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Browse topics

• Authoring and Publishing Guides
• Tools for Authoring and Publishing
• Forums

Authoring and Publishing Guides

• The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far)
  A “living repository of collective knowledge, written to equip all those who want to publish open textbooks with the resources they need. Representing two years of collaboration, innumerable conversations and exchanges, and a wide range of collective knowledge and experience, the Guide is a book-in-progress and will evolve and grow over time.”
• Authoring Open Textbooks
  “This guide is for faculty authors, librarians, project managers and others who are involved in the production of open textbooks in higher education and K-12. Content includes a checklist for getting started, publishing program case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources and an overview of useful tools.”
• BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide
  Authored by Lauri Aesoph, BCcampus. “The BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide is a reference for individuals or groups wanting to write and self-publish an open textbook.This guide provides details on the preparation, planning, writing, publication, and maintenance of an open textbook. Copyright, open-copyright licences, and the differences between citation and attribution are discussed as well as the importance of copy editing and proofreading. Checklists and templates are also provided. This guide replaces the BCcampus Open Education Authoring Guide.” This site also links to Adaptation Guide and Print-on-Demand Guide.
• A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students
  “A handbook for faculty interested in practicing open pedagogy by involving students in the making of open textbooks, ancillary materials, or other Open Educational Resources. This is a first edition, compiled by Rebus Community, and we welcome feedback and ideas to expand the text.”
• Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know
  “This is a five-step guide for faculty, and those who support faculty, who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types are included.”
• The OER Starter Kit Workbook
  “The OER Starter Kit Workbook is a remix of the OER Starter Kit to include worksheets to help instructors practice the skills they need to confidently find, use, or even create open educational resources (OER)”
• OER Authoring Tools
  Guide of resources compiled by Michele DeSilva, COCC & Amy Hofer, Open Oregon Educational Resources.
• Pressbooks User Guide
• Open Access Journal PublishingResource Index by SPARC
• Open Textbook Adoption Tutorial Five steps to adopting an Open Textbook for a course from Openstax CNX.

Tools for Authoring and Publishing

The list of free to access authoring and publishing tools is not meant to be an exhaustive listing. Some of the tools are free or available only to the CUNY Community.

• Open Author Tool from OER Commons
  Open Author helps you build Open Educational Resources, lesson plans, and courses (on your own, or with others) — and then publish them on OER Commons (powered by ISKME)
• State University of New York SUNY OER. Similar to Author Tool (also powered by ISKME) Services include (1) Tools & a platform for creating a textbook; (2) Consultation on publishing workflow; (3) Community resources for faculty mentors, volunteer editing, & peer review; (4) Print on demand services; and (5) OER sharing platform. The site suggests:
  • Reviewing a OER creation workflow chart to preview what is involved
  • Researching what open texts have already been written in your field.
  • Using finding tools, such as Open Textbook Library; Oasis search; OER Commons.
  • Reaching out to colleagues to collaborate, either as reviewers, or co-authors
• OpenEd CUNY (City University of New York) is similar to SUNY and OER Commons Author Tool (also powered by ISKME). It is a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get online) editor. “Note: Currently, remixing is limited to resources that are created directly in OpenEd CUNY. This means that you can use Our Remix tools for content created with our authoring tools, but not content that is hosted on another site.” Limited type of file import and export.
• Open Educational Resources: OER Authoring Tools (SUNY Empire)
• MERLOT Content builder (similar to the OER Commons authoring tool)
• Manifold (limited editing on the platform; intended for publishing)
  “With iterative texts, powerful annotation tools, rich media support, and robust community dialogue, Manifold transforms scholarly publications into living digital works. This CUNY installation serves as a free publishing platform for the CUNY community and as a repository of open educational resources for teaching and learning.”
• CUNY Academic Commons (for CUNY faculty, staff and students) (powered by WordPress)
• LAGCC ePortfolio (for LAGCC faculty, staff, students)
• CUNY Pressbooks (coming) (Pressbooks is similar to WordPress but tailored for books) (free Pressbooks plan is limited to 5 MB storage and limited export and download formats)
• CUNY Graduate Center LibGuide Digital Tools and Techniques
• LibreTexts Remixer (Chemistry example)
• Hypothesis
  Freely accessible web annotation tool
• H5P
  “Create, share and reuse interactive HTML5 content in your browser”
• TED Ed Lesson Builder
  Build lesson plans around TED talks.
• MyOpenMath “is a free, open source, online course management system for mathematics and other quantitative fields. MyOpenMath’s primary emphasis is to facilitate the creation and implementation of online homework and assessment, although it also supports content delivery on a limited basis. MyOpenMath runs on the open source IMathAS platform, providing free hosted use of this platform in support of free, open textbooks like the ones listed on OpenTextBookStore.com.” Functions include randomizing questions, online tests, and automatic grading. It can be integrated into BlackBoard, Canvas, and other learning management systems.
• WeBWork (supported by MAA and NSF; it is similar to MyOpenMath but must be self-hosted or there is limited hosting for NGOs)​
• OpenOChem (like MyOpenMath but with organic chemistry questions; the 2D editor is based on ChemDoodle and the 3D editor is based on JSmol.)
• Jupyter Book and Notebook open-source web applications allow you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text.
• WIKIBOOKS
• Gitbook (hosted on GitHub) (markdown)
• CK-12 FLEXBOOKS (As of 2.1.2021, there were five college-level books, including Biology and Astrobiology)
• H20 (Harvard, legal textbooks, written in Python)
• LibreOffice (free) (Wordprocessor, Spreadsheet, Slides, Draw) (alternative to Microsoft Office)
• Google Docs and Google Workspace (previously G Suite) (free online version or educational account)

Notes: LAGCC faculty authoring a new textbook found the OpenStax online CNX Legacy Editor very slow to use. The only format that can be downloaded is CNMXL.
Many of the authoring platforms listed above are for creating new contents on or remixing contents that have been authored on the platform.

Forums

• Rebus Community Forum
  “The Rebus Community is developing a new, collaborative process for publishing open textbooks.

Attribution: Most of the resources listed are copied from OER@BCMM.

Textbooks and Lecture Slides

• Chemistry Open Textbooks from BCcampus
  List of seven open textbooks, including Introductory Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry 2.0, Concept Development Studies in Chemistry, Organic Chemistry With a Biological Emphasis – Volumes I & II, and those listed below from OpenStax and Open Textbook Library.
• Chemistry2e (OpenStax)*
  “Chemistry is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the two-semester general chemistry course. The textbook provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of chemistry and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them. The book also includes a number of innovative features, including interactive exercises and real-world applications, designed to enhance student learning.”
• Chemistry: Atoms First (OpenStax)*
  Chemistry: Atoms First (2nd edition) is a peer-reviewed, openly licensed introductory textbook produced through a collaborative publishing partnership between OpenStax and the University of Connecticut and UConn Undergraduate Student Government Association. This title is an adaptation of the OpenStax Chemistry text and covers scope and sequence requirements of the two-semester general chemistry course. Introduces atomic and molecular structure much earlier than the traditional approach, delaying the introduction of more abstract material so students have time to acclimate to the study of chemistry.
• General Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications (Univ. of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Library, 2011) Covers relevant aspects of biological, environmental, and materials science.
• General Chemistry – Wikibook An introduction to the basic concepts of chemistry, including atomic structure and bonding, chemical reactions, and solutions. Other topics covered include gases, thermodynamics, kinetics and equilibrium, thermodynamics, redox, and chemistry of the elements.
• Organic Chemistry – Wikibook This is written by a team of experts and chemistry professors from Cleveland State University and other institutions.
• Organic Chemistry – Michigan State University Written by William Reusch, this virtual textbook allows for visualization of 3D-molecular models while teaching principles of Organic Chemistry.
• General Chemistry 1 and General Chemistry 2 (Open Learning Initiative) (textbook and practice adapted from OpenStax within free course)

*All 33 OpenStax books, including chemistry textbooks, are also available as PressBooks versions at BCcampus and available on OER Commons. There are also adapted OpenStax, Boundless (archived by Lumen Learning) and other chemistry books and anciliaries at LibreTexts.

Homework and Exercises

• Exercises for Openstax Chemistry2e on Libretexts
• MyOpenMath “is a free, open source, online course management system for mathematics and other quantitative fields. MyOpenMath runs on the open source IMathAS platform. Functions include randomizing questions, online tests, and automatic grading. It can be integrated into BlackBoard, Canvas, and other learning management systems

Lab Experiments and Manuals

• Chemistry I (LumenLearning)
• Online Chemistry Lab Manual (Santa Monica College) “This online lab manual was created by the chemistry faculty at SMC. Other institutions wishing to use our labs may do so provided that SMC is acknowledged and that the labs are not sold for profit.”

Interactives, Simulations and Games

• phET Chemistry Interactive Simulations
• Chem Collective
  “The ChemCollective is a collection of virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, tutorials, and concept tests. Teachers can use our content for pre-labs, for alternatives to textbook homework, and for in-class activities for individuals or teams. Students can review and learn chemistry concepts using our virtual labs, simulations, and tutorials. The ChemCollective is organized by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon who are interested in using, assessing, and creating engaging online activities for chemistry education.”

Tests, Quizzes and Assessments

• MyOpenMath

Multimedia and Images

• CC Search or the CC Search Browser extension makes it easy to locate, download and cite images.
• Wikimedia Commons (images, videos, and sounds)

Free to Access Courses, Journals and OER Hubs

• Freshman Organic Chemistry I & II (Open Yale)
• MITOpenCourseware Chemistry
• Chemistry Resources from Khan Academy
• Organic Chemistry – Khan Academy Supplemental videos that cover topics of Organic Chemistry ranging from organic structures, stereochemistry, and carboxylic acids.
• Chemistry OpenStax Ancillaries & Community Hub “Access, develop and share resources created by the OpenStax community that align with OpenStax Chemistry.”
• Chemistry LibreTexts
• General Chemistry 1 and General Chemistry 2 (Open Learning Initiative)
• Wikibooks -Chemistry contains open content textbooks and other learning resources

Other Resources

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine Online and PDFs of different subjects that can be downloaded for free by the chapter or the entire book.

Attribution/Credits

The sources listed above are adapted from:

• Borough of Manhattan Community College Chemistry OER
• Lehman OER LibGuide
• Hunter OER LibGuide

Browse Topics

• Human Subject Research and IRB
• Literature and Systematic Review
• Program and project evaluation
• Research Design
• Data Collection and Analysis
• Datasets
• Funders reports

Human Subject Research and IRB

It is important to consider the extent to which OER related assessments are done as program improvements or qualitative improvement and are not “research” requiring an IRB exemption or approval. Even if the assessment activity is “human subject research”, when data is collected anonymously, the research may fall within the exempt categories 45 CRF 46.101(b)(1) (established educational settings) and (b)(2) (anonymous data collection).

• The CUNY Human Research Protection Program (HRPP)
• HHS.gov Quality Improvement Activities FAQs

Literature and Systematic Review

• Open Education Reader (edited by David Wiley)
• Open Education Group’s The Review Project provides a summary of all known empirical research on the impacts of OER adoption. This is similar to the journal article on empirical research relating to perceptions and efficacy at the college level (Aug. 2019)
• On the Sustainability of Open Educational Resource Initiatives in Higher Education (D Wiley)
• OER Hub publication list of research articles, reports, conference proceedings, and books
• Open to What? A Critical Evaluation of OER Efficacy Studies by Ian McDermott (2020)
• Open Educational Resources open access edition [ala.informz.net] includes six sections — Introduction, Literature Review and Bibliography, Analysis and Discussion of Survey Results, Survey with Results, Resources from Survey Respondents, and Sample Documents. It provides context for OER initiatives in college libraries along with insights and strategies for librarians who are new to the topic, part of an existing OER initiative, or looking to form a program at their institution. (ALA.org)  

CUNY OER and related studies

CUNY OER and related assessments on CUNY Academic Works include:

• But What Do The Students Think: Results of the Cross-Campus Zero-Textbook Cost Student Survey” (2019)
• How Do Open Educational Resources (OERs) Impact Students? A Qualitative Study at New York City College of Technology (2016) (master’s thesis)
• Textbook Evaluation Toolkit (2019)
• Student textbook purchasing: the hidden cost of time” (2019)
• A quantitative analysis of the relationship between an online homework system and student achievement in pre-calculus (for a fee-platform)

Questions to consider in reviewing the literature

1. What is the problem statement? How is the problem, question, or issue framed?
2. Are the students sampled in the studies similar to those at LGACC (Overall, in 2018, 22% Asian, 17% Black, 48% Hispanic, 11% White and 2% Other/Unknown); 55% full-time; 46% part-time; 59% foreign born; 59% received financial aid)? See 2019 Institutional Profile – LaGuardia Community College
3. Is the study at the community college level?
4. What is the sample size/response rate?
5. What is the theory of change? What are the hypotheses? What are the assumptions?
6. What types of OER are included in the study?
7. What disciplines are included?
8. What is the research design? 
9. What/who are the comparison groups, if any?  Is there a controlled group? What comparisons are being made?
10. Has there been a change in learning or teaching? What is/are the change(s)?  Positive, negative, neutral/none?
11. Are the data and instruments available for review?

Program and Project evaluation

• New York Open Educational Resources Funds CUNY OER Year One Report; CUNY OER Year Two Report
• Babson Survey Research Group OER reports on OER awareness and use (annual since 2012)
• OER initiatives may have program evaluations posted or to share. See OER and Textbook Affordability Initiatives (list for North America) or a similar SPARC list
• The Evolution of Affordable Content Efforts in the Higher Education Environment: Programs, Case Studies, and Examples
• Achieve the Dream OER Degree
• MIT 2005 Program Evaluation Findings Report
• Lessons Learned – Adaptive Courseware
• OER at Scale: The Academic and Economic Outcomes of Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative (final report, 2020), 2018 report, and 2017 report.

Research Design

• OER Research Guidebook (PDF, Word, InDesign), COUP Framework
• Do open educational resources improve student learning? Implications of the access hypothesis. (Online, PDF)
  The article recommends surveying students before the intervention to see who did not get the textbook and after to see if their access changed. The study should have an explicit hypothesis about why using OER would result in improved learning outcomes.  Under the authors’ access hypothesis, access — getting the textbook — is the primary mechanism for why there might be improved learning. This assumes that if students get the textbook, they will use it, with the caveat that different types of usage can results in different learning outcomes.

Data Collection and Analysis

• Just-in-Time Diagnostic Skills-Pre-Test, Math Attitudes Inventory short form, and Student Feedback Survey on MyOpenMath. Faculty Guide
• CUNY OER Research Program Assessment Template
• First cross-campus survey of CUNY student opinions on Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) course. Survey instrument is at goo.gl/ZY7ZcG
• The OER Research Toolkit (Open Education Group)
  • Open Education Group Student Survey (based on Bliss et al. (2013))
  • Open Education Group Faculty Survey (based on Bliss et al. (2013))
  • Faculty Survey (Jhangiani, Jhangiani, 2017).
  • OER Hub Student Survey
  • OER Hub Faculty Survey
  • Digital Open Textbook Questionnaire (from Jhangiani, Dastur, Le Grand, & Penner, article currently submitted)
  • Sample Data Collection Template with Definitions
• US Office of Education Technology Research and Innovation
• OER Adoption Impact Calculator (by Lumen Learning and Open Education Group)
• OER Hub survey of 7000 OER users and their perceptions of OER impact on teaching and learning (survey questions, interview questions)
• Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative instructor survey and student survey questions.

Datasets

• First cross-campus survey of CUNY student opinions on Zero Textbook Cost Data (2018 survey data download)
• OER Hub survey of 7000 OER users and their perceptions of OER impact on teaching and learning (Data CVS , xlsx)

Funder Grantmaking and Reports

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

• Open Educational Resources Advancing Widespread Adoption to Improve Instruction and Learning
• OER Technology Assessment
• Grants database

Guides

1. Considerations when Evaluating OER adapted by Lehman College, from Evaluating Resources by Affordable Learning Georgia.
   Consider the following when evaluating the OER:
   • Clarity, Comprehensibility, and Readability
     • Is the content, including any instructions, exercises, or supplemental material, clear and comprehensible to students?
     • Is the content well-categorized in terms of logic, sequencing, and flow?
     • Is the content consistent with its language and key terms?
   • Content Accuracy and Technical Accuracy
     • Is the content accurate based on both your expert knowledge and through external sources?
     • Are there any factual, grammatical, or typographical errors?
     • Is the interface easy to navigate? Are there broken links or obsolete formats?
   • Adaptability and Modularity
     • Is the resource in a file format which allows for adaptations, modifications, rearrangements, and updates?
     • Is the resource easily divided into modules, or sections, which can then be used or rearranged out of their original order?
     • Is the content licensed in a way which allows for adaptations and modifications?
   • Appropriateness
     • Is the content presented at a reading level appropriate for higher education students?
     • How is the content useful for instructors or students?
     • Is the content itself appropriate for higher education?
   • Accessibility
     • Is the content accessible to students with disabilities through the compatibility of third-party reading applications?
     • If you are using Web resources, does each image have alternate text that can be read?
     • Do videos have accurate closed-captioning?
     • Are students able to access the materials in a quick, non-restrictive manner?
     • See CUNY Accessibility page for more details.
   • Supplementary Resources
     • Does the OER contain any supplementary materials, such as homework resources, study guides, tutorials, or assessments?
     • Have you reviewed these supplementary resources in the same manner as the original OER?
2. Evaluating an Open Textbook for Faculty from the BC Campus Adaption Guide, citing Open Oregon Educational Resources checklists for faculty, students and administrators.
3. Checklist for Evaluating OER by Austin Community College
4. Identifying, Finding, and Adopting OER, by SUNY OER Services
5. OER Assessment Rubric
6. Rubrics for Evaluating Open Education Resources Objects
7. Evaluation and Selection Criteria for OER (Zhadko, O. & Ko, S. (2019)).
8. Rating the Quality of Open Textbooks: How Reviewer and Text Characteristics Predict Ratings

The websites below are general to specific sources for finding open educational resources (OER). Discipline specific sources are at Biology OER, Chemistry OER, and Physics and Astronomy OER.  Visit Resources for overview of sources for finding OER and other topics, such as creating contents, copyright, and accessibility.

• Search Engines and Curated Indexes
• Textbook and Ancillary Resource Portals
• Institutional Repositories
• Curated OER LibGuides

Search Engines and Curated Indexes

The OER oriented search engines typically produce similar results, and results often have duplicates and cross-postings.

• Google Advanced Search. How to find Creative Commons materials using Google (PDF). Click on Google Advanced Search button. Enter the search term. Go to the usage rights field (located under Then narrow your results by…), and select the appropriate filter in the drop-down.
• The California State University MERLOT search aggregator (or meta search engine) enables “access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools”. Search the MERLOT Collection, over 50 other digital OER libraries, and the entire Web for online learning materials.  Filter by Material type (Textbook, Simulation, etc), Audience (educational level), and Quality (peer-reviewed, award winning), and Format. Browse using the Discipline Index. For details visit MERLOT help.
• Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search aggregator that searches 98 sources including those listed on this page (10/19/19).  It was created by librarians at SUNY College at Geneseo and the sources are curated by a librarian. Browse and search All or by Title, Author, Subject, Source and Link. Filter by Material Type, Subject, License and Review. 
• Mason OER Metafinder is a search aggregator that launches a real-time, search across 21 different sources.  Search All or by title, keywords, author, and date range.  Filter results by Type, and Publisher.  Sources include: American Memory (Library of Congress) ; AMSER – Applied Math and Science Education Repository ; BC Campus:Open Ed ; Digital Public Library of America ; Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) ; HathiTrust – Full View ;JSTOR Open Access books ; Merlot.Org ;MIT OpenCourseware ; OAOpen.org ; OASIS ; OER Commons ; OERs at Internet Archive ;Open Textbook Library ; OpenStax CNX; Project Gutenberg ; The New York Public Library Digital Collections ; and World Digital Library . 
• OpenEd CUNY is a City University of New York (CUNY) librarian curated digital library of open educational resources.  Register/Join.  Find. Contribute. Create (OER Author tool). Connect.  Can search and filter by subject (e.g. physical science, life science), material type and educational level. This is like State University of New York (SUNY) Open Textbook, or OER SUNY, in having an on-line tool for creating OER resources. This search engine is different from the others in designating the course number in which it can be used. STEM resources on CUNY OpenEd
• Borough of Manhattan Community College Links to OER Stem Resources
• OER repositories by Community College Consortium on Open Educational Resources.

Textbook and Ancillary Resource Portals

Many of the following sites are based on project or grant funding and their collections may be limited. They may also have a platform for authoring, adapting, remixing and changing textbooks and other material types.

• Open Textbook Library (University of Minnesota) includes OER textbooks that have been reviewed for quality by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities
• Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries. This initiative published high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure.
• Lumen Learning offers individualized learning experiences and creates digital course materials that replace expensive textbooks in high-enrollment college courses and save students millions every term.  Candela (ebooks and curated learning materials-$10/enrolled student (ER) as of 10/19/19), Waymaker ($25/ER), and OHM (Lumen Online Homework Manager $25/ER)
• Open NYS is a collaboration between CUNY and SUNY to showcase and support the use of Open Educational Resources.
• OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum. They have the OER Author tool that CUNY customized for OpenEd CUNY .
• Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative provides dozens of college-level courses, and a platform that enables research and experimentation with any aspect of the learning experience.
• OpenStax: A nonprofit educational initiative based at Rice University. Their mission is to give every student the tools they need to be successful in the classroom
• CK-12: Provide support primarily for K-12 but also has some free digital College Flexbooks.
• MyOpenMath is a “free, open source, online course management system for mathematics and other quantitative fields. MyOpenMath’s primary emphasis is to facilitate the creation and implementation of online homework and assessment, although it also supports content delivery on a limited basis. MyOpenMath runs on the open source IMathAS platform, providing free hosted use of this platform in support of free, open textbooks like the ones listed on OpenTextBookStore.com.” MyOpenMath can be integrated into BlackBoard.

Institutional Repositories

Many academic institutions have online repositories for storing, finding, and downloading works authored by their faculty, students and staff. Not all the works have an open license. At CUNY, works that are OER have been tagged and can be browsed and searched.

• CUNY Academic Works institutional repository (archives) provides public access to the scholarly and creative work of CUNY.  The Open Educational Resources series collects instructional materials — from textbooks to syllabi — created by the CUNY community.
• Digital commons Network gives free access to full-text scholarly articles and other research from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide.

Curated OER LibGuides

There are many curated OER and Open Access (OA) library guides (LibGuides). Below are STEM-related guides curated by librarians within the CUNY colleges.

• OER@BMCC (Borough of Manhattan Community College)
• LAGCC OER and OA as part of Scholarly Communications Guide for Faculty
  Links to Lehman OER Search LibGuide, OASIS, and other finding tools
• Lehman OER and OA
  LibGuide include guides for OER/OA Overview, Searching OER Collections, OER by Discipline, Evaluating OER, Developing OER, Creative Commons, Library Resources, Accessibility, Copyright and Fair Use, Images & Video, and Student Perspective on OER
• Hunter OER Includes sites to find and create OER
• Brooklyn College OER Guide for Faculty
• CUNY OER

This glossary is intended to identify and distinguish some key concepts or terms associated with open educational resources (OER). There are considerable overlaps among the concepts below. The concepts share a philosophy of “open” that is best understood as a continuum or journey of ideas, values and practices without any one defined stopping point. The glossary is under development and there will be additional refinement and concepts.

• Fair Use
• Free Culture
• Open Access (OA)
• Open Data
• Open Education and Open Pedagogy
• Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Content
• Open Format
• Open Movement
• Open Research, Open Scholarship, and Open Science
• Open Source
• Access versus Accommodation

Fair Use

Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.  Section 107 calls for consideration of the following four factors in evaluating a question of fair use:

• Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• Nature of the copyrighted work;
• Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
• Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

In addition to the above, other factors may also be considered by a court in weighing a fair use question, depending upon the circumstances.

The above definition is an extract from Copyright.gov More Information on Fair Use.

Free culture

To be posted.

Open Access (OA)

Open Access grew from the 2002 Budapest Open Access Initiative and is often associated with free access to scholarly research, open access journals and publications (peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed), and other communications, including theses, conference reports, and manuscripts. Open Access scholarship refers to scholarly literature that can be accessed for free, such as through Open Access Journals and Institutional Repositories. Open access also includes open access to law and legal information, open data repositories, and open source repository software and platforms.

Free access does not necessarily mean that the user has the right to modify and make derived works. An open license, such as the Creative Commons “0” or “BY” license, ensures that the content is free to use, copy, modify, translate, publish, perform and disseminate. Open access contents, tools and resources with an open license, used in educational settings, are often referred to as open educational resources.

Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Content

As defined by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 2002, 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. They include textbooks, homework, lectures, quizzes, tests, lesson plans, syllabi, software, videos, plays, simulations, games, images, blogs, journals, music, podcasts, courseware, websites, learning management system (LMS), and massive open online courses. The US Office of Education Technology uses the term openly licensed educational resources.

Ancillary materials is term that is being used to denote resources, services, and materials developed by textbook publishers to enhance student learning and increase the value of the textbook.   Ancillary open materials could include multimedia CD-ROMs, special websites, online course, learning and homework management systems, exercises, Internet study guides, and Internet tutorial quizzes. Because ancillary materials also has a different meaning in studying cells, it might be less confusing to avoid this collective term and refer to specific types of learning material.

Open Format

“An open format is a file format for storing digital data, defined by a published specification usually maintained by a standards organization, and which can be used and implemented by anyone. For example, an open format can be implemented by both proprietary and free and open-source software, using the typical software licenses used by each. In contrast to open formats, closed formats are considered trade secrets.” (Wikipedia)

Open Movement

A range of ‘open’ philosophies and models have emerged with different drivers and motivations, including sharing freely; free culture; making higher education affordable and reducing rising textbook costs; promoting economic efficiencies along with equity; and improving access to wide groups of stakeholders. Some of the ‘open” movements include Open source, Open Science, Open source software, Open pedagogy and Open educational resources.

Open Research, Open Scholarship, and Open Science

Open Research, Open Scholarship, Open Science and similar terms have been used to promote access to the research life-cycle inputs and outputs, including data, data collection instruments, code books, software, and publications, from all scholarly disciplines. Visit Foster Open Science for a mapping of Open Science and resources and the related Open Science Training Handbook. More open scholarship concepts are at Open Research Glossary.

Open Source

Open Source refers to free access to the source code. Open source software has an open license that includes the source code, permits free redistribution, allows for modifications and derived works, does not discriminate against persons or groups or type of use, and is technology-neutral.

Access versus Accommodation

Access

When we use the term ‘access’ when talking about people with disabilities, we’re using it just as we do in any other context – the ability to retrieve, use, benefit from something. Specifically, the ability to access something independently or without needing to ask for a modification or alternative format. For example, making sure a blind person can navigate a website without the help of a sighted person.

Accommodation

The term accommodation refers to making a modification for someone to gain access. Accommodations are made when a user is unable to access material without additional assistance. However, this doesn’t mean that if a student needs accommodations your course is not accessible. There are cases where a student will need accommodations regardless of the work you’ve put into your course (the changes you’ve made will not necessarily eliminate the extra time it takes to complete a quiz with a screen reader or without the use of a mouse – that extended time accommodation is still important). 

Attribution/Credits

The definitions are adapted from the following sources:

• Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates (ICAS) OER Glossary
• Jisc Open educational Resources Guide
• Wikipedia entries for open science, open access, open data, open source, free culture movement, open format
• Peter Suber Open Access Overview
• Foster Open Science Toolkit
• Open Source Initiative
• UNESCO OER
• US Office of Technology Open Education
• Open Pedagogy at CUNY Graduate Center
• Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER)
• An Open Education Reader
• Difference between Access and Accommodation, Accessibility 101: STEM Edition by Krista Greear and Jess Thompson, Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges (Links to an external site.) is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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Draft OER Lab Manuals that are being developed may be posted here for comments. Commenting is currently disabled. Please send comments and suggestions to (email to be posted).

Lab Manual Templates

Templates that are designed using accessibility best practices may be posted here.

Lab Manual Drafts

LAB-MANUAL-TEST