Collections

Begin your search for open educational resources in these collections of free and open textbooks.  These collections are curated by OER experts, and well organized.  Should you not find what you are looking for in one of these, try another search using an OER search engine.

Open Textbook Library

The Open Textbook Library is a collection curated by the Open Education Network.  Its criteria for inclusion distinguish it from other OER collections.  All textbooks included in the library must meet the following criteria:

• Has an open license that permits derivative works
• Is a complete work published as a portable file
• Is in use at multiple higher education institutions or affiliated with a higher education institution, scholarly society, or professional organization
• Is an original work (or has been significantly modified to reflect the needs or context of an entirely new audience)

There are several textbooks written by OU faculty and published as part of the Alternative Textbook Grant in the Open Textbook Library

• AC Circuits, Chad Davis, Ph.D., former associate professor of electrical engineering
• DC Circuits, Chad Davis, Ph.D.,
• Electromechanical Systems, Chad Davis, Ph.D.
• Measurement and Instrumentation: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods, John Dyer, Ph.D, Associate Research Professor of Electrical Engineering and Chad Davis Ph.D.
• Introductory Business Statistics, Alexander Holmes, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Economics
• American Government, Glen Krutz, Ph.D., Former Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives and professor of political science
• Antología Abierta De Literatura Hispana, Julie Ward, Ph.D., former professor of Spanish
• Biomedical Engineering Lab Manual, Volume 1, Sarah Breen, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering Lab Manual, Volume 2, Sarah Breen, Ph.D.
• Quantitative Research Methods for Political Science, Public Policy, and Public Administration (With R Applications), Hank Jenkins-Smith, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Public Policy Research & Analysis (IPPRA), and Joseph Ripberger, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science
• Navigating the Arts, Lucia Colombari, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Art History
• Introduction to Process Simulation with Aspen Plus, Jude Okolie, Ph.D., former Assistant Professor of Engineering Pathways

OER Commons

OER Commons is supported by the non-profit ISKME is a digital public library of openly licensed educational materials including textbooks, course modules, websites, syllabi, homework activities, and labs for all education levels. Instructors can also create and publish their OER with the free Open Author tool.

OpenStax

OpenStax is a nonprofit based out of Rice University that is dedicated to publishing OER textbooks with high production value at no cost to end users.  Openstax also provides many ancillary materials such as test banks, PowerPoint slides, LMS integration, and other materials to assist instructors in teaching. Their catalog includes introductory-level textbooks in most the most common subject areas, with new books being published each year. Two former OU faculty members are lead authors of OpenStax textbooks: 

• Introductory Business Statistics, Alexander Holmes, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics
• American Government, Glen Krutz, Ph.D., former Vice Provost and professor of Political Science

Libretexts

Libretxts is a textbook repository and builder based out of the University of California, Davis. Many college subject areas are included in their catalog, and their platform allows for easy remixing of content and importing content into learning management systems.

MERLOT

MERLOT is the first online OER repository, based out of the California State University Long Beach. There are nearly 100,000 educational items included in their repository curated by authors and volunteers. The licensing of the materials may vary, but a good place to search if you're looking for things other than full textbooks or courses.

Pressbooks Directory

Pressbooks Directory is a free, searchable catalog that includes thousands of open access books published by organizations and networks using Pressbooks, a commonly used OER publishing platform. There are original OER included, but also remixes of OER originally published elsewhere. Many items have H5P interactive activities. The materials' licenses may vary, so verify if an item you would like to remix allows for that under its license.

 

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Search Engines

These two OER search engines query a combined total of more than 70 OER collections. They return not only full texts, but videos, images, and other fragments that can be combined to supplement or form whole OER.  Searching for OER can be difficult.  Use these state of the art tools to help find your way.

 

Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)

 

 

SUNY Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS)