Library Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): Creating OER

Creating an Open Educational Resource can be as easy as typing text into a word document and attaching appropriate credit for other people’s shared work. Once you have your content, find the digital publishing platform that works best for you (refer to the suggestions below). Once the work is complete, go through Creative Commons Licensing to set guidelines for how you plan to share your work and then select an appropriate platform. There are many sites that house open textbooks such as MERLOT II, OER Commons, Open Textbook Library or OpenStax. Please contact Faye Starman at starmafl@cobleskill.edu (x5894) for more information.

Creating OER & Combining Licenses

The OG Repository

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Tools for Remixing Content

OER Commons: Open Author
Open Textbook Library
Lumen Learning
If you are interested in using Lumen's materials for one of your courses, we can get you a login so that you can actually edit the content in the book itself, making it a truly customizable resource.
Open Attribution Builder

Getting Started

In many cases, openly-licensed resources already exist on a given topic, and they may only need to be revised or remixed to suit the needs of a specific course. For instance, if an instructor wants to create an open textbook on research methods for psychology students, it might be simplest to start with an existing open textbook on research methods and then adapt it to include domain-specific examples from the field of psychology.

Creating New OER

Some instructors have taken the idea of Open Educational Resources and decided to create their own textbook, video, or other resource. If you decide to do the same, these are some items which might help.

BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide
The BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide is a reference for individuals or groups wanting to write and self-publish an open textbook.This guide provides details on the preparation, planning, writing, publication, and maintenance of an open textbook.
A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students
A handbook for faculty interested in practicing open pedagogy by involving students in the making of open textbooks, ancillary materials, or other Open Educational Resources. This is a first edition, compiled by Rebus Community, and we welcome feedback and ideas to expand the text.

If you’re considering developing an entirely new set of OER materials, or pursuing a heavy adaptation of an existing set, the following workflow process may help.