Open Educational Resources (OER)

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eBook Searcher 
A search engine app designed specifically for locating over 8 million free ebooks. Download for free on iOS and Android.
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.
Hathi Trust Digital Library 
HathiTrust, a partnership of academic & research institutions, offers a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. 
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.   
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.  
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. 
Open Textbook Library 
Catalog of free, peer-reviewed and openly-licensed textbooks developed by the University of Minnesota and collaborating partners.
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.   
Open Stax 
OpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University. They currently have more than 20 openly licensed college textbooks.
OPEN SUNY 
Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants.
Project Gutenberg  
Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, the project's founder, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire ebooks and related technologies today.
Saylor Academy 
Saylor Academy is a nonprofit initiative working since 2008 to offer free and open online courses to all who want to learn.  

Creative Commons 
Newer non-profit copyright licensing system has helped online users develop and access a pool of content that can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of copyright law.
Creative Commons - Minnesota State
Useful information about how to tell what kind of Creative Commmons Licenses are out there and how/if you can modify the resources.
Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project 
The Minnesota Library Publishing Project (MLPP) provides online publishing tools and training information to support indepedent authors and small publishers. The MLPP is a pilot project coordinated by Minitex and Minnesota's academic and public libraries. 
Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know 
Pressbooks 
Minnesota Publishing Project platform available to all residents; allows users to easily create professional print and ebook editions of their books. 

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.
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 Research ToolKit 
Resources developed by the Open Education Group (OEG) based at Brigham Young University.
Open Professionals Education Network (OPEN) 
OPEN (Open Professionals Education Network) provides free support and technical assistance to all Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College & Career Training grantees with information and professional development​.
School of Open 
Website for open community of volunteers providing free online courses and training on "openness" in a digital world.
Open Textbook Accessibility 
The goal of the Accessiblity Toolkit is to provide the resources needed so that each content creator has the opportunity to create a truly open and accessible textbook.
Digital Public Library of America 
​Many universities, public libraries and other public organizations have digitized materials, but these digital collections often exist in silos. The DPLA brings these different viewpoints, experiences and collections together in a single platform and portal, providing open and coherent access to our society's digitized cultural heritage.

MLPP and Pressbooks - Getting Started

Digital Public Library of America 
​Many universities, public libraries and other public organizations have digitized materials, but these digital collections often exist in silos. The DPLA brings these different viewpoints, experiences and collections together in a single platform and portal, providing open and coherent access to our society's digitized cultural heritage.

LabXChange: A free online platform for science education from Harvard University.
Online Labs in: aims to serve as a comprehensive, encyclopedic reference about online labs in a variety of subjects, particularly virtual laboratory simulations for science education. We categorize useful listings for online lab simulations, virtual science experiments and free educational software.
MERLOT offers a collection of virtual labs in a variety of science disciplines, but note that you will not be able to capture student performance data. Many textbooks also provide interactive lab-based resources if you have adopted the book for your course.
The Journal of Visualized Experiments: Students can watch videos of experiments; students to first make predictions and then discuss the results. Offers videos of experiments, including many designed for students.

SCC Library Website -- Use Discovery search box for books, ebooks, articles.  
     Use your StarID and password login info if you get a login box.
Free digital copies of textbooks
Digital access to articles through MNLINK (for articles not available through SCC databases)
Ebooks & Audiobooks:  
     TdS Overdrive or Taylor North Mankato Library Overdrive (use your TdS or TNM Library Card login)
     National Emergency Library (research books, etc.)
     Audible Stories (free)
     If you have a library card from your hometown library, you may have access to their e-resources.

Please contact D2L site administrator in the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence to ensure any tools can integrate with D2L. There is a systematic process for approval. 

1. Assessing OER Accessibility (from https://libraries.etsu.edu/research/oer/evaluate) 

   • OER and Accessibility: A comprehensive collection of resources for the evaluation and discovery of OERs, primarily through MERLOT II.
   • BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit: Offers guidelines and a checklist for assessing and creating open textbooks, focusing on accessibility. Available at BCcampus.
   • Accessibility Module: Provides instructions for creating and evaluating accessible videos, images, course materials, and textbooks.
   • Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool: Analyzes websites to verify compliance with accessibility standards. WAVE Tool.

2. Rubrics, Checklists, and Tools for OER Evaluation  (from https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/oer/pro-con-oer.html) 

   • Achieve's OER Rubrics: Developed by Achieve.org, these eight rubrics and an accompanying evaluation tool help align OER with the Common Core State Standards and evaluate their quality. Additional training materials can be found on the Achieve.org website.
   • Summarized Rubrics for OER Evaluation: A condensed, 2-page rubric that synthesizes the eight separate rubrics from Achieve.org for quick OER assessment. Summarized Rubric.
   • Achieve OER Evaluation Tool Handbook: A guide for using the Achieve OER Evaluation Tool for online resource assessment, hosted on OERCommons.org.
   • iRubric: Evaluating OER Rubric: Crafted by Sarah Morehouse with assistance from Mark McBride, Kathleen Stone, and Beth Burns, this rubric, under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, provides essential questions for OER evaluation.
   • OER Evaluation Checklist: A concise checklist for quick OER evaluation.