Library Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): OER

What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium -- digital or otherwise -- that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions." OER range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio/video and animation. ~ UNESCO

OER Info at Minnesota State

OER Community Sharepoint Site - Minnesota State
The OER Community Sharepoint Site for Minnesota State offers information on OER for the classroom and allows collaboration on files, discussions, events, and more.
Opendora
Digital repository for Minnesota State faculty to upload and share Creative Commons-licensed OER. Opendora allows for storage and linking to textbooks, lecture notes, syllabi, videos, and more.

State and National OER Repositories

Minnesota OER Commons
Providing support for educators and curriculum experts, this repository of Open Educational Resources includes open textbooks, interactive lessons, courses, lectures and more.
University of Minnesota Libraries Open Textbooks (Published by U of MN)
Openly licensed textbooks on a number of subjects, produced by University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.
University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library
Open textbooks, hosted by the University of Minnesota, that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost, or printed at low cost. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions; or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.
OpenStax
OpenStax is a nonprofit educational initiative that publishes peer-reviewed, openly licensed, free college textbooks.
OASIS
Developed at SUNY Geneseo, Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a tool that searches open content from 87 different sources.
Merlot II
A program of California State University, this international repository of open educational resources and textbooks is available to a wide audience range, including lower-division college materials.
LibreTexts
Initiated by the University of California, Davis, this open textbook project covers twelve disciplines ranging from chemistry to humanities. Also includes supplemental learning resources.
Directory of Open Access Journals
Community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
JSTOR Open Content
Open academic content from JSTOR, includes open access book chapters and journal articles.

Minnesota State Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines

These are the official Copyright Guidelines for Minnesota State employees: https://www.minnstate.edu/system/asa/academicaffairs/policy/copyright/guidelines.html

The Copyright Guidelines site includes information on:

Copying books and periodicals
Use of music materials
Performance of copyrighted works
Use of computer software and other electronic works
Use of trademarks
Determining Fair Use
The TEACH Act
Obtaining Permissions

If you need to seek permission from the Copyright Clearance Center to use an article or book chapter in D2L or in a class, please see the Inver Hills bookstore. They have the Copyright Clearance account on campus.

For additional information regarding copyright for specific materials, please see the Minnesota State IP/Copyright Tools and Forms page: https://www.minnstate.edu/system/asa/academicaffairs/policy/copyright/forms.html