LibGuides: Psychology: OERs & Public Domain

Welcome to OER & Public Domain Resources

This page contains resources that are either Open Educational Resources (OERs) that have a Creative Commons (CC) license or media that is currently in the Public Domain (usually the copyright has expired). When using these resources, please remember to check the licenses or verify that the information is in the public domain.

Open Textbooks

Courseware

OER Search Engines

Mason OER Metadata Finder
Searches both OERs and OAs;

"The Mason OER Metafinder helps you find Open Educational Resources. Unlike other OER discovery sites (e.g, OER Commons, OASIS, MERLOT, OpenStax, etc.) with our Metafinder you aren’t searching a static database that we’ve built. Instead, the OER Metafinder launches a real-time, simultaneous search across 22 different sources of open educational materials as you hit the Search button." -(website: About the Mason OER Metafinder)

OER Repositories

BC Campus OpenED Canadian OERs
Galileo Open Learning Materials
Internet Archive OERs "Welcome to the Archive’s library of Open Educational Resources and university lectures. This library contains hundreds of free courses, video lectures, and supplemental materials from universities in the United States and China. Many of these lectures are available for download." -Internet Archive Website
MERLOT "All the materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive "peer review" for which MERLOT is famous. MERLOT presents annual awards for various categories of materials added to or used in the collection. As described in Material Link Checking and Removal, all material URL's in the collection are reviewed frequently for sustainability." -Merlot website
MIT OpenCourseWare "MIT OpenCourseWare is an online publication of materials from over 2,500 MIT courses, freely sharing knowledge with learners and educators around the world."- MIT OpenCourseWare website
OASIS Searches both OERs and OAs; "Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 117 different sources and contains 388,707 records. OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library." OASIS website
OER Commons
Open Michigan "Welcome to the new Open Michigan! As a partnership of the University Library and Health Information Technology and Services, we are the home for all things open at the University of Michigan—including expertise and services for open educational resources, open data, and open publications."- Open Michigan website
OpenNJ "Open NJ allows faculty and students to find Open Educational Resources (OER) adopted at participating New Jersey institutions. By creating this common space, Open NJ enables faculty to share OER, expand their knowledge of adopted OER, and identify OER for their potential adoption." -website
OpenStax "About Our Textbooks Expert Authors Our open source textbooks are written by professional content developers who are experts in their fields. Standard Scope and Sequence All textbooks meet standard scope and sequence requirements, making them seamlessly adaptable into existing courses. Peer Reviewed OpenStax textbooks undergo a rigorous peer review process. You can view the list of contributors when you click on each book."- website
Open Textbook Library "Textbooks in the Open Textbook Library are considered open because they are free to use and distribute, and are licensed to be freely adapted or changed with proper attribution. The criteria for including new textbooks in the Open Textbook Library are: All content must be openly licensed. We accept textbooks licensed with GNU and Creative Commons (CC) licenses, with the exception of the CC ND (No Derivatives) component. CC BY is recommended. Go to Creative Commons for more information about selecting a license for your work. Must be a complete textbook available as a complete portable file (e.g. PDF, EPUB). Must be in use at multiple higher education institutions, or affiliated with a higher education institution, scholarly society, or professional organization. Must be an original textbook (not a derivative of another textbook). Possible exceptions to this criteria are modifications that reflect the needs or context of an entirely new audience. For example, the textbook has been changed in such a significant way that it is now relevant to a new country, profession, or has been translated into a new language. Authors or publishers will be asked to demonstrate significant changes to the original text." -Open Textbook Library website
Teaching Commons "The Teaching Commons showcases high-quality open educational resources from leading colleges and universities and makes them available to educators and students around the world. Curated by librarians and their institutions and hosted by bepress, the Teaching Commons includes open-access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, lectures, k-12 materials, and more."

Library Services

Research assistance - help finding sources, evaluating sources
Online workshops for citing and plagiarism are held throughout the semester. To request a citing workshop, please email library@rcbc.edu