Open Educational Resources

Sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), this one-of-a-kind book demonstrates the best tools, resources, and techniques for discovering, selecting, and integrating interactive open educational resources (OERs) into the teaching and learning process. The author examines many of the best repositories and digital library websites for finding high quality materials, explaining in depth the best practices for effectively searching these repositories and the various methods for evaluating, selecting, and integrating the resources into the instructor's curriculum and course assignments, as well as the institution's learning management system.

We intend this book to act as a guide writ large for would-be champions of OER, that anyone--called to action by the example set by our chapter authors--might serve as guides themselves. The following chapters tap into the deep experience of practitioners who represent a meaningful cross section of higher education institutions in North America. It is our hope that the examples and discussions presented by our authors will facilitate connections among practitioners, foster the development of best practices for OER adoption and creation, and more importantly, lay a foundation for novel, educational excellence.

Affordable education. Transparent science. Accessible scholarship. These ideals are slowly becoming a reality thanks to the open education, open science, and open access movements. Running separate--if parallel--courses, they all share a philosophy of equity, progress, and justice. This book shares the stories, motives, insights, and practical tips from global leaders in the open movement.

This insightful collection of essays explores the ways in which open education can democratize access to education for all. It is a rich resource that offers both research and case studies to relate the application of open technologies and approaches in education settings around the world. Global in perspective, this book argues strongly for the value of open education in both the developed and developing worlds. Through a mixture of theoretical and practical approaches, it demonstrates that open education promotes ideals of inclusion, diversity, and social justice to achieve the vision of education as a fundamental human right. A must-read for practitioners, policy-makers, scholars and students in the field of education.

The College Library Information on Policy and Practice (CLIPP) publishing program, under the auspices of the College Libraries Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, provides college and small university libraries analysis and examples of library practices and procedures. In six sections—Introduction, Literature Review and Bibliography, Analysis and Discussion of Survey Results, Survey with Results, Resources from Survey Respondents, and Sample Documents—Open Educational Resources provides context for OER initiatives in college libraries and provides insights and strategies for librarians who are new to the topic, part of an existing OER initiative, or looking to form a program at their institution. The survey, both analyzed and included in its entirety, gathers information on OER and other affordable course content initiatives that are occurring at college libraries, exploring questions such as funding, how libraries are supporting OER on their campuses, and what additional services might be possible in their libraries. Finally, there’s a collection of resources and sample documents related to OER initiatives, including faculty stipend programs, process documents, and sustainability and planning guides.