Textbook Affordability

Finding OERs

Definition: "Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. Unlike copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights." ~from OER Commons

• Mason OER Metafinder: searches across 22 OER collections including those with + below; not browsable
  
  
• OpenEd CUNY: OERs curated by librarians ; advance search by keyword, subject, material type, format, education level, and license type; also browsable by topic, format, and creator
  
  
• Project MUSE Open Access: open-access eBooks and journals from university presses, scholarly societies, and independent not-for-profit academic publishers; browsable by subject; also in EagleSearch
  • Ex: Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History
  • Ex: Thinking Literature across Continents
    
    
• Standard eBooks: formatted classics and literature books from the public domain; browsable by subject
  • Ex: Dracula
  • Ex: Hamlet
    
    
• Open Textbook Library+: 850+ open textbooks licensed to be freely used and adapted; download at no cost or print at low cost; browsable by subject; also in EagleSearch
  • Ex: Quantitative Ecology: A New Unified Approach
  • Ex: Think Java: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist 2e
    
    
• OpenStax+: peer-reviewed college textbooks that are free online and low cost in print; includes instructor resources; browsable by subject
  • Ex: Business Ethics
  • Ex: Psychology 2e

+ included in Mason OER Metafinder search

Faculty who are creating their own course materials from OERs should notify the bookstore what they are using. It's possible the bookstore can offer a low-cost printed version to students who want it in print.