that points to open textbooks by a variety of authors and publishers.
Last modified: Tue, Oct 11, 2022, 03:24 by Melissa Kinney
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