This video will help you get specific with your search for OER. We’ll talk about: Narrowing your search by looking for weekly topics, using synonyms to improve results, and starting your search with OER repositories There are 2 billion openly licensed resources out there – finding one that works perfectly for your unique course and student population can be tricky. One strategy is to break your course down by topic or week and search for material for just one week instead of looking for a single textbook for the entire course. When you are looking at your weekly topics, remember that you can look for teaching materials other than a reading… a video or interactive experience might work equally well. If I am teaching a course on information literacy, my topic for week two might be “Evaluate Authority” – teaching to this would be great with a video and interactivity. Week three might be Fake News with a reading. You can mix different material to replace a single textbook. Your step after that is to look at some open educational resource repositories for your topic and material type. OER Commons, eCampus Ontario, and MERLOT are good places to start. If you aren’t finding good results  – try changing your search terms. I am using the term “information literacy” but if I were in the UK   I would use the term “information fluency.”  Sometimes switching up your search terms   makes a big difference and can help capture international perspectives on your topic. Keep in mind – you can start small. Pick one or   two weeks to start. And do another two weeks the following semester. I will also recommend keeping track of your weekly topics, search terms,   and materials in a spreadsheet so you don’t retrace your steps. To review: You can use multiple   OERs to replace a single textbook, look for resources to match your weekly topic, look for materials other than readings, and start small with one or two weeks to keep track of your searches and results. The next video in the series will demonstrate a search in an OER repository.

This video will introduce you to OER repositories and   some strategies to search them for openly licensed material. There are lots of OER repositories out there, but the one people think of most is an Open Textbook library. The open textbook library that I will use as a demo is BC Campus – this is a great   choice if you are looking for Canadian content. I’m going to look for a textbook on “information literacy.” I am using quotation marks so that it searches for those two words right next to each other. I have my course outline ready with my weekly topic list. You can see some results have information about reviews or supplementary material. When I click on a title – l get a description of the textbook, and it’s going to tell you the license terms. This resource is licensed CC BY, so I know I can use it, and adapt it as long as I attribute the creator. And here are the different formats where I can download it. I can also read a bit more about   the author and the institutional affiliation. This is all great information for evaluating the work, click into the content and look at the chapter headings. You might find perfect chapters in an imperfect textbook. And because   these resources are open, you can choose to remix several sources into something new. Some repositories collect OER material beyond textbooks.   You can find tutorials, case studies, presentations, and rubrics.   These repositories will offer extra options and filters for streamlining your search. OER Commons, for example, will let you search by subject or education level   and your search results can be limited by material type or media format. Looking for resources in a repository with multiple materials   is a great option if you want to remix material into a new work. All repositories will make license restrictions clear,   just click into the license or terms of use to clarify. If you have too many results, you might need   to get more specific with your  search terms or material type. And if you aren’t finding what you’re looking for, try changing your search terms, search a different repository, or try Google Advanced and limit by usage rights. Some other tips to remember: Use quotation marks to get specific.  Search for your weekly topics instead of your course title, Ask for help at the library. If you still aren’t having any luck,   this is an opportunity to think about creating a new resource. Contact your department Chair   or library to find out about supports at your institution for creating OERs.