Research Guides: Open Educational Resources (OERs) Toolkit: Revise/Remix/Create OERs

Get started revising, remixing or creating your own OER

The resources on this page help you answer the question -- I've built my course using open materials, now what? This can be intimidating for faculty who have limited time, but really, answer depends on what you want to accomplish.

If you have created resources for your courses -- lecture notes, worksheets, handouts, activities, assignment guides, etc. -- you may already have a trove of materials to use. You can choose to collect your materials, for example on a website, a Canvas course, or as an eBook, and license them in Creative Commons, which has a handy tool for choosing an OER license. Once you have a CC license, your work will be shareable and you could then add it to a repository like OER Commons or Merlot.
If you want to use materials in your course (linking to them in Canvas, for example) but are not interested in licensing and publishing OERs for wider use, you will still be providing the benefits of accessibility and affordability for your students! You can also pilot your course and decide to license and publish later. It's up to you!
Not sure how to attribute materials you're using in your courses? Check out Community College Consortium for OERs attributing OER page and best practices for attribution from Creative Commons Just as with citing sources in a paper, it's easy once you know how! Also see this handy guide to Copyright & Fair Use.

Ancillary materials

You can often find quizzes, tests, homework, and other materials for OERs in OER Commons, which also has an OpenStax hub where instructors using those OER textbooks can exchange materials and ideas.

If you're using OpenStax, you can also create an instructor account and find test banks, solutions, and other materials (you might need to share a syllabus or ask your department chair to email OpenStax to verify you are an instructor).

If you're having trouble searching for ancillary materials, ask a librarian for help!

Web resources for adapting/remixing

Adopt OER
An overview outlining five steps to adopting OERs from the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER).
Education Technology Digital Toolbox
Created by Professor Pamela C. Harland at Plymouth State University, includes a variety of tools for integrating OERs into your courses as well as creating introductions, assessments, data visualization, and presentations.
Libretexts
Libretexts is a remixing tool and platform. You can find materials (including all the OpenStax texts), remix, and publish your remixed text here. The final product can also be imported into Canvas or printed affordably.
Open Attribution Builder
A tool from Open Washington to help you build attributions for materials that are in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons.
Pressbooks directory
Pressbooks can be an authoring tool, but it is also a repository and a place to find remixable texts. Search by license (you can't remix anything that has an ND or all rights reserved, for example). This is another option for remixing OpenStax texts.
Rebus Tools
an OERs collaboration site and a publishing tool. They note: "Our platform guides open textbook projects through the publishing workflow and makes it easy to find, recruit, and organize collaborators. Find a project you can help, or start one of your own."

Where to publish OERs

If you want to create a digital or print book, there are many options. Popular publishing tools such as iBooks Author, Pressbooks, or even blogging sites like WordPress may be helpful in addition to the resources listed below. You can also use LibGuides, the tool this guide is published in. See an example of an OER in a LibGuide here.

NH Open OER Commons Hub: Help Tools
Lia Horton at granite State College created these resources to help you upload and tag material in the NH Open Hub at OER Commons.
OER Authoring Tools
A guide from SUNY Empire State College library.
OER Commons Open Author
How to write, describe and publish your resources at OER Commons, home of the NH Open Hub, an evolving collection of OERs used throughout CCSNH and USNH.
UDL Bookbuilder
A tool to "create, share, publish, and read digital books that engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills".
UDL Curriculum Toolkit
Created by University of Michigan and the Education Resource Center, "a web-based platform that allows for the development and publication of web-based curricula and other content built according to the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)."

Accessibility & Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

One important consideration is determining whether your OERs are accessible for all students. Here are some resources and things to consider.

Accessibility and Open Educational Resources
From UDL On Campus, this article and list of resources explain the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach to accessibility in OERs. Includes examples of accessible OERs.
Clear Print Guidelines
Ontario's Universities Accessible Campus guide for print accessibility.
Creating Accessible Presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint
from University of Washington
Eight fonts for print accessibility
Perkins School for the Blind's favorite fonts for print accessibility.
OER Accessibility Toolkit
A self-paced guide from University of British Columbia.
Universal Design for Learning Guidelines
From the Center for Applied Special technology (CAST), an interactive graphic tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Easy Checks
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops its work through a consensus-based process, involving different stakeholders in Web accessibility. This is one of many tools on their site.

Open eBooks

Adaptation Guide: A BCcampus Open Education reference to adapting or revising an open textbook by Lauri M. Aesoph
Call Number: eBook

Publication Date: 2018
BCcampus Open Education Accessibility Toolkit by Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, and Tara Robertson
Call Number: eBook

Publication Date: 2018
BC Campus Open Education Faculty OER Toolkit by Shannon Moist
Call Number: eBook
Pressbooks User Guide
Call Number: eBook

Publication Date: 2024 (revised regularly)
Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know by Cheryl Cuillier, University of Arizona; Amy Hofer, Open Oregon Educational Resources; Annie K. Johnson, Temple University; Kathleen Labadorf, University of Connecticut; Karen Lauritsen, Open Textbook Network; Peter Potter, Virginia Tech; Richard Saunders, Southern Utah University; Anita Walz, Virginia Tech
Call Number: eBook
The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) by Apurva Ashok and Zoe Wake Hyde
Call Number: eBook
Self-Publishing Guide: A BCcampus Open Education reference for writing and self-publishing an open textbook by Lauri M. Aesoph
Call Number: eBook

Publication Date: 2018