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Open Educational Resources

Montgomery Library's Guide to openly accessible academic content.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

  • Find open textbooks and other materials for your course subjects listed in the left navigation bar.
  • Open educational resources (OER) are learning materials, including high-quality textbooks, that are intentionally created to be freely accessible to everyone.
  • The purpose of using OER is to reduce overall educational costs, especially for students with limited resources, while maintaining equivalent standards of quality.
  • Explore OER topics below or select a new topic on the left navigation bar.

What are Open Educational Resources?

Open Educational Resources are openly licensed materials that are freely accessible for educational distribution. Examples of OER include textbooks, syllabi, lectures, assignments, games, etc. These are web resources that users may share if attribution is given to the original author.

Remixing and adapting of the material may also be possible depending on the type of Creative Commons license that the author applied to the work. (A Creative Commons license releases some of the copyright restrictions that would ordinarily apply.) At the item level, find this information under "license" or "terms of use." As an author, you can license your own original work with a Creative Commons license, or you can license a work you have derived from other appropriately licensed works. The most common Creative Commons (CC) license is the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY). This license lets others remix and reuse the work if the user gives attribution to the original creator and provides a link to the original work. 

For more information about how Creative Commons licenses are used, visit creative commons.org

 

OER vs. Open Access vs. Library Resources

Open Educational Resources: Teaching and learning materials that can be altered and reused by anyone under the conditions of the Creative Commons license of the work.

Open Access Resources: E-books and articles that the publishers make freely accessible to anyone.

Library Resources: Resources that are affordable and accessible to current students and faculty because the institution has paid for access.

 

Compare Resources
FEATURES OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES LIBRARY RESOURCES
The work can be saved yes yes yes
The work can be altered or scaled yes no no
New content can be added to the work yes no no
A new version of the work can be distributed yes no no
The work is free to user yes yes yes
User has perpetual access to the work yes maybe no

 

Tips for Finding Open Textbooks

Use the databases and collections below to search for OER textbooks as well as e-books at the Montgomery Library that may be suitable for your courses.

How to Select and Evaluate OER: Backward Design

Faculty are encouraged to use the "backward design" method, which means first reassessing learning outcomes and objectives on their syllabi and then locating OER materials or other free library resources that align. It is common to select chapters from multiple open textbooks that align with the natural subdivisions within a course. Even if you prefer to use your regular textbook, open textbooks can be used for supplementary or remedial readings for students who need more background knowledge.

Faculty evaluating OER generally consider the following criteria:

  • Clarity/comprehensibility/readability - Is the material at the appropriate level for students and does the content flow smoothly from section to section?
  • Content/technical accuracy - Is it accurate? Peer-reviewed? Are there any other types of errors or formatting issues?

OER Textbooks vs. Multi-user E-Books at the Library

Before diving into the OER textbook databases, you might want to check the Montgomery Library electronic resources for published electronic textbooks and reference works that our students can access for free. This can be a good option since library resources save money and should be of high quality. If you would like to confirm whether an electronic textbook is permanently available in the library collection and available for multiple users, please contact the Instruction & Reference Specialist.

Below are links to the main databases at the Montgomery Library that contain electronic textbooks. To narrow down results in a database for textbooks, use keywords in your search such as "introduction to" or textbook. For example, you might try the following Boolean search in the library databases listed below:

biology AND ("introduction to" OR textbook)
 

Library Databases for Finding E-Books to Use as Course Texts: 

 

Assistance from Library Staff

Feel free to schedule an in-person or online Personal Research Appointment with the Instruction & Reference Specialist, who can help track down sources for your course. Also consider looking at recommended OER textbooks and other materials organized by subject, listed in the left navigation bar. 

Top Recommended Databases/Collections of OER Textbooks

Other Sources for Quality OER Materials:

Library Resources - Free Films/Videos

The library also provides free access to several film databases, which can support your course objectives for learners who benefit from audio-visual sources.

Using Library Links in Moodle

Instructions for creating links to online library resources:

  • Locate the item using CU Search.
  • Click the underlined title of the item.
  • Click on the Share icon.
  • Copy and paste the link into your Moodle course section.

Users are prompted to enter their Moodle credentials for access to library resources.

Please contact the library staff for assistance with creating links for your courses.