Stop here for the latest resources, articles and news about Open Educational Resources (OER).
A popular open textbook repository for higher education, the Open Textbook Library, now offers 1,107 textbooks. Several other repositories now have special libraries that focus on textbooks and other materials needed for coursework at community and technical colleges.
The U.S. Department of Labor invested $1.9 billion in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program which includes Skills Commons Workforce Training Materials.
More than 700 community colleges contributed content in construction, health care, manufacturing, information technology, and much more. LibreTexts Workforce is supported by the U.S. Department of Education and provides training materials for a broad spectrum of careers from audio/visual technology to corrections & criminal justice.
Faculty frequently ask how they can find the highest quality OER. Since the federal government, philanthropic organizations, states, and universities, have invested billions of dollars in OER, finding high-quality sources is easier than ever. OpenStax and Milne Open Textbooks use a formal peer review system like that used by commercial publishers. Many other OER sites, such as the Open Textbook Library and Merlot, provide faculty reviews. The Open Textbook Library rubric includes a 10-point review criteria.
47% of faculty report using OER. Data from Educational Resources in US Higher Education, 2023 report by Bay View Analytics.
Creating online courses that include eTextbooks, homework assignments and quizzes that work with Blackboard is easier than ever!
Easy to use tools include:
The LibreTexts ADAPT platform is funded by the U.S. Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project and the California Education Learning Lab.
The International OpenEd22 and LibreFest conferences were held online in October. Sessions reported the successes and challenges of open education initiatives around the world. The adoption of OER such as openly licensed electronic and print textbooks and supplemental class materials is becoming mainstream in the U.S. and beyond. These initiatives are saving students money and enhancing equity for students who can’t afford to purchase class materials. In fact, OER savings have exceeded 1 billion worldwide.
Many repositories have partnered with publishing/printing vendors to provide quick, inexpensive printing of textbooks and other materials. Here’s one example from LibreText: Use the LibreTexts Online Bookstore.
OpenStax has expanded the number of test banks and other free instructor materials, such as PowerPoints and syllabus language, available for their core textbooks. These features have made OpenStax content an alternative to commercial publishers’ “courses in a box.”
Except where otherwise noted, Open Educational Resources at CCAC by Community College of Allegheny County Libraries is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
