Page 39 - Campus Technology, May/June 2019

What we like: This project has drawn contribu- tions from instructors in 29 of Georgia’s institu- tions — almost 16 percent of the state’s total.
NOBA
This project specializes in a single topic — psy- chology — but, oh, how much there is to say (105 modules’ worth). Psychologists from around the world have developed the content, which is avail- able in textbook format and can be customized from there by the instructor.
What we like: Unlike the jammed OER sites that try to cover it all, the single-minded focus of this resource makes finding relevant content almost therapeutic.
OER Commons
Among the 51,000 OER resources referenced on this site, higher ed-specific textbooks num- ber about 1,350, including content from pro- fessional associations, science centers and the government.
What we like: The organization offers “hubs” where a network of users can create and share branded collections pulled from OER Commons. For example, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education set up its own National Science Digital Library, specifically to emphasize STEM.
Open SUNY Textbooks
The 23 textbooks provided here were all written and curated by faculty from the State Universi- ty of New York. A statistics page shares running tallies for each title by format (PDF vs. epub). So far, the most popular book is titled, The Missing Link: An Introduction to Web Development and Programming, downloaded an average of 289 times a day.
What we like: You don’t come across many textbooks on making movies, but you will in the SUNY set.
Open Textbook Library
To be included in this collection, overseen by
FINDING AN
OER COMMUNITY
These organizations have made it their business to help members understand how to work with OER in the classroom:
Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, a community of practice that offers webinars, conferences and an active community e-mail list, to raise awareness of open education and its benefits.
LibOER, an online and phone discussion group of library professionals working with open education, hosted by SPARC.
Open Education Consortium, a global network for open education, which helps organize an annual event each year in early March to raise awareness and showcase the impact of OER on teaching and learning.
Rebus Community, a global community of open textbook creators that allows people to start their own projects or contribute to others.
SEARCHING FOR
OPEN LICENSED CONTENT
Wondering how to search in Google for content that uses an open license? Easy! Follow these three steps:
1) Do a search in Google on the topic you’re trying to hunt down.
2) In the results page, choose Settings | Advanced search.
3) Scroll down to “usage rights” and pick one of the “free to use” options, depending on your needs.
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