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Open Educational Textbooks
Open Educational Resources (OERs) 'are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them' (UNESCO 2017).
University textbooks can be expensive for students to purchase, and Open Educational Resources (OER) might be part of the solution. The Hewlett Foundation defines open educational resources as “high-quality teaching, learning, and research materials that are free for people everywhere to use and repurpose.” They are digital, openly-licensed textbooks made available for free online, potentially saving students hundreds of dollars each year.
This Guide provides information and discipline examples of textbooks. Refer to the Open Educational Resources Library Guide for information on:
OER Texts on the Web
On the web OER textbook material is organised in:
- These are collections of material from many sources and publishers. Repositories are searchable and material is either accessed directly from that repository or a link is followed to a different platform or website to access the material.
- Some repositories contain material which has been created in response to the OER movement such as 'Open Textbook Library' and 'The Orange Grove'
- Other repositories contain material which may have been originally in print but now 'open' such as 'Project Gutenberg' and 'JSTOR'
- These are collection provided by an individual organisation, sometimes linked to an academic organisation, and usually provide consistent re-use information
- Examples are 'OpenStax' and 'OpenSuny Textbooks' and University Presses.
- While some may debate these are similar to repositories, the OER area is an evolving field with systems adapting and like-content being located from various entry-points
- Individual websites
- These can be organisations such as 'JSTOR' or individual authors.
College & Discipline Librarians
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College of Arts & Education
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Victoria University Business School
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College of Engineering & Science
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College of Health & Biomedicine
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College of Law & Justice
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College of Sport & Exercise Science
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