Open Educational Resources (OER): Open Textbooks

The Mason OER Metafinder helps you find Open Educational Resources. Unlike other OER discovery sites (e.g, OER Commons, OASIS, MERLOT, OpenStax, etc.) with our Metafinder you aren’t searching a static database that we’ve built. Instead, the OER Metafinder launches a real-time, simultaneous search across 22 different sources of open educational materials as you hit the Search button.

Specifically, the project was asked to create a collection of open textbooks aligned with the top 40 highest-enrolled subject areas in the province. A second phase was announced in the spring of 2014 in which an additional 20 textbooks targeting trades, technology, and skills training would be developed.

Bookboon.com originates from Denmark, out of Ventus Publishing, established in 1988. Ever since it was founded, the company has focused on publishing education related books for business professionals and students. In 2005 the company made a strategic leap and became the first book publishing company in the world to focus 100% on free eBooks...As a global eBook publisher, bookboon.com offers a huge range of over 1000 eBooks in seven languages, directly available to download from the website.

Flat World provides high-quality, affordable college textbooks and an online platform that allows instructors and institutions to personalize content in new ways to help students succeed. The company revolutionized the creation of higher education textbooks, using digital technology to more efficiently and affordably deliver quality content to more than 1 million students, 13,000 faculty, and 2,500 institutions worldwide.

MERLOT has one of the largest collections of open textbooks with thousands of free open textbooks in the collection. As with all MERLOT resources, the textbooks are searchable by topic. Additionally one can use the Advanced Search tool to find open textbooks by audience, format, license, etc.

OASIS offers users worldwide the ability to search a range of OER materials including textbooks, courses and corresponding materials, interactive simulations, public domain books, audiobooks, modules, open access books, videos and podcasts on a variety of topics — from anthropology to zoology. OASIS also is the only tool that allows users to limit searches by creative commons licenses or by faculty review

Worldwide learning network of shared teaching and learning materials made freely available online. Grouped by subject area and grade level (primary through postsecondary)

The Open Course Library is a collection of expertly developed educational materials – including textbooks, syllabi, course activities, readings, and assessments – in 81 high-enrollment college courses. The courses provide faculty with a high-quality, affordable option that will cost students no more than $30 for textbooks. Unless otherwise noted, all materials are shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY) license.

OpenStax College offers students free textbooks that meet scope and sequence requirements for most courses. These are peer-reviewed texts written by professional content developers. Adopt a book today for a turnkey classroom solution or modify it to suit your teaching approach.

Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants. This pilot initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure.

videos can be used as stand-alone informational videos, embedded into your online faculty development materials, used at workshops, and provided to faculty as they begin or continue their online faculty development and online course design activities. They are intended to supplement and enhance campus-based online faculty development and course design resources.

In an effort to reduce costs for students, the College of Education and Human Development has created this catalog of open textbooks to be reviewed by faculty members...Open textbooks are complete textbooks released under a Creative Commons, or similar, license. Instructors can customize open textbooks to fit their course needs by remixing, editing, and adding their own content. Students can access free digital versions or purchase low-cost print copies of open textbooks.