For some faculty and instructors, adapting or creating their own materials is either necessary or preferrable to either commercial or affordable course material options. Other faculty and instructors may already teach with materials they've created for their courses and are ready and willing to share these materials with colleagues and learners across the world (while still maintaining copyright).
UNC librarians can assist with:
Long quote by Karina Sanchez, could use part of it. We feel that the introduction of this text aligned our readings/homework better with our in-class activities and learning opportunities. This is something that was much more difficult to complete with a traditional commercial text. In addition we were able to incorporate more diversity into our class by including content beyond what commercial biology texts include. Specifically, our course is a survey of all life on earth. We cover several body systems in the course in a number of taxa. Most commercial text put an emphasis on the human body systems. With our new text we have been able to create an emphasis on the form and function across several taxa of organisms beyond the human body. This better aligns with our course description and our learning objectives. Additionally, by using this OER for our course, we lost the use of the commercial online homework that typically comes with the purchase of a text (such as McGraw Hill's Connect system). Therefore it
Amanda Rutter quote Most of the grades in the class were high, and they absolutely obtained the content I wanted them to. Which is awesome. Some students hadn't used OER before so this was their exposure to it. Others have used OER before and appreciate that professors are mindful of their expenses. Students reflected that OER can and is just as valuable as expensive textbooks.
Kelly Langley We were able to (and encouraged to) think outside the box. This opportunity not only gave students the chance to have free materials, it allowed/encouraged Dr. Ortiz and myself (Kelly Langley-Cook) to find new and innovative materials for our course.
