Library Guides: Library Services for Faculty: Using & Adapting

Yes it's text heavy!

Sorry for the overwhelming amount of text, but this page is really for you to zero in on some sources to explore. Listing the options was the most economical way to highlight.

Many of the repositories have all media types, while others are medium-specific.

There are also two tools highlighted for you to either create or adapt existing OER. It's easier than you think!

Figure out where you would like to start e.g., an open textbook for your course, images to complement a presentation, etc. and explore a few resources appropriate for your needs.

If you find the sources overwhelming, connect with your Librarian, to help narrow your search.

Finding and adopting OER

With OER newer in terms of information sharing, disciplines are represented differently in the OER landscape. When OER were first authored, creators went for high impact. They chose to open resources used in high enrollment courses that traditionally had high cost course resources. For example, Introduction to Psychology, Sociology Fundamentals, and Professional Communications are well represented, while more niche courses may not high representation within OER. These areas are ripe for OER creation!

The main repositories are listed below.

OER Toolkit
This toolkit from The Learning Portal provides information and tools to help faculty and library staff across all publicly funded colleges in Ontario to understand, engage with, and sustain OER in their work and practice.
OER Commons
OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum.
Supported in part by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, ISKME, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, created OER Commons as part of the Foundation’s worldwide OER initiative.
OASIS
Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 97 different sources.
OASIS was developed, and continues to be maintained, at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library.
MERLOT
The MERLOT project began in 1997, when the California State University Center for Distributed Learning (CSU-CDL at www.cdl.edu) developed and provided free access to MERLOT.
It has continued to grow and evolve with evaluation standards and peer review processes in place for the last two decades.
While still overseen by CSU, it is now more of a cooperative, relying on institutional partners for its continuing growth and improvement.
Make sure to limit to Creative Commons licensed material!

Looking for openly licensed images? These visually-specific sites are a good start.

Flickr
An online photo management and sharing application. It allows both amateur and professional artists to better organize and share their work. Make sure to filter for Creative Commons licensed images!
Pixabay

A vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under the Pixabay License (CC0), which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
A nice feature is the ability to support the creators by the "coffee" button.

Need to add music? These are a few sites offering Creative Commons-licensed music.

BenSound
Bensound provides access to a variety of royalty-free music for video creation.
Free Music Archive
Founded in The Netherlands in 2008 Tribe of Noise is a true musician-centric community and 'music for business' service company. Main objective: Creating fair and sustainable business opportunities for talented artists. Over 34,000 Tribe composers, singer songwriters, producers and performing artists from 194 countries are part of the Tribe of Noise online community.
Icons8
Previously Fugue Music. Icons8 offers other material as well and naturally specializes in icons.
Skills Commons
The US Department of Labor created a free and open online library called SkillsCommons containing OER for job-driven workforce development. The $1.9 billion investment by the US Department of Labor produced a comprehensive collection of workforce-related Open Educational Resources (OER) created by over 700 community colleges across the nation.

Adapting & Creating OER

An advantage to OER is their ability to be adapted and remixed. An existing OER, that is almost spot on, can be modified to suit your teaching and learning needs. Whether it is adding Canadian content, updating for currency, or adding multimedia for UDL, you can custom an OER for your course.

H5P Studio
Established open source tool that allows you to easily create dozens of interactions e.g., drag and drops, quizzes, fill in the blanks, eCampusOntario with Laurier University Library collaborated to repackage H5P into a freely accessible tool for Ontario educators.
Use the link to register for your free account.
Check out h5p.org to preview different examples and demos of the 43 (and counting) options to engage learners.
Pressbooks EDU
The preferred platform to create and share for Ontario educators, Pressbooks, based on WordPress, is an easy-to-use platform for creation and adaptation. Ontario's Open Library stems from Pressbooks and its potential.
Thanks to the Open Publishing Infrastructure Project, a joint effort between eCampusOntario, and Ryerson University, the library is now integrated with publishing infrastructure, allowing for the easy creation or adaption of OER. eCampusOntario has also supported enhancements to the PressbooksEDU platform, including the integration of H5P interactive content, version tracking, and cloning support.