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OpenEd & OER Info

Additional Resources

Open Education Consortium

A global network of educational institutions, individuals and organizations that support an approach to education based on openness, including collaboration, innovation and collective development and use of open educational materials. The Open Education Consortium is a non-profit, social benefit organization registered in the United States and operating worldwide.

 

SPARC Open Education 

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a global coalition dedicated to promoting open access and resources. They strive to make open the default for education and research by empowering people to adopt policies and procedures to advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education. 

 

OpenStax Webinars

OpenStax offers free webinars featuring OpenStax staff, partners, and instructors who have used our textbooks to give you advice and support for using open educational resources (OER), OpenStax books, OpenStax Tutor Beta, and the additional resources that are available with OpenStax content. Scroll down to view recordings of past webinars.

 

iterating toward openness (David Wiley’s Open Content Blog)

An early proponent of the open content movement, Dr. David Wiley is currently serving as the Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning, an organization dedicated to increasing student success, reinvigorating pedagogy, and improving the affordability of education through the adoption of open educational resources by schools, community and state colleges, and universities. See also Dr. Wiley's website here. 

 

Resources for Faculty

Looking for resources to help you integrate OER into your courses? Check out the following links to help you get started:

 

Cool4Ed

California Open Online Library for Education (Cool4Ed) is a collaboration between the California State University (CSU), the University of California (UC), and the California Community Colleges (CCC) to provide easy access to free and open educational resources. Started as a mandate from the California legislature, Cool4Ed was developed in conjunction with SB 1052 and SB 1053, both of which established the goal of making higher education in California more affordable. Here you will find links to free and open course materials, faculty and course showcases, information regarding the California Textbook Affordability Act of 2015 (AB 798), information about accessibility and OER resources, as well as an archive of AL$/OpenEd webinars. More information is available at the Cool4Ed website here. 

OER Handbook for Educators 

Compiled by WikiEducator, the OER Handbook for Educators is a good place to help you find, use, develop, and share OER for your courses. Whether you're curious about OER and are looking for an introduction into the many benefits of including them in your curriculum, or are looking for new resources to use, or adapt and adopt, this handbook is a good place to start. 

LibreTexts Textbook Maps

Looking for an easier way to adapt your existing textbook to a more open model? LibreTexts offers Textbook Maps to help get you started. Textbook Maps are an attempt to create open versions of popular existing texts, and are currently available for a variety of topics on the LibreTexts website. Simply search by subject and click on the corresponding Textbook Maps link. 

Open Washington's Learn OER Online Course Module

Looking for an introductory course on incorporating OER into your courses? Check out Open Washington's Learn OER online course module. By the end of the course you should be able to:

  • Describe the meaning of open educational resources.
  • Differentiate the concepts of open licensing, public domain, and all rights reserved copyrights.
  • Identify resources that are openly licensed or in the public domain.
  • Distinguish the different types of Creative Commons licenses.
  • License works using a Creative Commons license.
  • Find open educational resources and properly attribute a work offered under a Creative Commons license.

OASIS 

The Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is an OER search tool developed by SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library in partnership with Alexis Clifton, SUNY OER Services Executive Director. OASIS currently searched open content from 61 sources and contains over 160,000 records. Check it out here. 

SUNY OER Services 

Developed by the State University of New York (SUNY), the OER Community Course Experience will introduce you to the fundamental principles and effective practices related to OER. There are 6 courses from which to choose from understanding OER to customizing and integrating open resources for your course. Get started on their website today. 

Mason OER Metafinder 

The Mason OER Metafinder is a federated search engine developed at George Mason University. It features a real-time federated search functionality that retrieves OER from over a dozen different open resources on the web, including MERLOT, BC Campus: Open Ed, OER Commons, OpenStax, and more. Check it out here.