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Open Educational Resources (OER) at Montana State University

Information on Open Educational Resources (OER) and initiatives at MSU.

Ancillary Materials

There is a lot that goes into teaching a course beyond the textbook.  We've compiled some of the best open access ancillary materials out there for you.  The MSU Library also offers a wealth of resources that support your teaching.  Find out more here, or meet with a librarian to learn about how we support you.  Open education is all about providing you, so that you can provide for your students, high quality affordable access options. 

While some are accessible for free, like Phet Interactive Simulations, others are available for an affordable cost.

Wondering how you can transition from your online homework system?  These companies provide affordable systems using OER texts.

OER Repositories

OER repositories contain more than just open textbooks.  In a repository, you'll find textbooks, lesson plans, videos, slides, assignments, test and other assessments, syllabi, and more.  All content featured within these pages is free but usage rights vary. Materials in these repositories are released under a Creative Commons license while some are in the public domain.

Open Courses

These are entire courses, from the materials to the presentation, freely available with open licenses.

Open Access Journals

Open Access (OA) stands for unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse. Here’s why that matters.

Most publishers own the rights to the articles in their journals. Anyone who wants to read the articles must pay to access them. Anyone who wants to use the articles in any way must obtain permission from the publisher and is often required to pay an additional fee.

Excerpt from Public Library of Science (PLOS) This link opens in a new window.