Research Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): Open Textbooks

Where to Find Open Textbooks

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The links below are open resource mega sites that offer books as well as other OER tools.

BC Campus OER
BC Campus collection of open textbooks and courses
eCampusOntario Open Library
The eCampusOntario Open Library provides educators and learners with access to more than 250 free and openly-licensed educational resources. The library was launched in 2017 in partnership with BCCampus.
Pressbooks Directory
This directory provides an index of 2485 books published across 98 Pressbooks networks. Learn to use the Directory by taking a self-guided tour or reading our guide.
Post-Secondary Directory
This directory is an open educational reference for post-secondary institutions in British Columbia and Canada.

Assayer
Largest catalogue of open sources textbooks. Also is a good place to find free books about math, science and computers.
AU Press
Athabasca University Pree - free pdf and low cost print version of mainly Canadian books.
Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
Advocacy, training, and links to college level open textbooks and other courseware.
Connexions
Content Commons of free, open-licensed educational materials in fields such as music, electrical engineering and psychology.
Global Text Project
Publishes open content electronic textbooks that are freely available from this website. The goal is to make textbooks available to the many who cannot afford them.
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries and their aim to build a comprehensive archive of published literature from around the world . It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.
Knowledge Unlatched
The Knowledge Unlatched model depends on many libraries from around the world sharing the payment of a single Title Fee to a publisher, in return for a book being made available on a Creative Commons licence via OAPEN and HathiTrust as a fully downloadable PDF.
Merlot
Free and open resource designed primarily for higher education.
National Science Digital Library
Access to teaching and learning materials in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Search by level, resource type, and subject.
OER Commons
Worldwide learning network of shared teaching and learning materials.
Open Courseware Consortium
Collaboration of higher education institutions to share and expand their open course offerings.
OpenStaxs College
Peer reviewed post secondary textbook
Open SUNY Textbooks
Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants.
Open Textbook Library
Center for Open Education, University of Minnesota
Orange Grove Text
Florida's operational repository project of open source educational materials.
Saylor Free Education
Free to read versions of the texts at Flat World Knowledge
Textbook Revolution
Textbook Revolution is a student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials by teachers and professors.
Wikibooks
Wikimedia's community for creating and sharing educational textbooks.

BCCampus: Adopt, Adapt, and Create Open Textbooks

BCcampus Open Education: Adoption Guide
The Adoption Guide provides support for faculty who are considering adopting an open textbook. It also includes resources for tracking adoptions at your institution. This guide is currently being updated and is open for feedback.
BCcampus Open Education: Adaptation Guide
The Adaptation Guide provides information on how to customize—or adapt—an open textbook so that it better fits an instructor’s needs in the classroom and elsewhere. This guide is currently being updated and is open for feedback.

BCcampus Open Education: Self-Publishing Guide
The 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.
BCcampus Open Education: Accessibility Toolkit
The Accessibility Toolkit is designed to support open textbook authors—and others involved in writing and publishing—to create a truly open and accessible textbook for students with disabilities. It also includes specific information on how to create an accessible textbook in Pressbooks.
BCcampus Open Education: Pressbooks Guide
The Pressbooks Guide provides support for faculty authoring open textbooks using the pressbooks.bccampus.ca instance of Pressbooks and is designed to compliment the more comprehensive Pressbooks User Guide.

Adoption Finder: Open Textbooks for and Used in B.C. Post-Secondary Courses

ADOPTION FINDER: Open Textbooks for and used in B.C. Post-Secondary Courses
The idea behind the Adoption Finder, however, was to not only provide actual adoptions used for specific courses but also list potential adoptions for comparable courses. Therefore, most of the hours used to create this finder were spent adding codes for courses to which the adopting course transferred (transferable courses). This was done using the BC Transfer Guide.

B.C's Open Textbook Project

The B.C. Open Textbook Project is funded by the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, and it is managed by BCcampus. A goal of the Project is to provide flexible and affordable access to higher education resources in B.C. by making 60 openly-licensed textbooks available. These texts will be available for selection by B.C. faculty, and digital versions of the texts will be free of charge to students. For those who prefer a printed copy, this format will also be available on demand for a low cost. This is the first government funded initiative of its kind in Canada.

Known Open Textbook Adoptions In B.C.

Known Open Textbook Adoptions in B.C.
BCcampus has been tracking the open textbook adoptions in BC since 2012. They show, among other statistics, the top 5 institutions by adoptions and by student savings.

Open Educational Resources (OER): Open Textbooks

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Where to Find Open Textbooks

BCCampus: Adopt, Adapt, and Create Open Textbooks

Adoption Finder: Open Textbooks for and Used in B.C. Post-Secondary Courses

B.C's Open Textbook Project

Known Open Textbook Adoptions In B.C.