The iOER Handbook

This guide is maintained by NOVA librarians to assist faculty with OER initiatives and sources to locate OER materials.

The following book review was sent to the Journal of College Student Retention for consideration: Shank, J. D. (2014). Interactive open educational resources: A guide to finding, choosing, and using what’s out there to transform college teaching.

"The UMass Amherst Libraries’ Scholarly Communication office surveyed undergraduate students enrolled in classes participating in the Open Education Initiative (OEI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The OEI is a faculty incentive program that encourages the adoption, adaption, or creation of existing low-cost or free information resources to support UMass Amherst students’ learning."

Read the Global Open Policy Report Open Policy is when governments, institutions, and non-profits enact policies and legislation that makes content, knowledge, or data they produce or fund available under a permissive license to allow reuse, revision, remix, retention, and redistribution. This promotes innovation, access, and equity in areas of education, data, software, heritage, cultural … Read More "Solving some of the world’s toughest problems with the Global Open Policy Report"

Using an open-source digital textbook over a traditional paper version can increase student outcomes, but administrators need to be convinced.

SPEC Kit 351, Affordable Course Content and Open Educational Resources, investigates the degree to which ARL member institutions are systematicall

The Executive Director for Open Educational Resources (OER) will administer and coordinate operations and the strategic direction for Open SUNY Textbooks (OST) and OER Services, based at SUNY Geneseo. The position will provide program oversight, strategic planning, advocacy, outreach, membership administration, and project management for OST and OER Services. The Executive Director will collaborate with colleagues across SUNY to develop campus OER scale-up initiatives; develop and deliver programs; design processes and services supporting the integration of open content into a college’s curriculum; work to identify funding opportunities for OER initiatives and present opportunities to SUNY campuses; seek OER collaborations between SUNY faculty to develop OER; work closely with the Open Education Lab at the University at Buffalo to design research opportunities for OER adopters; and work with SUNY Geneseo and SUNY System Administration to develop a long-term business and sustainability model for OST and OER Services.

Open-source interactive textbooks, which are aligned with the values of academia, allow both instructors and students to take ownership of their educational resources.

"ISKME's digital librarians have curated collections of Open Textbooks and supplementary resources to help leverage OER in your classroom. Whether you are looking for more affordable options for your students, or dynamic content to inspire your own teaching and learning practice, this hub, organized by discipline and provider will help you discover the resources you need at your fingertips."

"Since 2002 when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sparked the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement with the Open Courseware Project, few colleges or universities have pushed the envelope in determining the full potential of OER on teaching and learning. We believe that to realize the full potential of OER, colleges and universities must move beyond pockets of innovation, where OER is utilized only for select courses, and scale efforts to full OER programs. The support of trustees, CEOs, and their leadership teams is essential to realizing the full potential of OER.'

While most faculty members are still unaware of open educational resources, use in introductory courses nearly rivals that of traditional textbooks, study finds.

Only 6.6 percent of faculty members are "very aware" of open educational resources, a survey found, and many say they can’t find such materials, although their use in introductory courses is ticking up.

We've collected an updated roster of resources that offer quality learning content without the high price tag of traditional texts.

"Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, recently partnered with Amazon with the intent of saving its students money on everything from soup to textbooks. Now, the institution is working to take textbooks out of the equation altogether, or at least some of them.o edit the content."

Had she purchased all the math and science textbooks she needed for the last academic year, Allie Soyars would have spent about $900.