Research Guides: Open Educational Resources: Home

Finding Open Resources

Quality of OER Can Be an Adoption Barrier

Critically evaluate a resource before adopting it. Make sure the resource is right for your purpose.

Quality:

Peer Review available or used.
The reputation of the author/institution is transparent.
Pedagogical methods are sound.
Allows for customization or refinement.

Appropriateness:

The content is accurate.
Sources are identified and cited.
Some alignment with a learning outcome or course objective.
The appropriate reading level for your students.

Technical:

High technical quality (clear visuals, high production value).
Clear licensing declaration (Creative Commons License present, in the Public Domain, etc.).
Licensed to remix or share again.

OER Evaluation Checklist, Sarah Crissinger, CC BY 4.0

Create an OER

Tips for Getting Started Designing for Web Accessibility: This page introduces some basic considerations to help you get started making your user interface design and visual design more accessible to people with disabilities. These tips are good practice to help you meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) requirements.

Pressbooks: The Open Book Creation Platform: Pressbooks is simple book production software, built with the web in mind. Create interactive web books, PDFs for print and ebooks, all from one place. See VIVA information above.

OER Portal

Open Textbooks and Educational Resources

Search OER content from OpenStax, MERLOT, InTechOpen, Open Textbook Library, MIT Open Courseware, College Open Textbooks, Directory of Open Access Books, and more!

Questions

For more information or questions about Open Educational Resources, contact the Scholarly Communications Department at the Jerry Falwell Library. Scholarlycommunications@liberty.edu

Recommended Open Textbooks

These are good resources to find items that are peer-reviewed. This is a place to start looking for an OER for class use.

VIVA Pressbooks

VIVA Pressbooks are items created within Virginia.

OpenStax

OpenStax is part of Rice University, which is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit charitable corporation. Generously supported by major philanthropic foundations, allows OpenStax research team to conduct cutting-edge research on student learning and improve student success through their resources.

Openly license, 100% free, and adaptable textbooks.
Expert Authors: these open-source textbooks are written by professional content developers who are experts in their fields.
Standard Scope and Sequence: all textbooks meet the standard scope and sequence requirements, making them seamlessly adaptable into existing courses.
Peer-Reviewed: OpenStax textbooks undergo a rigorous peer-review process. A list of contributors is available with each book.

Courses

Math: Pre-algebra, Elementary Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Algebra & Trigonometry, Pre-calculus, Calculus Vol 1,2, and 3, Introductory Statistics, and Introductory Business Statistics.

Science: Anatomy & Physiology, Astronomy, Biology, Concepts of Biology, Microbiology, Chemistry, Chemistry: Atoms First, College Physics, University Physics Vol 1, 2, and 3.

Social Sciences: American Government, Principles of Economics, Principles of Macro-Economics, Principles of Micro-Economics, Psychology, and Sociology.

Humanities: U.S. History.

Business: Introduction to Business, Business Ethics, Principles of Accounting (Financial Accounting), Principles of Accounting (Managerial Accounting), Introductory Business Statistics, Principles of Management, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior, Business Law Essentials.

Partnership with Barnes & Noble (for print books at a reasonable price) and Cengage (online homework for a reasonable fee).

Can integrate into Canvas and Blackboard LMS.

General OER and Creative Commons Collections

Creative Commons has items that under copyright but the author has given a license to allow the user to know how they can use the resource .

Creative Commons – a collection of Creative Commons licensed materials.

General OER Searching.
Photo/Image Search.
Video Search.
Audio/Music Search.
General Education Search.
Recorded Lectures & Video Tutorial Search.
Open Textbook Search.
Simulation and Animation Search.
Modular Course Components.
Completed Courses.

Teaching Commons – a collection of OERs available through Liberty University Scholars Crossing Institutional Repository, the Digital Commons platform.

Pressbooks Directory - this directory provides an index of OER books published by faculty and librarians who use Pressbooks in higher education.

OER Resources

These are sites that have cataloged different OER for use in classrooms.

VIVA Open - Virginia's Academic Library Consortium OER resource.
OER Commons – a search engine that makes various OERs of different levels discoverable.
OpenStax – an initiative of Rice University with support from foundations like Hewlett and the Gate’s Foundation (peer-reviewed).
MIT Open Courseware – openly published MIT course content that covers the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
MERLOT – a project of the California State University System, contains links to open textbooks from a variety of sources (peer review indicators).
BCcampus OpenEd – a collection of open textbooks created by BCcampus.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) – a collection of peer-reviewed open access books with Creative Commons licenses.
InTech – an open access publisher of books and journals in science, technology, and medicine.
Libre Texts – a multi-institutional collection of higher learning textbooks.
Open Education Network – an aggregation of openly licensed textbooks.
Open TextBook Store – a catalog of open textbooks collected by educators to make open textbooks more easily adoptable in courses.
OpenStax CNX– an extension of OpenStax, a repository of open-access textbooks and curricular materials.
OpenCourse Library - a collection of expertly developed OER courses for Washington State Community Colleges'.
Nordic University Health Hub - OER on Health.