Step one: Set aside time.
Searching for these materials takes time and persistence, just like research!
Step two: take a look to see if someone else has created a similar, complete OER course or textbook.
See the "OER Repositories" and "Open Textbooks Collections" sections of the "Find OER" tab.
Example: Go to the Open Textbook Library and browse their open business texts.
Step three: Get cozy with your learning objectives.
Instead of focusing on the textbook that you would like to replace, focus on what you would like students to know or be able to do. You will likely need to search for several materials to address different topics or components of your complete class.
Example: instead of searching for “biology” materials, search for “cell structure” or “DNA” or “evolution” materials.
Step four: Search for open resources.
See the "Find OER" tab in this guide for suggestions, you can also use Google "Advanced Search" to search for open resources.
Step five: Search within some of the specific OER repositories/OER search engines"
See the "Find OER" tab for a suggested list.
Step six Consider creating and sharing your own OER.
See the "Create" tab.
Open Learn has a helpful open, modular online course "Creating Open Educational Resources"
This video "Searching in OER Repositories" was created by Jen Klaudinyi
Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know
This is a five-step guide for faculty, and those who support faculty, who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types are included.
The guide above from the Open Textbook Network gives five detailed steps for identifying and selecting an Open Textbook that can be modified for your class. The steps included in this guide include the following:
They include specific information for working with five very common types of OER:
We highly recommend this guide for those who want to customize their own Open Textbook for a course!
Most Open Textbook and OER packets are free to read online. What about students who want a print copy?
Some Open Textbook publishers have print-on-demand availability, such as OpenStax College.