Open Educational Resources

Librarians can partner with instructors to offer support for adopting OER or enhancing open practices in their pedagogy. Contact us to learn more about any of these options, or fill out this form to get us started on a review of OER and other free or affordable course materials that may meet your needs.

• Find OER: We help instructors locate existing OER relevant to courses and/or assignments. OER might include textbooks, images, multimedia, and other learning objects.
• Select OER: We assist instructors in evaluating existing OER. Librarians can evaluate against certain criteria independently (including whether the OER is peer-reviewed and any quantitative feedback it has received) and share rubrics for further instructor evaluation.

• Evaluate licenses: We review any relevant content licenses to ensure that changes instructors wish to make are allowed and that appropriate open licenses are applied to resulting products. 
• Remix / combine / customize OER: We recommend platforms, approaches, and tools for customizing OER to suit course needs, including the combination of two or more OERs.

• Identify publishing platforms: We consult with instructors to identify the OER publishing platforms or tools that best meet needs.
• Apply licenses: We consult with instructors to select and apply appropriate open licenses for new OER.
• Share OER: We provide guidance on OER repositories to which new or adapted OER could be submitted. 
• Find openly licensed media: We help instructors locate openly licensed images, drawings, videos, and more to incorporate into their new or customized OER.

• Incorporate renewable assignments into courses: We consult with instructors to revise existing assignments or introduce new assignments that leverage open pedagogy and/or produce OER.

• Find grants: We identify potential grant opportunities for instructors interested in adopting or creating OER.
• Measure outcomes of OER adoption: We recommend assessment strategies to track the cost savings and other outcomes from adopting OER for a course. 
• Identify other low-cost / no-cost resources: We help instructors for whom OER is not an immediate fit locate other low-cost / no-cost resources. This may include scanning print items for course reserves or linking to digital content licensed by UT Libraries.