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Open Educational Resources: Finding OER

Finding OER

Finding OER Resources

Open textbooks are openly-licensed textbooks offered online by author(s). These open licenses allow users to read online, download, or print the book at no additional cost. Once you have decided to give OER resources a chance, it is time to search for replacement OER textbooks or a variety of other materials to achieve your course's learning objectives. Below we have resources to help you look for the right materials for your class. Here are a few tips to start you off:stack of books

  1. Use the advanced searching feature if there is one. This can save you some time and limit your search
  2. Start with broad terms and then narrow your search
  3. As you narrow, think about disciplinary language. Is there something else this topic might be referred to as?
  4. If you still aren't getting good results, try to start with the browsing feature (even if it's very broad). Sometimes the term your searching isn't used but you still know it would be under a broad subject like 'humanities" or "writing".

Be sure that you are evaluating the OER you find before including it in your curriculum. This article from The Hechinger Report helps to sort the good from the bad in OER. Also be sure to check out the Evaluating OER page in this LibGuide to find additional resources and checklists like the OER Evaluation Criteria.

Graphic by Megan Pritcher

Head of Scholarly Communications