With the number of free and open etextbooks increasing access to quality and affordable course content, numerous faculty are still not familiar with the available OER catalogs and repositories. This express workshop will introduce four OER search and review strategies which will enhance the potential of discovering OER.
With the number of open educational resources increasing access to quality and affordable course content, numerous faculty are not familiar with the available OER catalogs and repositories. In order to assist faculty and instructional designers with the discovery and potential adoption of relevant OER for their department and/or courses, this express workshop will introduce four OER search and review strategies. Workshop participants will begin by familiarizing themselves with the COOL4Ed.org catalog of 150 open textbooks and the cutting-edge faculty reviews via their own devices. They will learn how to conduct advanced searches in their discipline using MERLOT.org. Then they will learn how to refine their OER search using advanced Google search terms. Last but not least, participants will browse the current OER directories and/or repositories to locate relevant content that will provide free and open course materials for their students. By the end of this hands-on workshop, participants will be able to identify quality, open educational resources in their disciplines and evaluate them based on the COOL4Ed open textbook rubric.