Happy Open Education Week!
Are you considering converting to or building a textbook-free course? Would you like to incorporate some open resources into an existing source to help your students get a better grasp of certain topics. Here are some tips for finding Open Educational Resources to build or add to your classes.
Step one: Set aside time.
Searching for these materials takes time and persistence, just like research!
Step two: Get cozy with your specific learning objectives.
Instead of focusing on the textbook that you would like to replace, focus on what you would like students to specifically know or be able to do. You will likely need to search for several materials to address different topics or components of your complete class.
Example: instead of searching for “biology” materials, search for “cell structure” or “DNA” or “evolution” materials.
Step three: Use Google “Advanced Search” to search for open resources.
Step four: Search within some of the specific OER repositories/OER search engines:
MERLOT http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
OER Commons http://www.oercommons.org/
Connexions http://cnx.org/
Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/
College Open Textbooks: http://www.collegeopentextbooks.org/
*OER Librarian pro-tip* Use the browsing tools that the repository or search engine presents to you! Don’t rely solely on keyword searching.
Step five: Consider library materials, which are free to students.
The library provides access to hundreds of ebooks, and thousands of articles that students can access electronically, for free.
Library’s homepage http://lanecc.edu/library/
Step six: Not finding what you’re looking for? Ask your OER librarian.
I’m happy to help or refer you! email: Jen Klaudinyi
Step seven: Consider creating and sharing your own OER.
Each term, the ATC hosts workshops that can help you use software to create your own materials, or you can always drop by for help. If you create materials, consider contributing them to one of the OER repositories.
More advice on searching for OER?
Check out this 60 minute webinar “Finding and Selecting High Quality OER” from the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources