Open Educational Resources Community of Learning

This course is a guide for creating a self-paced community of learning-style curriculum for understanding the basics of Open Educational Resources (OERs). Originally developed in Canvas, this guide includes five learning modules with reflection questions, optional live discussion topics, and quizzes.  The purpose of this OER Community of Learning curriculum is to establish a campus-wide baseline knowledge on the subject of OERs.

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Stephanie Towery, Lisa Ancelet, Laura Waugh, Amanda N Price

Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know

This is a five-step guide for faculty, and those who support faculty, who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types are included.

Material Type: Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Amy Hofer, Anita Walz, Annie Johnson, Cheryl Cuillier, Karen Lauritsen, Kathleen Labadorf, Peter Potter, Richard Saunders

Seeking a sustainable OER ecosystem

As the collection of available OER – the OER commons – has grown, a collection of institutions and organizations that contribute to and draw on the commons has developed around it. Sustaining this “OER ecosystem” of content and stakeholders that transform the content into innovative approaches in the classroom to improve student experiences is vital to realizing the potential impact of OER. To inform this report, we conducted over 20 stakeholder interviews, as well as a literature review of OER and other open-driven industries.

Material Type: Primary Source

Authors: Lee Green, Nathan Huttner, Rachel Cowher

Resource for the Resource MCC Group

Image credit: Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries OER Program Guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  This template is for use by participants in the Resource for the Resource series to help identify and share ideas for OER implementation at their Instutitution.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Authors: Jessica Zbeida, Kristen Cook, Yolanda Gonzalez, Mary Sides

Humanities 1301

The course is an examination of the Human Condition that pulls from a wide variety of disciplines—the Humanities, Classical Studies, and the Sciences. The integration of these different disciplines enables the OER material to facilitate an interdisciplinary conversation about the human experience through the use of printed and visual classic texts, lecture videos, interactive student materials, and original assessment tools. 

Material Type: Lesson

Author: Kim Miller-Davis

OER Core Elements Series - Resources and Recordings

This resource will contain all of the recordings and documents from the OER Core Elements Series. 

Material Type: Lesson

Author: Joanna Schimizzi

World Regional Geography

Rather than present students with a broad, novice-level introduction to geography, emphasizing places and vocabulary terms, this text approaches geography as experts understand the discipline, focusing on connections and an in-depth understanding of core themes. This thematic approach, informed by pedagogical research, provides students with an introduction to thinking geographically. Instead of repeating the same several themes each chapter, this text emphasizes depth over breadth by arranging each chapter around a central theme and then exploring that theme in detail as it applies to the particular region. In addition, while chapters are designed to stand alone and be rearranged or eliminated at the instructor's discretion, the theme of globalization and inequality unites all of the regions discussed. This core focus enables students to draw connections between regions and to better understand the interconnectedness of our world. Furthermore, the focus on both globalization and inequality helps demonstrate the real-world application of the concepts discussed. Colonialism, for instance, rather than a historical relict, becomes a force that has shaped geography and informs social justice. This thematic approach is also intended to facilitate active learning and would be suitable for a flipped or team-based learning-style course since it more easily integrates case studies and higher-order thinking than the traditional model. Each chapter begins with a list of learning objectives. This text was written with the backward course design model in mind and the content of each chapter was structured around these learning objectives. Because of this backward design focus, the length of each chapter is considerably shorter than most traditional textbooks. The intention is for the instructor to supplement the text with problems, case studies, and news articles and to use the text as a springboard for discussing deeper issues. The chapters are written in an accessible style, often addressing the student directly, and the author's voice has intentionally tried to remain present in the text. Following the Washington Post's gender-inclusive style guide, the singular they is intentionally used throughout the text. Rhetorical questions are also used to help students reflect on concepts and to encourage them to dig deeper and consider concepts from different perspectives.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Caitlin Finlayson

Physical Geography Lab Manual

Lab Manual for Physical Geography Course.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Aline Nortes Gregorio, Jeremy G. Patrich, Scott J. Crosier, Taya C. Lazootin, Waverly C. Ray

Physical Geography

Physical Geography, also called earth science, is the study of our home planet and all of its components: its lands, waters, atmosphere, and interior. In this book, some chapters are devoted to the processes that shape the lands and impact people. Other chapters depict the processes of the atmosphere and its relationship to the planet’s surface and all our living creatures. For as long as people have been on the planet, humans have had to live within Earth’s boundaries. Now human life is having a profound effect on the planet. Several chapters are devoted to the effect people have on the planet.The journey to better understanding Earth begins here with an exploration of how scientists learn about the natural world and introduces you to the study of physical geography and earth science.

Material Type: Full Course, Textbook

Introduction to World Regional Geography

The discipline of geography bridges the social sciences with the physical sciences and can provide a framework for understanding our world. By studying geography, we can begin to understand the relationships and common factors that tie our human community together. The world is undergoing globalization on a massive scale as a result of the rapid transfer of information and technology and the growth of modes of transportation and communication. The more we understand our world, the better prepared we will be to address the issues that confront our future. There are many approaches to studying world geography. This textbook takes a regional approach and focuses on themes that illustrate the globalization process, which in turn assists us in better understanding our global community and its current affairs.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: R. Adam Dastrup

World Regional Geography

Rather than present students with a broad, novice-level introduction to geography, emphasizing places and vocabulary terms, this text approaches geography as experts understand the discipline, focusing on connections and an in-depth understanding of core themes. This thematic approach, informed by pedagogical research, provides students with an introduction to thinking geographically. Instead of repeating the same several themes each chapter, this text emphasizes depth over breadth by arranging each chapter around a central theme and then exploring that theme in detail as it applies to the particular region. In addition, while chapters are designed to stand alone and be rearranged or eliminated at the instructor's discretion, the theme of globalization and inequality unites all of the regions discussed. This core focus enables students to draw connections between regions and to better understand the interconnectedness of our world. Furthermore, the focus on both globalization and inequality helps demonstrate the real-world application of the concepts discussed. Colonialism, for instance, rather than a historical relict, becomes a force that has shaped geography and informs social justice. This thematic approach is also intended to facilitate active learning and would be suitable for a flipped or team-based learning-style course since it more easily integrates case studies and higher-order thinking than the traditional model.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Caitlin Finlayson

Physical Geography

This textbook was designed especially for College of the Canyons students, as a resource to instill the knowledge and adventure that the discipline of geography holds for so many of us. The following units will cover a wide array of topics such as: Earth’s grid system, rivers, oceans, deserts, basic geology, and cartography.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Jeremy Patrich, Trudi Radtke

Physical Environment: An Introduction to Physical Geography

An OER Geography Textbook

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Michael Ritter

Physical Geography and Natural Disasters – Simple Book Publishing

Introduction to physical geography including a background on data collection and scientific methods of study.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Ma, R. Adam Dastrup

The OER Starter Kit for Program Managers

The OER Starter Kit for Program Managers was created to bring attention to the work that is involved in building and managing an OER program, from learning about open educational practices and soliciting team members to collecting and reporting data on your program’s outcomes. Regardless of your program's scope and your own experience with OER, we hope that the Starter Kit for Program Managers will have some tips to help you along your way.

Material Type: Case Study

Authors: Abbey K. Elder, Apurva Ashok, Jeff Gallant;, Marco Seiferle-Valencia, Stefanie Buck

The OER Starter Kit

This starter kit has been created to provide instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of open educational resources (OER). The text is broken into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER. Although some chapters contain more advanced content, the starter kit is primarily intended for users who are entirely new to Open Education. [Version 1.1. Revised September 5th, 2019.]

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Abbey Elder

Adoption Guide - 2nd Edition

The second edition is an updated and expanded version of the original adoption guide. The first sections address three distinct groups involved in open textbook adoption: instructors, post-secondary institutions, and students. The second--most comprehensive--section focuses on the operational aspects of adoption: surveying instructors about, tracking usage of, and reporting out about open textbooks (and other OER). The last "Learn More" part provides additional adoption information.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Lauri M. Aesoph

Adaptation Guide: A reference to adapting or revising an open textbook

The Adaptation Guide is a practical reference about how to customize — or adapt — an open textbook so that it better fits your needs in the classroom and elsewhere. This guide defines the term adaptation and discusses reasons for revising a book, why this is possible with an open textbook, and the challenges involved.

Material Type: Textbook

Authoring Open Textbooks

This guide is for faculty authors, librarians, project managers and others who are involved in the production of open textbooks in higher education and K-12. Content includes a checklist for getting started, publishing program case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources and an overview of useful tools.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Anita R. Walz, Caitie Finlayson, Cody Taylor, Deb Quentel, Dianna Fisher, Karen Bjork, Karen Lauritsen, Linda Frederiksen, Melissa Falldin, Ralph Morelli, Shane Nackerud

Permissions Guide for Educators

This guide provides a primer on copyright and use permissions. It is intended to support teachers, librarians, curriculum experts and others in identifying the terms of use for digital resources, so that the resources may be appropriately (and legally) used as part of lessons and instruction. The guide also helps educators and curriculum experts in approaching the task of securing permission to use copyrighted materials in their classrooms, collections, libraries or elsewhere in new ways and with fewer restrictions than fair use potentially offers. The guide was created as part of ISKME's Primary Source Project, and is the result of collaboration with copyright holders, intellectual property experts, and educators.* "Copyright license choice" by opensource.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Mindy Boland