Quick Start!

Open Educational Resources Adoption – Quick Start

Step 1:  Explore Open Educational Resources (OER)

Step 2:  Review and Select OERs that suit your course

Step 3: Customize your selected OERs as needed

Step 4:  Share OERs with  your Students

Step 1:  Explore Open Educational Resources (OER)

There are many Open Educational Resources for your courses and the list is always growing. You may not find an all-in-one textbook, however, expand your search to locate various open resources for the specific content of your course. 

Tip: Searching for these materials takes time and persistence, just like research!

Start your search for OER Resources!

Step 2:  Review and Select OERs that suit your course

As you search for open educational resources in repositories, consider what criteria you will use to select appropriate open resources your course.
Tips: 

  1. Take a look to see if someone else has created a similar, complete OER course or textbook.
    Example: Go to the OpenStax and browse their open textbooks.
  2.  Let your learning objectives be your guide.
    Instead of focusing on the textbook that you would like to replace, focus on what you would like students to 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 concepts “cell structure” or “DNA” or “evolution” materials.
  3. Check for feedback, reviews, or endorsements of open textbooks and OER by your discipline community.  
  4. Not finding what you’re looking for? Ask your OER Team.

Need 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:

Step 3:  Customize your Selected OERs as needed

Few existing open educational resources will meet all your instructional needs so you may want to customize the open resources you have selected. 

Consider the following ways you may want to modify the open resources to make it more appropriate for your teaching style:

  • Combine two or more open OERs.
  • Rearrange the content in the open resource.
  • Add glossaries, hyperlinks, and test bank.
  • Make edits to improve accuracy and currency.
  • Make the content usable by students with visual impairment.

If you are ready to take the next step and develop your own OER, contact the OER Team.

Step 4:  Share OERs with Your Students

Share your OERs in either digital or print format with students in your course.  Be sure to give your students clear instructions about appropriate use of printing services on your campus. Try to coordinate with the student computer labs, library, bookstore, and printshop on your campus.

Do-It-Yourself

  1. Post the website address or document file to Canvas.
  2. Email the website address of the open educational resource to your students.
  3. Download the open educational resource as a file (e.g., Word, Open Office, PDF).  Email the file to your enrolled students.  

If the Word document file or PDF is too large to email or post, use a free online file storage, file sharing service, or Canvas Learning Management System.

Students can download and print the Word document file, PDF, or  website contents.

Campus Printing Services (SkyGAP)

  • Create a file (e.g., Word, Open Office, PDF) of the open educational resource that you have selected.
  • Email the file to a SkyGAP per their specifications.