Open Educational Resources (OERs) are resources that are free of charge for anyone to use online. OERs can include educational materials (such as textbooks), lectures, assignments, videos, images, etc. Low-cost resources also are available, and they include books that can be printed and sold through the bookstore.
To share the OER resources you use, go to the OER Adoption Tracker, a project of the Oregon community college libraries. Click
here.
The basics of Open Educational Resources are succinctly described in a short video by Amy Hofer, Coordinator of the Statewide Open Education Library Services in Oregon. Click
here.
These resources are not covered by a traditional copyright. Instead, they are openly licensed, often under a Creative Commons copyright that often requires only attribution for educational use. Read more about Creative Commons
here.To watch a short video on traditional copyright vs. open licensing, click
here.
Here is just a sample of open resources. Please contact the library,
[email protected],if you would like help searching for sources.
Project Gutenberg
E-books in the public domain. That means they were published before 1923, or published between 1923 and 1964 without a copyright renewal, or they were originally published without copyright. (free)
Washington 45 Open textbooks and class materials selected for lower-division general education classes in Washington state. Recommendations are divided by subject, and several alternate textbooks are included with each recommendation. (free)
The website
openculture.comlists "
intelligent YouTube channels." The list includes the familiar TED Talks and the Kahn Academy videos as well as channels that have video for classroom and virtual-classroom use:
These YouTube channels hold videos on a variety of topics. You must search within each of these channels for a relevant topic.
Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan, educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Recent topics for videos include early childhood learning, an explanation of oil drilling and space travel for citizens. Often these are hour-long videos.
Big Think
This collection brings you videos featuring some of today's leading thinkers, movers and shakers. Try theoretical physicist Michio Kaku describing the strongest material known to man or astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson discussing
Sir Issac Newton.
Harvard University Press
Videos of authors discussing their theories on math, economics, history and more.
The Library of Congress
Archive footage and contemporary presentations from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Features recordings dating from the earliest Edison films to the present.
YouTube EDU
YouTube hosts a section dedicated to academic videos. Business, math, economics, even videos on the science of cooking.
The Periodic Table of Videos
The University of Nottingham in England produces these videos on each of the elements.
Intelligent Channel
Rich variety of videos, including musicians talking about the social issues about which they sing; historical footage of speeches including Marlon Brando eulogizing 17-year-old Black Panther Bobby Hunt who was killed by police and
Mario Savio on the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley.
UCSF Memory & Aging ChannelVideos on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Includes videos that support caregivers.
National Library of Medicine Channel
Features history of medicine, and exhibitions, including interviews from the current exhibit on Native American health and wellness. Recent video on chemical hazards emergency management.
Videos testimonials of Holocaust survivors as well as interviews with Holocaust scholars, including this
account of the death camps by Eliezer Eizenschmidt.
Issues are summarized into "Three Things to Know…" videos that break down complex international events.
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting's mission is to promote in-depth coverage of international affairs. Recent topics include the water crisis in Africa, the world's over population and the true cost of modern commodities.
Spoken Verse offers more than 400 readings of great poems in English, from Shakespeare to today. The poems are accompanied by text, so that students can read and hear the poem, such as in this example,
Walt Whitman's Oh Captain! My Captain!