OER - Free Textbooks - *LIST of Library Information - Library Home at Fox Valley Technical College

Copyrighted versus Open Access and Open Education Resources (OER)

Q: If it is on the Internet, it is free to use, right?

A: It may be free to access, but it is better to link to copyright protected works instead of making a copy that can be shared without giving the copyright owner a chance to make money from the transaction. If you want to make a work available to all your students, every year, you can pay for a license, get written permission from the copyright owner, or find similar content that is opened with a license addendum for easier use.

When it comes to teaching, you have to make sure you are following copyright law, fair use, and TEACH guidelines.
All original content, regardless of access, may have copyright protection, even if it is not declared.
When in doubt, treat everything as under copyright, until proven otherwise.

DISCLAIMER: These notes are for informational purposes only. I am not a legal expert, and individuals should seek professional legal advice when necessary.

Favorite OER Finders:

CORA: Community of Online Research Assignments (projectcora.org) You do not need to log in to find and view resources in CORA. All CORA resources are deposited under a Creative Commons (CC) “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike3.0 United States” License,” and are therefore “open access”. Everyone can browse CORA for ideas and inspiration. However, in order to add assignments, comments, adapt someone else's assignment, or suggest teaching resources for the site, you need to log in with an account.

Subject Lists of Free Textbooks Commonly Used

Milne Open FREE Textbooks (was OpenSUNY.org Textbooks) (milneopentextbooks.org)
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Openstax.org FREE Textbooks
Peer-reviewed. Openly licensed. 100% free. Except where otherwise noted, textbooks on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Open Textbook Library (Univ of MN) (open.umn.edu)
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
BC Campus (open.bccampus.ca)
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
Other High Quality Peer-Reviewed FREE Textbooks
See what other colleges and universities recommend.

Custom OER Google Search

Custom OER Google Search milneopentextbooks.org skillscommon.org learn.saylor lunenlearning libretexts.org open.bccampus.ca open.umn.edu merlot.org oercommons.org

Did you know? About 20% of Wisconsin households do not have access to the internet

Favorite Open Courseware:

Simulations

Google doc of OER simulations (Add your best links!)

Google doc of OER simulations March 13 2020

UnPaywall

TOOL TO GET FULL TEXT FOR FREE: Unpaywall Unpaywall – A database of open access scholarly articles. The browser extension will search this database for open access versions of articles you see online.
DOCUMENTARY: Paywall: The movie Paywall: The Business of Scholarship is a documentary which focuses on the need for open access to research and science, questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher Elsevier and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google. Staying true to the open access model: it is free to stream and download, for private or public use, and maintains the most open CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons designation to ensure anyone regardless of their social, financial or political background will have access.

*LIST of Library Information