Books and collections of books written specifically as textbooks. An open textbook is an integrated course-associated learning tool that is in the public domain or has been open-licensed by the copyright holder to permit re-use without the necessity of asking permission of the copyright holder. Some material is modifiable by the user for order and topic coverage. Some business models allow free or low cost online textbooks with a charge for printed or extended materials.
With the Reading List in Canvas, instructors can create digital course packs comprised of all types of materials, including print and electronic items from their library’s collections, Open Educational Resources, and other resources available on the web. The Library's discovery system includes multiple Open Access and OER collections – such as Open SUNY, OpenStax, and Open Textbook Library. Follow these steps to find OER and refer to the images below:
To find out more about activating the Reading List in your Canvas course, contact your library liaison.
Do a general OER search using Google Advanced Search and filter your results by “Usage Rights” (pull-down menu at the bottom of the screen). Filter by usage rights rights "Free to use, share or modify" and/or "Free to use, share or modify, even commercially."
Use the Creative Commons CC Search and limit by content you can Modify or adapt.