OER Toolkit

Welcome to the Erickson Library's OER Toolkit guide. You'll find tabs at the top that will lead you to additional information with print and online resources. 

The Erickson Library is here to help you find credible and reliable information. Please feel free to call or email with any of your research questions!

How To Use OER
Self-paced OER workshop developed by Washington State. Search registration info to earn a badge!

Faculty Communities of Practice on OER
From the Mary and Jeff Bell Library at Texas A&M. 

Open Oregon Educational Resources
Open Oregon Educational Resources promotes textbook affordability for community college and university students, and facilitates widespread adoption of open, low-cost, high-quality materials. Link to their FAQ site to learn more about OER.

OER Mythbusting
Published by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, OER Mythbusting addresses the top seven myths about OER in North American higher education.

OER Research ToolKit
Resources developed by the Open Education Group (OEG) based at Brigham Young University.

Open Source Education Resources: Open Resource Lists (Monmouth University)

Monday-Thursday: 8:00am-4:30pm
Friday: 8:00am-4:00pm
Phone: (218) 733-5912
Email: lsclibrary@lsc.edu

Open Textbook Accessibility
The goal of the Accessibility Toolkit is to provide the resources needed so that each content creator, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, teaching assistant, etc. has the opportunity to create a truly open and accessible textbook. 

Legal Issues in Libraries and Archives An open textbook that addresses legal issues relevant to librarians such as copyright, contracts and licensing and intellectual property. 

Creative Commons FAQs

Chart of Creative Commons Licenses

 

Copyright for Complete Beginners webinar from Open Oregon.

It takes a great deal of time for faculty to redesign their courses using library and open materials, mostly because they've relied on the supplemental and anxillary materials, such as test banks, that  publishers have traditionally provided. Below is one process to establish a succesful faculty & librarian partnership. 

• Schedule a time to meet online or in person.
• Email the faculty to inquire on where they are in the process and what their current resource needs are.
• Create a shared document, such as this template  and begin to populate with as many resources as you can find before your meeting.
• Introduce the template and reasons for resource list: replaces textbook on syllabus, easy to double-check links in future, students may wish to assess it early. 
• Share the document with the faculty member immediately after meeting. 
• Continue to add to document as you come across new resources.

Search library and open resources for high-quality, credible materials.
 
Textbook Conversion Template   

Sample Resource Lists:

•  American Literature   We worked directly from the text to locate online pieces from American Literature.
•  Intro to Anthropology  

Below is what an instructor's guide might look like, broken down by units and lessons. 

•  Astronomy  
•  

• Pressbooks Directory
  This searchable directory provides an index of numerous books published using the popular Pressbooks software. Results include titles with interactive activities. 
• Open Textbook Library
  Catalog of free, openly-licensed, peer-reviewed open textbooks.
• Libretexts
  An easy-to-use online platform for the construction, customization, and dissemination of open educational resources
• Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)
  Site offers a real-time federated search of 22 well-known repositories of open educational materials. 
• Galileo Open Learning Material
  Funded by the University System of Georgia, Galileo Open Learning Materials include open textbooks and ancillary materials. 
• OpenStax
  Free and flexible textbooks and resources.

Opendora
Opendora, developed by PALS, is a digital archive for open educational resources that serves as a central repository for Minnesota State faculty and librarians to leverage licensed open educational resources (OER) with the ability to access, load, and share material. Opendora allows the storage of or linking to, course content, including textbooks, lecture notes, syllabi, reading lists and videos.   

ebooks Minnesota
Ebooks Minnesota is an online ebook collection for all Minnesotans. The collection features content from our state's independent publishers, including some of our best literature and nonfiction. 

Minnesota OER Commons 
Tools and resources for educators and subject matter experts in Minnesota to collaboratively evaluate, share, and develop Open Educational Resources for public education.  

• Lumen Learning
  Co-founded by open-education visionary Dr. David Wiley and education-technology strategist Kim Thanos, Lumen Learning is dedicated to facilitating broad, successful adoption of OER  
• Merlot: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning & Online Teaching
  Merlot is a collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community. 
• OER Commons
  OER Commons is a dynamic digital library and network. Explore, search and/or build open education resources through this network of educators.
• Skills Commons
  Open resources for Workforce Development.

Ted Talks! These are especially popular with faculty. Search their directory or specifically, TED MED, TED ED, etc. Easy to embed and closed captioned. 

Podcasts! Freakonomics, The Moth, Hidden Brain...the list is endless! 

Project Gutenberg 
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired

Hathi Trust Digital Library 
HathiTrust, a partnership of academic & research institutions, offers a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
eBook Searcher
A search engine app designed specifically for locating over 8 million free ebooks. Download for free on iOS and Android.

• Open Education Network (OEN) Housed at the University of Minnesota, this national alliance of higher education institutions, systems and consortia work together to advance open education. 
• DOERS3 (Driving OER Sustainability for Student Success) is a collaborative group of 25 public higher education systems committed to supporting and promoting free open education resources. 
• Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) MHEC strengthens postsecondary education in member states through cost-savings initiatives and policy solutions informed by research and the expertise of regional leaders.

Glossary of Terms
Minnesota State's agreed upon definitions pertaining to OER and open education

Z-degree Project
A Z-degree is an associate's or bachelor's degree that has zero-cost course resources for students. Minnesota State has a number of these currently being offered and more in development.

Course Markings Project
This allows students to limit their course searches during registration to "no cost for textbooks" as part of their criteria.

OER Community Teams Site Great place to dive into all the system office has to offer. 

Opendora Minnesota State repository of open education resources.