Recommended starting points if you are looking for complete open textbooks or courses that could allow you to replace your current textbook. Most resources you'll find through these sources are well curated, but if you are looking for a tool to help you review OER, check out this rubric from Cool4ed or this simpler checklist from BC OER.
ASCCC Open Educational Resource Initiative (OERI)
- By and for California Community College faculty
- Curated lists of quality course texts being used in the CCC system, organized by:
- See also their list of additional OER repositories and resources
- Sponsored by Rice University
- Over 30+ textbooks primarily in math, natural sciences, and social sciences
- Peer reviewed, openly licensed, 100% free for digital; texts can be printed and/or provided in a quality print version for nominal cost.
- CCC OEI has produced a Canvas course shell for each OpenStax text, incorporating the text and including quiz questions and other ancillary resources. From Canvas Commons, search “CCC OEI” to view and download those shells.
Cool4ed.org - California Open Online Library for Education
- Joint project of the CSU, UC, and CCC systems of public higher ed in CA
- Includes links to multiple open textbooks identified for the 52 most-enrolled courses common across the CSU, UC, and CCC, along with reviews from faculty from each of the systems and a comprehensive accessibility review
- Also includes subject-specific links into the MERLOT referatory (which is worth exploring in its own right)
- Comprehensive sets of open course materials (readings, activities, and other resources) across dozens of courses
- Lumen offers free "office hours" to discuss OER and Lumen's resources at a time of your choosing
- OER search engine created by SUNY
- May be most useful to start with the subject-specific resources area
- Repository of custom-developed texts and class activities/exercises available for reuse and adaptation. LibreTexts also provides authoring tools for creating interactive activities and assessments. California Community College faculty have free access to these resources.
Carnegie-Mellon Open Learning Initiative
- 27 courses built with extensive research on sophisticated personalized learning tools. Many are aimed at the introductory community college level.
- Open resources supporting workforce education/career training, developed through the federal TAACCCT grant program.
- Few “textbooks” but lots of other course materials and resources.
- Can be a bit difficult to navigate/search but for Career Technical Education classes that have little to no OER through the typical sites, this can be a very useful resource.
Other state/provincial Open Ed project sites for discovering course materials:
- University of Minnesota’s Open Text Network
- BC Campus Open Ed
- Washington Open Course Library
- Open Oregon Resources
- Complete open courses arranged by subject
- Search by subject for full OER course resources across a number of different source sites
Do you have suggestions for other resources that you think belong here? Please contact Jim Julius.
If you couldn't find a complete text replacement for your course, maybe you can find some more granular OER content that you can use for portions of your class.
