OER and Open Textbooks

Many faculty are currently exploring options for free resources to support their online, hybrid and virtual teaching.  One option to save students money is to use Open Educational Resources (OER), classes utilizing OER are often referred to as Zero Textbook Costs (ZTC). To learn more about the options available, we've assembled a shortlist of resource guides that may be useful.  If you recommend any specific resources to add to this list or our emerging Open Pedagogy page, please let us know.

Where Might I Start With OER? 

• Contact Your OER Director! Chelsea James, cjames2@pima.edu 

• Visit the Open Educational Resources (OER) LibGuide a Pima Community College LibGuide.

• Getting Started with OER at CCCOER.  For further info, visit their video and slide-based OER Tutorials which include: Introduction to OER; Copyright & Open Licensing Applied; Searching for OER by discipline; Designing Courses with OER; and, Evaluating and selecting OER.

• Find Open Textbooks at the BC Campus OpenEd page.  Includes a listing of Academic/Career Success, Adult Basic Education, Art and Design, Biological/Physical Sciences, Business, Campus and Community Resources, Communication/Writing, Computer Science, Earth and Ocean Sciences, Education, Engineering, Health and Medical, Hospitality/Tourism, Humanities, Language Learning, Law/Criminal Justice, Math/Stats, Social Sciences,Support Resources,Trades

• Explore the OER by Discipline Collection at Modesto Junior College. Includes a listing of Art, Biology, Chemistry, Child Development, Communication, Computer Graphics, Computer Science, Economics, English, Ethnic Studies, Guidance/College Success, Nursing & Applied Health & Psychology courses. 

• Valencia Writer: Comprehensive OER Textbooks

• Skillscommons Workforce Development Digital Library (recommended by Kim Diezel)

OER Resource Repositories (also check the Open Educational Resources (OER) LibGuide)

Here are a few links relating to online repositories.  To learn more, visit Ancilliary Content in their OER Starter Kit at Boise State University. 

• OpenStax.  Rice University's peer-reviewed OER repository includes a searchable database of OER textbooks.  To learn about OpenStax, visit their FAQs.  As noted at this, page "Review the textbook online, and if you decide to use it in your class, let us know [at the OpenStax adoption page].  To access instructor-only materials, you can create an OpenStax account and request instructor access. Once we manually verify that you’re an instructor, you will have access to all instructor content. Include the textbook URL in your course materials, and from there, students can choose how they want to view the book."  As noted at OpenStax textbook accessibility standards, "All [OpenStax] digital textbooks contain descriptive alt-text and table summaries and are designed to be easily navigable with assistive reading technologies ....  The OpenStax web properties are currently undergoing upgrades to bring [OpenStax] in line with the WCAG Level AA compliance standards as well as Section 508 compliance." To learn more, visit OpenStax and ADA Guidelines.

• The Open Textbook Library, University of Minnesota's Center for Open Education (open.umn.edu).   According to this site and their FAQ page, as of December, 2021, this OER repository includes 972 textbooks of which over %60 percent are peer-reviewed.  Some textbooks are PDFS and other textbooks include more accessible EPUB and EPUB3 files.  OTL no longer accepts books that do not allow for editing derivations (CC ND). OTL also provides an Understanding Document Accessibility page discussing document accessibility techniques for working with available formats (Online, Ebook, ODF, PDF, XML)

• OER Commons and the OER Open Textbooks Hub (you may need to create a free account to view these).  This appears to include self-submitted material which may or may not be accessible. 

• Libretexts

• Merlot OER Search Engine

Here's a variety of OER evaluation resources.  Many of these resources came through Valencia College's LibGuide:

Open Textbooks That Include Faculty OER Reviews. 

• BCCampus Open Ed reviews OER based on: Comprehensiveness, Content Accuracy, Relevance/Longevity, Clarity, Consistency, Modularity, Organization/Structure/Flow, Interface, Grammatical Errors, Cultural Relevance.   Here is a 2015 BCOER Faculty Guide to Evaluating OERs (PDF)

• Rubric for Evaluating OERs at Achieve.org

Other OER Evaluation Resources

• Evaluating OER, University of Texas Libraries

• "How to Find OER." University of Omaha.  Promotes Austin Community College's criteria for OER adapting or adopting: Accuracy, Relevance, Production Quality, Accessibility, Interactivity, Cultural Relevance & Sensitivity, Licensing, Ease of Adaptability.  It also links to the AchieveOER Rubric (PDF), this BCCampus "Faculty Guide for Evaluating OER" and the OER Evaluation Criteria from AffordableLearningGeorgia.org (PDF)

• THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO USING OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES by Matthew Lynch from the Edvocate

• Open Educational Resources for K-12 educators by Yin-Chan Janet Liao at Edtechbooks.org