What is OER?
"The foundation of Open Education is Open Educational Resources (OER), which are teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use. Generally, this permission is granted by use of an open license (for example, Creative Commons licenses) which allows anyone to freely use, adapt and share the resource—anytime, anywhere. “Open” permissions are typically defined in terms of the “5R’s”: users are free to Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute these educational materials." -SPARC
CSN continues in the OpenStax Institutional Partnership Program for the second consecutive year.
CSN has been chosen once again to participate in this strategic initiative with OpenStax because of our determination to drive adoption of open educational resources (OER). Free to access and fully modifiable, OER provides students and educators with fair and flexible teaching and learning materials. On average, the institutions who join the network increase the number of students impacted by OER by 158% after completing the first year. To date, the program has resulted in over $20 million in additional student savings from OER. “We are glad CSN was chosen for this partnership. This project ties in with the goal of our institution to help our students complete their courses by lowering barriers, such as the cost of textbooks,” says James McCoy, VPAA.
In the OpenStax press release, CSN Librarian Gracie McDonough states, “Participating in the OpenStax Institutional Partnership has been instrumental in progressing our textbook affordability efforts." The College of Southern Nevada has seen dramatic growth in the number of faculty assigning OpenStax textbooks since joining the program.
If you are interested in discussing OER textbook options for your course or department, please set up an appointment with one of the following:
Gracie McDonough (CSN Librarian) at Gracie McDonough
Paula Michniewicz (Office of eLearning) at Paula Michniewicz
Want to see what textbooks OpenStax has available? Go to OpenStax to check out the textbooks that are currently available and what books the have in the works. To view the ancillary resources click the login button at the top of the page. If you haven't yet created an account then go to the sign up tab on the login page. After you have created an account and logged in you can click on the book that you want and then click the instructor resources tab to view items like PowerPoints, test bank answers for the questions at the back of the chapters, Canvas cartridges, and more.
