Open textbooks are materials that are freely available, usually through a Creative Commons license, to download, modify, and print in various formats.
Why should faculty adopt an open textbook?
OA: Open Access - Free, permanent, full-text, online access to scientific and scholarly works. Focuses on sharing content, with no underlying licensing requirement
OER: Open Educational Resources - Openly licensed educational content, includes any educational content that is shared under an open license, and can be reused and remixed. Source: University of Michigan OER Toolkit.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.." From The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
OER materials are released under an open license granting permission for everyone to:
5Rs image by David Wiley, Lumen Learning, licensed under CC BY 4.0
OER include digital learning materials such as:
“Open Educational Resource LibGuide” by Rachel Becker and Madison Area Technical College Libraries is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 International license.