OER by Discipline Open Resources, Open Tools, Open Possibilities
Open education becomes real when it enters a discipline. It is one thing to talk about OER and OEP in principle. It is another to ask: What does this look like in
- Psychology
- Business
- Environmental Studies
- Nursing
Disciplines carry traditions, methods, signature assignments, canonical texts, accreditation pressures, and shared assumptions about what “counts”. If open education is going to take root at Trent, it must live inside those realities. This section is where open stops being abstract. It becomes specific, local, and practical for you.
The Call: An Invitation to Act
You do not have to start from scratch or replace everything. You do not have to go “all in” on day one.
There are open textbooks already in circulation.
There are open modules that can replace a single week.
There are open tools that support collaboration, annotation, simulation, and public-facing work.
And we are here to help you find those. This is an invitation to connect with us to craft your discipline’s OER page.
We have created a few discipline pages on our own to get Trent started, but the OER by discipline pages will be far more meaningful if we create them together.
Examples from Practice
Across disciplines, open is already taking shape in practical ways:
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An introductory course adopts an open textbook and adapts examples to reflect Canadian contexts.
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A methods class replaces a proprietary workbook with openly licensed case studies.
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A senior seminar invites students to co-create a public glossary or annotated bibliography.
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A lab course pairs open data sets with collaborative analysis tools.
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A humanities course integrates social annotation to make reading collective rather than solitary.
None of these require a full course redesign. One thoughtful substitution is an excellent start.
Your Response
Every discipline has its own culture. This section honours that and works within it.
We invite you to fill out this form or simply reach out to teachingcommons@trentu.ca to connect and work together on your discipline/program/department OER page.
Together we will curate and craft:
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Open Textbooks & Core OER
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Other Open Modules, Units & Learning Objects
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Open & Open-Friendly Tools
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Mapping it all to Trent Courses
As more disciplines contribute, adapt, and share, this section becomes a living, evolving resource shaped by the Trent community itself.
