Open Access TextBooks & Educational Resources

A library presentation on Open Educational Resources, such as Animals & Ethics 101.



Some notes from Teva Hutchinson:

http://www.hewlett.org/grants/?search_strategy=31557 

http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/about/textbook_transformation_grants

“Open Educational Resources (OERs) 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)

OERs are free educational resources ​available for ​   retention, reuse, revision, remixing and redistribution.

Why OER?​

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• Textbook prices have become extremely expensive averaging nearly $5,000 for four years of study.​

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• Changes to textbooks are sometimes minor – 1 chapter - yet students have to purchase new copies​

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• Present society requires faster updates which are easier updated online than reprinting new editions​

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• Students are now accustomed to interactive works.

Use  an open textbook in one of your classes ​

     openstax.org ​

       open.umn.edu/opentextbooks​

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Adapt an open access course from one of these sites​

      MITOpencourseware​

        Affordable Learning Georgia ​

        Georgia Knowledge repository ​

        California State University Affordable Learning Solutions​

        Open Course Library​

        Canvas and Moodle learning management system ​

        Merlot II​

        oercommons.org​

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Join the peer-review process at an OER platform such as​

       MERLOT Peer Review ​

       OpenSUNY Textbook Review ​

       Open textbook Catalog Review​

       College Open Textbooks Community

CONSIDER - Textbook Transformation Grants http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/about/textbook_transformation_grants, http://www.hewlett.org/grants/?search_strategy=31557​

CONSIDER - MERLOT, College Open Textbooks, California Open Textbook Project. ​

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AVOID - publishers that do not mention a review board/editors.​

AVOID - publishers that despite being new have similar names or website layouts to well known established publishers.​

AVOID - publishers that charge excessive fees or refuse to be clear about fees until after they receive your work.​

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REVIEW - some of the OERs on the platform to weigh the quality of the work before making your decision. https://clinicallibrarian.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers/​

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