Open Educational Resources

As part of the Textbook Affordability Project, the USF Libraries provide access to more than 466,000 ebooks.  If a particular title isn't available, an order may be requested.  Features unlimited simultaneous users, 12 major publishers (Wiley, Routledge, Oxford, Springer, etc).  Search available titles at Ebooks for the Classroom

“OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”

From: Hewlett Foundation http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education/open-educational-resources

The "5 Rs" or OERs

• Retain
• Reuse
• Revise
• Remix
• Redistribute

From: Wiley, David. Defining the “Open” in Open Content and Open Educational Resources. http://opencontent.org/definition/

“Affordable Course Materials – low and no cost alternatives to traditionally published textbooks. This is a broader category than OER. ACM can include material freely available on the web, but that still carries some copyright restrictions. May be re-usable but not re-mixable.”

From: Birthisel, J., Dubinsky, E., Eliason, S., & LePage, E. (n.d.). Win-win: How Open Educational Resources (OER) & Affordable Course Materials (ACM) benefit students and faculty. http://vc.bridgew.edu/may_celebrations/2016/session2/24/

• LOWER COST for students
• COMBINE resources -- create the ideal mix
• INCORPORATE into Canvas
• UPDATES -- make quick, last minute changes or additions
• GROWING collections

• TIME needed to locate, evaluate, and customize
• Limited CHOICE
• TRUST in quality
• Availability of SUPPLEMENTAL RESOURCES
• Confusion over COPYRIGHT and licensing