Open Educational Resources at TWU

Metropolitan Museum of Art Public Domain/Open Access 

• Information page on how to see if an image in the Met Gallery is Public Domain or Open Access. 

National Gallery of Art: Open Access 

• Open access/public domain images from the National Gallery of Art

Pressbooks Directory: Fine Art 

• Textbook collection in fine art. Various topics. 

Rijks Museum 

• Public domain images and art. 

Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR) 

• Site dedicated to providing open resources for art history teachers. 

Art Resources (Open Course Library)

• Google Doc with the resources from the ART 100 course in the Open Course Library. 

ProcessArts

• Online community for artists to share practice-based learning. 

Composition / Writing Textbooks

About Writing: A Guide 

• Eight (8) different sections covering composition, academic writing, researching, citation styles (MLA, APA, CMS), grammar, revising, and "multilingual writers and ESL challenges." The pages are short and easy to read. Good as a supplementary reference. 

A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing

• Thirteen (13) chapters focus on writing, research, and analysis. Good general use for rhetoric-heavy courses. 

A Short Handbook for Writing Essays in the Humanities and Social Sciences

• The textbook specifically focused on humanities and social sciences essays. Quite text-heavy, with few visuals to break it up. 

Composing Ourselves and Our World

• General text for composition and research writing. Some dead links within the text. 

English Composition - Connect, Collaborate, Communicate 

• Good general composition text; identifies learning objectives for each chapter and includes some activities. 

English Composition I: Rhetorical Methods

• Rhetoric-focused text from Lumen that includes readings on "rhetorical situations; the editing process; types and modes of academic writing; the research process; citation practices; informative and persuasive writing." 

Horse of a Different Color: English Composition and Rhetoric

• General introductory composition textbook. 

Introduction to College Composition 

• Lumen Learning course textbook. Also has questions at the end of the chapter for students to check their comprehension. 

Let's Get Writing 

• Most sections are bite-sized for easy reading, and there's a good use of visual aids. 

Methods of Discovery

• Six (6) chapter online writing guide/textbook for academic writing. Includes videos for examples to help with comprehension. There are some dead links/videos. 

Oregon Writes: Open Writing Text 

• Contains learning objectives and in-depth readings for each chapter. Five (5) sections cover situation and analysis, the writing process, research, rhetorical modes, and critical reading. 

Rhetoric and Composition

• Wikibooks. Good reference text and external links for more information. 

Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom

• Writing and research text focused on teaching ethnographic and autoethnographic essays; suggested for first-year writing or creative non-fiction courses. Contains many examples of writing assignments. This text is aimed at instructors. 

The Process of Research Writing

• The textbook focused on research writing and rhetoric. Published 2007

The Word on College Reading and Writing 

• The Word on College Reading and Writing is an introductory text for students new to college-level reading and writing. It also includes a section on information literacy. Good general-use text. 

Writing, Reading, and College Success: A First-Year Composition Course for All Learners

• Revised from Writing for Success (also OER). Covers basic introductory topics, like general writing, rhetoric, thesis statements, revising, and more. Twelve (12) chapters. 

Writing for Success

• Good general-use textbook, focusing on writing style and grammar. This text has been revised by others into Writing, Reading, and College Success: A First-Year Composition Course for All Learners. Includes example essays. 

Information Literacy

Digital Citizenship: Misinformation & Data Commodification in the Twenty-First Century

• Textbook on how the current world (21st Century) uses and exploits information. 

The Information Literacy User’s Guide: An Open, Online Textbook 

• The textbook focuses entirely on information literacy, covering topics such as information needs, research, evaluating sources, and sharing information, as well as visual information literacy and science information literacy. 

Poetry Textbooks

Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations 

• Good general poetry resource; includes activity ideas and discussion prompts. 

General

88 Open Essays: A Reader for Students of Composition and Rhetoric 

• Each of the readings is tagged thematically, so they can be searched. This is in Google Doc format. Easily to navigate, and for students who would like to highlight, or change fonts for readability, this could be a good option. 

EmpoWord: A Student-Centered Anthology & Handbook for College Writers 

• Good basic overview with chapter vocab, visual aids, and writing exercises. 

My Slipper Floated Away: New American Memoirs 

• Collection was written by students in the Bronx. Courses focused on diversity or memoirs would find this a good resource. 

Open Readings (A LibGuide)

• Not everything in this guide is open access/OER, but it does have many that are. They do have "locked" ones listed that are available through their library subscription services. 

Thematic Reading Anthology 

• Various readings on different themes from Lumen. Themes: food, literacy, culture, zombies, nature, technology, debt, literature, politics, Wikipedia, and health care. 

Literature - American

American Literature I: An Anthology of Texts From Early America Through the Civil War

• Covers Native American literature to Emily Dickinson. Includes different types of literature, such as letters, poetry, sermons, newspaper articles, etc. 

American Literatures Prior to 1865

• Colonial literature (Puritans) to 1865. Sections on the American Revolution literature (Federalist Papers, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson), as well as Native American perspectives. 

Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution 

• Four-part text featuring sixty-nine (69) different authors with full-text readings. Includes images and author biographies. Includes pre-colonial, Native American literature. 

Open Anthology of American Literature: "Beginnings" to 1865 

• Colonial American to Civil War. This anthology does explicitly contain narratives on slavery (Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs) that some of the other American literature texts here do not. 

The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature 

• Pre-colonization to Reconstruction and Realism. Section V (5) is dedicated to Abolition and the Civil War, with some chapters to help readers re-establish context from the time. 

Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present

• Six (6) chapters, split into different writing eras, and then organized by author. 

Literature - English/British

An Open Companion to Early British Literature 

• From the middle ages (472-1485) to the eighteenth (18th) century. Discussion questions and further readings/resources are included. 

British Literature I Anthology: From the Middle Ages to Neoclassicism and the Eighteenth Century 

• Middle ages to Neoclassicism; organized by time period and author. 

British Literature II: Romantic Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond 

• Organized by time period and author. 

Compact Anthology of World Literature 

• Three (3) part text that covers different geographic regions. Long chapters. 

The Open Anthology of English Literature 

• Website with fiction, essays, poetry, life writing, and drama readings. There is also a page that is organized by author. 

World Literature 1: Beginnings to 1650 

• Good general text covering literature of the ancient world to medieval times, across different cultures. 

Poetry

Towards an Open Anthology of Poetry 

• Poems organized by theme. Some chapters have links to other readings, and even songs, on that theme that are not in the public domain. 

Academic and Formal Writing Style Guide 

• Very short overview in OER commons. 

Elements of Style

• Short style guide on composition and language use. 

Khan Academy Grammar Help 

• Many videos and practice questions to help students understand topics in grammar. 

Pocket Style Guide 

• Short guide on academic writing, grammar, and research. Also includes a section on resumes and cover letters. 

Purdue OWL MLA Style Guide

• Purdue's general MLA style guide. 

Style for Students: A Writing Guide 

• Full Lumen-style course on writing style and grammar. 

The Writing Center: Tips and Tools 

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill's online writing center, including some videos on topics such as citations, outlining, and proofreading. 

LibriVox

• Online library of audiobooks in the public domain. 

Prelinger Archives

• Many of these are in the public domain and available for use, but please double-check licensing before you do.

Project Gutenberg

• Online library of free eBooks.

HippoCampus: Readings and Videos

Literature CrashCourse

Study Skills CrashCourse

Modern World History 

• Text for general overview/survey course in world history. Good basic resource. 

Western Civilization

• Pre-Greek to early modern Western civilization.  

World Civilizations I & II

• This is a VIDEO textbook with guided viewing questions. Could be a useful supplement. 

Western Civilization: A Concise History

• Volume 1: Origins of civilization in early medieval Europe.
• Volume 2: Medieval Europe to French Revolution.
• Volume 3: Napoleon to now.

World History in the Early Modern and Modern Eras (1600–Present)

• Saylor course with a multitude of PDF and linked readings.  

American Government (3e) 

• OpenStax course. Seventeen (17) chapters. According to OpenStax, this textbook tries to "balance between confronting the negative and harmful elements of American government, history, and current events, while demonstrating progress in overcoming them." 

Introduction to Political Science 

• OpenStax course. Sixteen (16) chapters cover the basics of political science, covering different political systems and ideologies, as well as institutions, international relations, and more. 

African American History: From Emancipation to Present 

• Open course/lecture sessions from Yale. Each session has a brief text overview, as well as the accompanying lecture video. Note: this was recorded in 2010, so parts of it, or certain contexts, may be out of date. 

OER Project

• History-based OER. This resource is aimed at high school students, but they are Creative Commons licensed and can be good for quick reviews or overviews.

Digital Commons Network: History (General)

• Navigate on the left to filter and search for specific topics in history. 

Digital Commons Network: United States History

• General site for US History articles and readings. 

Library of Congress: Digital Collections 

• Library of Congress general page for their digital collections. 

Library of Congress: US History Primary Source Timeline 

• Provides brief context for different events, as well as related primary sources/documents relevant to these events. Good, easy access to primary sources. 

Presidential Speeches 

• Transcripts, audio, and video from presidential speeches, as applicable. Organized by both president and date. 

Center for Open Educational Resources & Language Learning (COERLL)

• COERLL produces and disseminates open educational resources to support the teaching and learning of foreign languages.

Érudit

• Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium that provides free access to scholarly and cultural journals published in English and French.

LangOER Collection of Educational Resources

• LangOER aims to enhance teaching and learning of "less used languages."

Mason OER Metafinder

• The George Mason University Libraries has created a tool to facilitate the search for open educational resources.

MERLOT

• Supported by an international community of higher education institutions, MERLOT provides access to free online teaching and learning materials.

OASIS

• OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search) is a handy tool developed by SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library for comprehensive searches for free educational content.

OER Commons

• This is an extensive index of openly licensed online resources for a variety of subjects at different education levels.

OER Commons Hubs

• OER Commons also encourages educators to form Hubs to create, organize, and share instructional materials.

PhilPapers

• PhilPapers "hosts the largest open access archive in philosophy" and also indexes scholarly publications in the discipline.

Project Gutenburg

• Project Gutenberg includes literary and other intellectual works in many languages.

Textbooks

COOL4ed: Find FREE and OPEN eTextbooks

• People can use this tool to find free and open textbooks from different sources. They can also enter the ISBN of a book to find related free textbooks.

Directory of Open Access Books

• This resource indexes peer-reviewed academic books in different languages published by over 100 publishers.

ISBN Search Tool

• Enter an ISBN from a textbook, and Cal State's ISBN Search Tool will give you a list of open educational resources that approximate the textbook. The ISBN Search Tool also provides ancillary resources related to the textbook.

LibreTexts

• Based at the University of California, Davis, LibreTexts aims to eliminate the limitations and costs of traditional textbooks by providing open access to quality textbooks for STEM disciplines and beyond.

Online Textbooks from MIT OpenCourseWare

• Based at the University of Minnesota, the Open Textbook Library offers an expanding catalog of openly licensed textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty members.

Open Oregon: Resources

• This list shows what Oregon community college instructors have used to replace commercial textbooks. Those resources might be suitable for similar courses at other institutions.

OpenStax

• This non-profit organization based at Rice University publishes free peer-reviewed textbooks written by professional content developers. It has created subject-related hubs for instructors to share teaching resources.

Open Textbook Library

• Based at the University of Minnesota, the Open Textbook Library offers an expanding catalog of openly licensed textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty members.

Repositories

Mason OER Metafinder

• The George Mason University Libraries have created a tool to facilitate the search for open educational resources.

MIT Press Open

• The MIT Press provides free downloads of monographs on a wide range of subjects.

National Academies Press (NAP)

• Established by the National Academy of Sciences, NAP publishes on a wide array of topics in science, engineering, and medicine.

NSF Public Access Repository

• This is the repository for journal articles resulting from the National Science Foundation grants.

OASIS

• OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search) is a handy tool developed by SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library for comprehensive searches for free educational content.

Open Learning Initiative Courses

• The Open Learning Initiative provides free learning materials about languages and STEM subjects.

PLOS Collections The Public Library of Science

• (PLOS) has curated collections of peer-reviewed journal articles on a variety of topics for research and educational purposes.

SCOAP3 Repository

• This repository holds all open-access journal articles sponsored by the international SCOAP3 initiative

SkillsCommon

• This repository holds free and open learning materials for "job-driven workforce development." The materials were developed by community colleges across the US.

PubDefense

• PubDefense enables search and access to journal articles that are the results of research funded by the Department of Defense and IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity).

Multimedia Resources

WeBWorK

• WeBWorK is an open-source system for math and science exercises that provides access to over 20,000 homework problems.

Wisc-Online

• Maintained by Fox Valley Technical College, this portal provides access to learning objects in the fields of health, science, mathematics, technology, and general education.