Open Educational Resources/ Textbooks
Find Open Textbooks at the UWinnipeg Library!
The University of Winnipeg Library, working with Campus Manitoba and BC Campus, provides access to over 300 academic textbooks authored by our colleagues. These textbooks are peer reviewed, free to use and adopt for your courses, and Canadian authored!
Follow the link below to see what has been added to the local collection so far:
https://uwinnipeg.on.worldcat.org/external-search?queryString=au%3ABC+Open+Textbook+Project
You can find many more Open Textbooks in the OER databases listed on this site, or by using the OASIS search box below.
OASIS is a federated search from SUNY which looks for OER across over 100 different higher ed sources.
OER Meta Finder
Another search engine that searches across numerous OER databases, including those that contain images, textbooks, course modules, supplementary material, and more, is the Mason OER Metafinder (MOM). This database frequently returns large numbers of results, but you can easily filter the results in the sidebar to the left.
- Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)Simultaneously search across multiple Open Educational Resource repositories. Mason OER finder returns a large number of results and searches a large number of repositories, so it is useful to narrow your searches down using the tools in the sidebar.
Open Educational Resources
Open Educational Resources are freely accessible and usable resources, such as texts, assignments, videos, diagrams, learning modules, and more. As well as being cost efficient, they also are customizable, allowing for many different types of reuse and remixing. OERs are openly licensed, meaning they can be shared, updated, localized and used in a number of ways. This benefits educators - who have increased flexibility in the materials they use for their courses - and students, who have access to excellent, current resources at no cost.
Open textbooks are one of the most popular types of OERs. They are peer reviewed, and written by experts in the subject areas - like standard textbooks - but unlike standard textbooks, they can be continually modified, remixed, and kept up to date.
Part of the growing movement of 'Open', OER seeks to foster learning and innovation through use and re-use of openly licensed materials. More Open Access resources are available on our Guide to Open Access.
More about OER
You can find out more about the philosophy behind Open Education Resources - including how to get involved - by checking out some of the organizations below!
- Open Educational Resources - WikipediaAn overview of OER, including descriptions of different licenses, and links to different initiatives
- OER CommonsMany thousands of OERS, including textbooks. Good search and faceted classification to help you find what you need
- Open at the Margins: Critical Perspectives on Open Educational ResourcesThis book represents a starting point towards curating and centering marginal voices and non-dominant epistemic stances in open education. It includes the work of 43 diverse authors whose perspectives challenge the dominant hegemony.
- SPARC - Textbook Costs a Threat to Student SuccessSPARC is a global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries through the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education.
- What is OER?Creative Commons intro to OER
- What are OERs?UNESCO's description of OERs.
If you have course materials you want to turn into an OER, please contact Brianne Selman.