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Open Educational Resources (OER)

This guide provides information about Open Educational Resources, or OER, including how to find and evaluate them.

Who can help me find OER?

The Iowa State University library offers several avenues for instructors to get help locating OER that are aligned with their course's needs.

Unsure where to start?

The best place to start any project is to talk to your subject librarian! Every department at the university has a subject librarian who can provide support for your courses, research, and other information needs. 

Your librarian can explore available open textbooks and free materials available through the library and identify if there is something already available that might meet your needs. 

Need more help?

Complete the OER Consultation Request Form linked below to connect to our OER experts. Your answers to this simple, one-page questionnaire will help us understand your specific needs. 

After your request form is received, the University Library’s Scholarly Communication Librarian, Abbey Elder, will review your request and begin identifying open textbooks, library materials, and other free materials that might meet your needs. She may reach out to ask for a copy of your syllabus, the titles of texts that have been required or recommended for your course in past semesters, and any OER that you have already reviewed for your course.

Once preliminary titles have been identified for your course and our team has had a chance to review your request in-depth, we will follow up with you to discuss the options for open, free, and/or affordable educational resources that could be a good fit for your course. In addition to identifying potential resources to adopt, at these consultations, you can get support: 

  • accessing rubrics and other resources for evaluating OER 
  • planning a larger OER project for the future

By the end of this process, you will have identified next steps for evaluating materials, integrating them into your course, and reporting them to the campus bookstore.

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Abbey Elder
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