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Open Educational Resources (OER): Search for OER

Find and learn about Open Educational Resources (OER)!

Find OER

Explore OER available from a variety of sources. This section will be regularly updated, so please check back. 

OpenLearn courses--The Open University

  • "Welcome to OpenLearn - the home of free learning from The Open University. Are you looking for a new topic to explore, or wanting to dig deeper into something you've already discovered? Whether it’s a 60-second animated video or a 24-hour course you are after, you will find it on OpenLearn for free." --From the About Us page, updated Friday 25th October 2019

Open Yale Courses

  • Each course includes a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video accompanied by other course materials. such as, syllabi, suggested readings, exams, and problem sets..

Open Catalog from New York State (SUNY and CUNY)

Open SUNY courses

Open Course Library

Open Michigan

  • A collection of open educational resources (OER) from University of Michigan

MIT OpenCourseWare

  • More than 2400 courses available

Open Learning Initiative from Carnegie Mellon

  • Offers innovative online courses to anyone who wants to learn or teach

OpenLearn

  • OpenLearn aims to break the barriers to education by reaching millions of learners around the world, providing free educational resources and inviting all to sample courses that our registered students take – for free!

Saylor Academy

Lumen Learning

OER Commons

  • Search, browse, and evaluate resources in OER Commons' growing collection of over 50,000 high-quality OER. Includes full courses, mini-lessons, textbooks, and more.

OER: Used in Various Colleges & Universities

  • This extensive, organized list is provided by Lake Tahoe Community College.

OASIS

OAPEN Platform

OER Metafinder

  • Simultaneously search OER repositories

MERLOT

  • Consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections, all intended to enhance the teaching experience of using a learning material.

Internet Archive

Hathitrust Digital Library

Library of Congress: Free to Use and Reuse Sets

VALUE Rubrics

  • "VALUE rubrics are open educational resources (OER) that enable educators to assess students’ original work. AAC&U offers a proven methodology for applying the VALUE rubrics to evaluate student performance reliably and verifiably across sixteen broad, cross-cutting learning outcomes."

Calculus Online Textbook

  • This link includes the textbook, an instructor's manual, and a student study guide

Linear Algebra

Developmental Math Emporium--Lumen Learning

  • "This course is designed to be used as a solution for schools who would like to offer an emporium style course that covers the developmental math series. As a Waymaker course, Developmental Math Emporium provides plenty of structure for students around the process of studying and mastering learning outcomes. It can be implemented as an emporium style lab course, a self-paced online course, or to help determine placement of a student. The course includes embedded algorithmically generated practice questions, worked-example videos, and a complete set of outcome aligned online assessments."

MyOpenMath

OER Commons-Mathematics Textbooks and Full Courses

American Institute of Mathematics: Approved Open Textbooks List

Math Aids

  • Math-Aids.Com provides free math worksheets that are randomly and dynamically generated by our math worksheet generators. This allows you to make an unlimited number of printable math worksheets to your specifications instantly.

Math for Liberal Arts

Math in Society-Liberal Arts Math Text

College Algebra, PreCalc, and Trigonometry Texts

Apex Calculus Text

STEM Resource Finder

  • Interactive STEM activities,free for your classroom

Open Textbook Store: Mathematics

Math Simulations

Project Gutenberg

Writing for Success (open text)

The Simple Math of Writing Well: Writing for the 21st Century

Writing Guide with Handbook (OpenStax)

English Composition I -- Lumen Learning

English: Open Educational Resource from IRSC

Writing Commons

Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence

Literary Studies-Cornell Open

Open English Foundations Handbook (NROC)

Writing Skills Lab-Lumen Learning

  • "The Writing Skills Lab was developed in collaboration with faculty from the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi. It focuses on the rhetorical content and strategies that are the baseline of effective college writing but also tend to give students trouble (and eat into valuable class time). The skills lab gives students a way to master these concepts and skills in small bites, through practice opportunities and targeted feedback. Instructors can have students work through the material at their own pace or assign portions that align with what they’re covering in class."

Amherst College Digital Collection: Emily Dickinson Collection

College Success Skills

College Success-Saylor.org

First Year Seminar-Georgia Tech (textbook)

A Different Road to College: A Guide For Transitioning To College For Non-traditional Students (OER text)

Effective Learning Strategies (Austin Community College)

Blueprint for Success in College and Career

College Success-Lumen Learning

  • "This course provides new students with an orientation to the college environment. It works to build more capable lifelong learners by combining conceptual knowledge with practical strategies and skills. With engaging content and a focus on applying course concepts to real-world situations, College Success is particularly helpful for first-generation students and those entering college underprepared, academically or otherwise."

Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers (OER text)

OpenStax Psychology Text

NOBA Project-Intro to Psychology and more

Open Textbook Library-Psychology Texts

OpenStax Sociology Text

Open Textbook Library-Sociology Texts

Saylor Academy Psych 101

Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices

Psychology Course-Lumen Learning

Lifespan Development-Lumen Learning

  • "Lifespan Development examines the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes that occur throughout a lifetime. This course covers the essentials in understanding human development, psychological research, and theories of growth and development. Students will come to understand the lifespan perspective and to analyze growth through each of the major stages of development: prenatal development, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood (including emerging adulthood), middle adulthood, and late adulthood. The course covers key topics in each of these stages, including major developmental theories, genetics, attachment, education, learning, disabilities, parenting, family life, moral development, illnesses, aging, generativity, and attitudes towards death and dying."

Introduction to Psychology-Lumen Learning

  • "This comprehensive, ready-to-adopt Introduction to Psychology course provides thorough coverage of all topics covered in a typical introductory course, including biological psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, social and personality psychology, and mental and physical health."

Abnormal Psychology-Lumen Learning

  • "This comprehensive, ready-to-adopt Abnormal Psychology course provides thorough coverage of topics from The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, including 2022 updates from the DSM-5-TR. Students learn about all of the major psychological disorders and examine the etiology, epidemiology, and treatment methods related to each. The course includes frequent examples, case studies, videos, and practice opportunities to foster application and critical thinking."

Psychology Videos (Hawkes Learning)

United States History I--Lumen Learning

  • "This Lumen Learning Waymaker U.S. History course aims to help students think critically about history and use historical thinking skills to describe, compare, contextualize, and construct historical arguments about major events in American history through 1877, from the European settling of the Americas to the Reconstruction Era."

United States History II--Lumen Learning

  • "This Lumen Learning Waymaker U.S. History course aims to help students use historical thinking skills to describe, compare, contextualize, and construct historical arguments about major events in American history from 1877 to the present day. The course covers the chronological history of the United States from Reconstruction through the beginning of the twenty-first century and introduces key forces and major developments that together form the U.S. experience. It provides a balanced approach that considers the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top-down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom-up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience), with particular attention paid to issues of race, class, and gender."

Open Textbook Library-Law Texts

Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System (textbook)

Introduction to Criminal Investigation: Processes, Practices and Thinking

CRIMJ 100

  • “Welcome to the First Edition of an OER textbook for Penn State's CRIMJ 100 Course. This text was developed with the assistance of an Affordable Course Transformation grant from The Pennsylvania State University.”

Criminal Justice—Simple Book Publishing

  • “Funded by Achieving the Dream, this text covers Corrections, Criminal Justice Systems and Processes, Research Methods, Theories of Behavior/Punishment, Justice and the Law, Policing, Courts, and Sentencing.”

Criminology—Simple Book Publishing

  • “This text includes considerations of subcultures, gender, fear, surveillance, corporate crime, the war on terror, and poverty.”

Communications in Law Enforcement and the Criminal Justice System

  • “The ability to communicate is critical to those who work in law enforcement. This book will examine the key principles of communication personnel in law enforcement require. Areas covered include listening skills, communicating tactics, interviewing skills, note-taking, report writing and testifying in court. Also covered is a section on PTSD and its interaction with law enforcement. Key here is that police officers should understand the relationship between PTSD and the need to communicate with others in seeking help and assistance. The book concludes with a section on the history of women in policing. It is the belief of the authors of this book, that women have played an enormous role in developing the communication within policing and have advanced the narrative of a more inclusive approach to communication.”

Hidden Evidence: Forensic Crime Scene Simulation

  • “In this simulation, students will role-play as investigators at the scene of a crime to uncover the importance of appropriate crime scene processing. They will make decisions regarding the area to be investigated, the equipment they will require, and how to document and collect potential evidence.”

Criminal Justice Statistics: A Lab Manual

  • “In this lab, we will be working with entering, formatting, and analyzing data in Excel. Please note: this lab is written for a beginner in Excel and meant to introduce you to various capabilities of Excel. You may feel the need to skip through some steps if you are experienced with Excel, and that is fine. Just make sure you understand the content of the lab! Future work will build on these skills.”

SOU-CCJ230 Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System

  • "This OER covers law enforcement, criminal courts, sentencing, penal institutions, and community-based sanctions. It also includes historical and contemporary perspectives on components of the criminal justice system, as well as the legal and constitutional frameworks in which they operate." Visit this link to purchase a print copy: http://www.lulu.com/shop/alison-s-burke-and-david-carter-and-brian-fedorek-and-tiffany-morey/introduction-to-the-american-criminal-justice-system/paperback/product-24027992.html "

EdTech Books

Children's Picture Books-Project Gutenberg

K-12 Student Library from Open Library

Introduction to Education

  • "This pressbook is an Introduction to Education, providing an overview of the process of becoming a teacher, how to manage a classroom, and the state of the education system in the United States. It was created for EDUC 1100 - Introduction to Education at the College of DuPage."

PBS Learning Media: Florida

  • "WEDU PBS and PBS have curated FREE, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more just for Florida teachers like you."

PBS Learning Media: Sharing Content in Canvas

Nursing Pharmacology

The Art and Science of Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing

Learning Nurse Resources Network

Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Service

StatPearls

The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity

GeneReviews®

Health Promotion in Health Care – Vital Theories and Research

Making Healthcare Safer III: A Critical Analysis of Existing and Emerging Patient Safety Practices

  • 1. Diagnostic Errors 2. Failure to Rescue 3. Sepsis Recognition 4. Clostridioides difficile Infection 5. Infections Due to Other Multidrug-Resistant Organisms 6. Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae 7. Harms Due to Anticoagulants 8. Harms Due to Diabetic Agents 9. Reducing Adverse Drug Events in Older Adults 10. Harms Due to Opioids 11. Patient Identification Errors in the Operating Room 12. Infusion Pumps 13. Alarm Fatigue 14. Delirium 15. Care Transitions 16. Venous Thromboembolism 17. Cross-Cutting Patient Safety Topics/Practices

The Use of Telehealth for Disability Evaluations in Medicine and Allied Health: Proceedings of a Workshop

Open RN OER Textbooks

Challenging Assumptions Around Dementia: User-led Research and Untold Stories

Many, but not all, of the images in these links are under creative commons licenses or in the public domain. Prior to using an image, please check the copyright/license details to ensure the image can be reused. 

MOM iconMason OER Metafinder (MOM)
 
Advanced Search

Using Google Advanced Search to find Open Content by Andrew Moore

Watch this brief, 2 minute video on how to use Google's Advanced Search to search for open content. 

Search the Library Catalog for Open Access Resources

The screenshots below go over how to limit to only Open Access material when searching the library catalog

Search your topic of interest. This example uses "criminal justice." The quotation marks keep the phrase together. 

On the left sidebar  you can add filters. Under Availability, check the filter for Open Access

Apply Filters

To retain the Open Access limit for this search session, click the button with the lock that says Remember all filters. This lets you search different terms and still keep it limited to Open Access material. You can also apply and lock additional filters. 

If you would like additional assistance with finding open access material, please contact the library. 

Polk State College is committed to equal access/equal opportunity in its programs, activities, and employment. For additional information, visit polk.edu/compliance.