Looking for OER already in use within the WTCS?
Looking specifically for textbooks?
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Open Textbook Library
Pros: Large collection of textbooks with published peer reviews by professors, does include some upper level/graduate textbooks, easy to use interface.
Cons: As the name suggests, the content is limited to textbooks.
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OpenStax
Pros: High quality textbooks for introductory level college courses.
Cons: Little content for upper level courses. Not much coverage outside of General Studies.
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MERLOT ISBN Search
Pros: By using an ISBN, you can find MERLOT Open Educational Resources (OER) that can be used to supplement most textbooks.
Cons: Does not offer textbook replacements, but rather supplementary materials.
Looking for learning objects, media, and ancillaries?
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MERLOT
Pros: There are lots of filtering and limiting options when searching, wide range of disciplines represented, wide variety of material types.
Cons: Search interface is a bit clunky.
Want to search across multiple collections for all kinds of content?
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LibreTexts Commons
Massive collection of open textbooks, learning objects, and other content. These can be used as is, remixed, or combined with other platforms.
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OASIS
Pros: Searches content from over 60 different sources, you can sort by license type and type of resource.
Cons: Can't sort by education level.
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Mason OER Metafinder
Pros: Simultaneously searches multiple repositories, could give you good ideas of other repositories to look in.
Cons: Search interface is difficult to use, search results sometimes take you to the main page of different repository and then you have to redo your search, not easy to determine licenses for items.
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OER Commons
Pros: One of the largest OER repositories, covers multiple disciplines, allows for sorting by education level, reuse options, and by standard.
Cons: Rating system is a bit unclear.
Pro/con assessments are adapted from the University of Texas Libraries OER guide, https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/OER/find, used and adapted with permission thanks to a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.
