The world of Open Educational Resources is exploding as educators work to make college more affordable. Experienced instructors are sharing their creative content with others who can adopt and adapt free online materials to suit their own courses. Here are a few samples of OER repositories and free textbooks for possible use in courses offered at NMC.
Intermediate Algebra: Developed by the Math faculty at Scottsdale Community College and used by thousands of students. College Open Textbooks repository features this textbook as a “best-in-class” example of a high quality OER.
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Vol. I: Compiled by Charlie Lowe, Grand Valley State University and Pavel Zemliansky, James Madison University, this collection of readings is available as a free PDF, a file formatted for e-readers for $16 or a printed paperback for $23.
Human Anatomy: This is a full course using videos from the Khan Academy, University of California-Berkeley Professor Marian Diamond’s General Human Anatomy, labelling exercises from McGraw-Hill’s Online Learning Center, and readings from Bartleby.com’s version of Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body.
History in the Making: A History of the People of the United States of America to 1877: Developed by professors at the University of Georgia, this textbook has undergone a double blind peer review process in order to ensure its quality and academic integrity. Available in PDF or epub formats.
- Open Michigan, the University of Michigan’s OER repository:
Shakespeare’s Principal Plays: Including links to downloadable, free copies of the plays and the recorded lectures of Prof. Ralph Williams, a longtime University of Michigan teacher.
Searching for OERs to suit your courses can be very time-consuming. As more colleges and universities become involved, and the volume and variety of OERs grow, trying to locate a textbook for your course(s) can be overwhelming. Librarians can team up with individual instructors to help find and curate online materials so that you, NMC faculty, can use your time evaluating and adapting them to fit your courses.
If you would like us to explore textbook options for one of your courses, contact me or your Library Liaison. We are here to help you!