1. INTRO
Section 1 Section 2
TIPS RESOURCES
Section 3 Section 4
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Section 5
Guide to Open Educational
Resources (OERs)

2. Section 1
INTRO
What are OERs?
Open educational resources (OER) are digital materials that
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TIPS
can be re-used for teaching, learning, research and more.
OERs are available for free through open licenses, which
allow uses of the materials that would not be easily
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permitted under copyright alone.
Examples include
• Courses
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• Course materials
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(lectures, presentations, assignments, assessments)
• Videos, podcasts, images
• Articles, journals, books
• Software
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3. Section 1
INTRO
Tips:
Whenever possible grab the embed code. Then, you may integrate the OER
content directly into your online course without having to link the students
elsewhere.
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TIPS
Utilize the OER Collections listed in the Resources tab. You may also
search for content using your search engine. For instance, Google will
allow you to search for free and open content by toggling “Usage Rights.”
Click here for more information on this subject.
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Other Considerations
•Try to avoid OER “over-usage” and ask yourself what benefit a particular OER
will have for your students.
•Decide how the OER will be used (as the basis for a conference discussion, for
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an assignment, etc.) and provide clear instructions to students for its use.
•Consider how an OER will need to be adapted to meet the particulars of the
class learning objectives.
•Before the start of each new semester be sure to check whether the URL is still
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valid and whether the OER was updated since you last accessed it.

4. Section 1
INTRO
There are a number of portals into the world of
OERs…the best of such portals are as follows:
Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
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TIPS
(MERLOT): http://www.merlot.org/merlot/
Links to a number of great resources for both learning & teaching across a range
of academic disciplines. Includes guides, videos, images, assignments,
assessments, tutorials, etc.
MIT Open Courseware (OCW): http://ocw.mit.edu/
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Comprehensive repository of materials from many classes at MIT.
OER Common: http://www.oercommons.org/
Free to use, openly licensed resources from k-12 to college courses
Khan Academy: http://www.khanacademy.org/
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Started by an MIT alum to help teach his cousins via YouTube, it now serves
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1800+ courses in mathematics, science, finance, and history.
McGraw Hill Campus
Hundreds of e-textbooks and digital resources, including Powerpoint
presentations, test banks, image libraries, assignments and other valuable
resources from some of the most trusted textbook publishers in the nation.
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Available through ANGEL. Click here for information on accessing and using
this resource.

5. Section 1
INTRO
Below is a partial list of sites that offer subject-specific OERs:
•AMSER (Applied Math and Science Education Repository)
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TIPS
•Berklee Shares (Music)
•Chemistry Collective
•DLESE (Digital Library for Earth System Education)
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•Harvard Open Collections Program (History)
•HEAL (Health Education Assets Library)
•iLumina (Science and Mathematics)
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•NEEDS (National Engineering Education Delivery System)
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•Questia (Humanities and Social Sciences)
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6. Section 1
INTRO
“The cost of course textbooks has long been a source of financial anxiety for
college students. ….Students of two-year public colleges spend, on
average, $850 a year on textbooks. The cost of the average college textbook
increased 186 percent between 1986 and 2004.”
From the Report “Traditional Textbook Alternatives: Considering new solutions
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to the affordability challenge “ by Shireen Deboo. Click here to read the full
report.
Sources for free online textbooks:
•Bookboon Searching for free
RESOURCES
e-textbooks can be
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•Textbook Revolution time-consuming.
•Free Online Textbooks Check out these
•Flat World Knowledge resources that
include thousands
•Global Text Project
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of textbooks that
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are available online
Search Google Books for free, electronic versions of books. You
May be surprised by how many books are completely or partially
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available on this site.