Open Education: Find OER (by discipline)
Subjects
OER by Discipline Guide (BCCampus)
Sample areas:
Agriculture
Apparel, Housing & Resource Management
Architecture, Interior Design & Landscape
Biological Sciences
Business
Chemistry
Classical Studies
Computer Science
Construction
Economics
Early Childhood Education Education (also)
Engineering
English
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Geosciences (Geology)
Health & Medicine
History
Human Nutrition, Food & Exercise
Information / Digital Literacy & Research Skills
International Studies
Law
Mathematics
Natural Resources and Environment
Performing Arts
Philosophy
Physics
Plant & Environmental Sciences
Political Science
Psychology
Public and International Affairs
Religion and Culture
Sociology
Statistics
Veterinary Medicine
Visual Arts
Open Content
On these pages you will find textbook and non-textbook open educational resources.
Discipline-specific pages are not intended to be exhaustive, but to showcase content that may be of interest to faculty considering adopting open educational resources for use in their classes.
For more information about Creative Commons including license descriptions, please see the Creative Commons tab.
Search Strategies
TWO Strategies for identifying open course material
1) Look for it yourself
2) Ask for help. If you are spending more than 15 minutes looking for something (and are a member of the Virginia Tech community) please email: openeducation@vt.edu to request assistance. We can save you precious time and effort.
Open Educational Resources and Open Textbooks: THE BIG SEVEN
- Pressbooks DirectoryA directory of 6,000+ publicly-available books in Pressbooks. Licenses vary. Many are more-easily customizable through Virginia Tech's Pressbooks software. See additional resources on authoring and customizing at: https://guides.lib.vt.edu/oer/authors Learn more about VT's Pressbooks instance at: https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu
- Course Materials for Educators (BCcampus)Find free, open, and customizable materials by course or subject organized by BCcampus. Includes coursepacks and textbooks.
- LibreTextsZero cost open textbook access and remix system with content in biology, business, chemistry, geosciences, humanities, math, physics, Spanish, statistics, and workforce development. Features: embedded media, dynamic figures, Jupyter integration, Hypothes.is annotation, print on demand, LMS imports, and forthcoming WeBWork integration.
- Open Textbook Library (Univ of MN)The Open Textbook Library is a collection of over 1,500 freely available electronic textbooks licensed under one of six Creative Commons licenses. Some books include faculty peer reviews. All can be read online and are downloadable for offline reading. If you're interested in reviewing, check https://guides.lib.vt.edu/oer/opentextbooksintro to express interest in upcoming workshops -- and a $200 stipend for completing a written review.
- OER CommonsContains more than books! OER Commons indexes a wide variety of openly licensed educational materials. Licenses vary by item.
Search instructions: (Under "material type" select "textbook" or for a curated collection go to: https://www.oercommons.org/hubs/open-textbooks ) - MERLOTMERLOT contains links to freely available online textbooks from a variety of sources. MERLOT II is a project of the California State University System.
- Search instructions: (Filter "material type" by "open textbook"). - OER by Discipline GuideContains links to a wide range of open educational resources organized by discipline. Provided by BCcampus.
Meta searches
- 1) OER MetafinderFrom George Mason University. About the MetaFinder https://publishing.gmu.edu/whos-using-the-mason-oer-metafinder
- 2) OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search)Indexes 50+ different sources. From SUNY Geneseo. About: https://oasis.geneseo.edu/about.php
Additional Resources
- Mapping 2-year transfer course content (Virginia)The goal of the VIVA Course Mapping Project is to support the discovery of Open Educational Resources (OER) aligned to Virginia courses. Recognizing that competing demands and time constraints present barriers to OER adoption for many instructors, the Course Mapping Project works to consolidate and align OER for high enrollment courses at Virginia higher education institutions. https://vivalib.org/va/open/course-mapping-project
- Subject Index of CCCOER ListservA subject index of open educational resources of various formats. Created by Dr Larry Green, Lake Tahoe Community College. For an introduction to this tool, see the blogpost: https://www.cccoer.org/2017/07/28/index-of-oer-shared-via-cccoer-community-email-group/
- TeachOERA subject and source browsable collection of OER content across the web. Development of the site was funded by a grant provided by Baruch College.
- Open Textbooks CollectionsA collection of hundreds if not thousands of openly licensed textbooks in various formats.
- Librarian Tool BoxFor those who "love the hunt" for information.
- Free (not necessarily openly licensed) Online CoursewareLectures, syllabi, assessment tools for nearly any discipline under the sun! Link is courtesy of Affordable Learning Systems, California.
- Workforce Training Materials (via SkillsCommons)Skillscommons is a free and open digital library of Workforce Training Materials.
- DPLA - Digital Public Library of AmericaContains links to a wide range of multimedia objects form libraries, archives and museums around the United States. See copyright/license information in the "rights" field for each item.
- 2017 Open Textbook List (by discipline)Claybaugh, Z. & Stone, C. (2017). Open Educational Resource 2017 Textbook List. Fairfield, CT: Sacred Heart University.
- Open Course LibraryFrom Washington State
- Teaching CommonsTeaching Commons includes open-access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, lectures, k-12 materials, and more.