Open Educational Resources (OER)

The COVID-19 pandemic has required a rapid response by educators to meet student needs. CSI has transitioned to distance learning for the present, with the fall semester likely to be mostly remote as well. Many instructors might find themselves looking for resources that are easily accessible and don't require an in-person visit to the library. Open Educational Resources (OER), are free and openly available instructional materials (including textbooks) that are born digital and available from anywhere with an internet connection. To learn more about OER, click here.

How to get help

• CSI Open Educational Resources coordinator: Christina.Boyle@csi.cuny.edu
• CUNY guide: Open Educational Resources and Online Zero-Cost Learning

Why Open Education?

• Open licenses allow copyright holders to specify in advance, and in perpetuity, that their works can be reused, customized, and widely shared by others
• Openly licensed materials can be accessed online for free or in print at low cost
• See what other faculty are already using: OER at CSI
• Click here to view a list of OER repositories created by universities, OER advocates, and educators.
• Click here to see a gallery of OER platforms that promote interactivity and collaboration.
• OER can be made fully accessible. Learn more from this Accessibility Handbook by Portland Community College. You can contact our accessibility librarian at Kerry.Falloon@csi.cuny.edu
• Affordable course materials are going to be more important to students than ever. If you don’t find OER that will work for your course, consider using library resources by visiting our e-resources guide or our homepage.

This content is adapted from Open Oregon Educational Resources and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

CSI has implemented OER for selected sections in the Core, English, Astronomy, Biology, Economics, Finance, Library, and Media Culture departments. For the 2018-19 academic year, students saved nearly $400,000 from using OER in place of traditional textbooks.

View the OER textbooks used in these courses here.