OER Resources for Faculty

The continuing rise in the cost of a college degree isn’t new news. Open Educational Resources are one of the tools that can be used to help students and their families.

“Open Educational Resources (OER) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation.” – UNESCO

Faculty have many options available for OER use in their courses as the number of OERs grow. Meredith’s instructional designers can help you find these resources. (See the list below for ideas.)

Another resource for faculty is the Meredith Library. Research and Instruction Librarian Jake Vaccaro recommends the Open Textbook Library offered by the University of Minnesota’s College of Education, but also wants faculty to know that the library is eager to help with tools beyond just OERs.

“We definitely want to be a resource for faculty in terms of finding open course materials or materials that aren’t necessarily OER but will be effectively free or very low cost to students,” Vaccaro said. “We are focusing a lot on the possibility of using library licensed texts and materials. These are free to students, and to a student it probably doesn’t matter very much whether they’re using an OER or whether they’re using a book that the library or the university has paid for. We tend to think of things less in terms of OER and more in terms of no cost/low cost course texts.”

Library resource page

The Carlisle Campbell Library’s page on OER and low-cost textbooks includes a list of some OER resources as well as a bibliography of research on the benefits of OER.

https://infotogo.meredith.edu/c.php?g=956861&p=6907040

OER Resources List

Below is a reference list of articles about OER and resource sites. Please reach out to our instructional designers on the IDAT team or the library staff for help with or questions about OER resources.

OER Handbook for Educators 1.0

OER: A Field Guide for Academic Librarians

https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/652

As OER Grows Up, Advocates Stress More Than Just Low Cost

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-01-15-as-oer-grows-up-advocates-stress-more-than-just-low-cost

Eight Qualities of Open Pedagogy

https://www.nextthought.com/thoughts/2015/02/ten-qualities-of-open-pedagogy

Defining the “Open” in Open Content and Open Educational Resources

https://guides.pcc.edu/c.php?g=178339&p=1172025

OER Basics video https://youtu.be/-O1RftQowCs
OER Starter Kit https://iastate.pressbooks.pub/oerstarterkit/
OER FAQ (OpenOregon) https://faq.openoregon.org/
Open Content in Repositories https://faq.openoregon.org/pages/repositories

The MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.

https://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm