Open Educational Resources (OER) and Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC)

Watch this short video to learn useful tips for creating your own OER textbook.

OER Creation Platforms

Guidelines and How-To's

Video Tutorials

Some content in this section was adapted from "OER Authoring and Publishing Tools," UT Austin Library, CC BY-NC 4.0.

Course Design Guidelines

Usability Criteria

The OEI Course Design Rubric guidelines recommend the following to improve usability of your Canvas materials.

A9: Instructions for Learners

• Course design includes instructions for students to work with content in meaningful ways: encouraging note-taking, telling them key concepts to look out for, etc.
• OERs need to provide clear instructions.

D3: Descriptive Links

• Links are identified using meaningful, unique text.
• Links are not displayed as a long URL.
• Link titles are consistent.

OER Placement

These are some good locations to place OERs in your Canvas course:

• Module 0/Syllabus Module
• Standalone module
• Individual chapters embedded into modules
• Individual chapters copied and pasted into modules
• Side navigation menu via Canvas Redirect tool

Accessibility

Regardless of how content is integrated into the course, you must always check its accessibility.

Things to Remember

• Canvas accessibility tools don’t scan embedded content.

  • When embedding web pages directly, you will have to run your own WAVE scan of the site before embedding it.
  • Content should be reviewed for accessibility prior to importing.

• Accessibility =/= Usability.

  • Content can be accessible but not useful. While providing context is necessary, take care to not include so much information that it is visually overwhelming or difficult to navigate.

• PDFs, Word docs, etc. must also be checked for accessibility.

  • These files have their own accessibility guidelines beyond the web accessibility guidelines. If uploading PDFs or Word docs, please ensure that the document is likewise accessible/usable.

• Canvas immersive reader tool can be used to test out information volume/density by reading text content aloud.

Additional Resources

Course Design

OER Placement

OER Accessibility

ADAPT Adaptive Learning Assessment System 

Homework system, created by LibreTexts, where instructors can adapt and create customized homework questions; make questions open-ended or autograded; pick between assessment styles; and embed existing material from Canvas or other textbooks. Includes learning analytics.

• LibreTexts ADAPT Workshop (Webinar Recording)

MyOpenMath

Provides homework, quizzes, and tests with rich mathematical content. Large question database and students can get immediate feedback on algorithmically generated questions.

H5P

Free platform where you can make interactive digital tools, integrates with Canvas and LibreTexts. Embed interactive question forms, charts, images/videos, and more. 

WebWork

This open-source homework management system integrates with Canvas and has features similar to purchased products such as WebAssign, MyLab, and MasteringPhysics, but at no cost to students. Published by the Mathematical Association of America.

You may use some copyrighted works without permission under special circumstances.

These circumstances are described as Fair Use by U.S. Copyright Law:

"The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

Determining Fair Use is subjective and depends on a variety of factors.

4 Factors of Fair Use

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• the nature of the copyrighted work;
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

More Likely:

• Transformative, educational, or illustrative purposes: 
  • Transformative use: "Use of a work is transformative when it is used for a purpose different than the purpose for which it was originally created."
  • Educational use: "Using a work for educational purposes weighs in favor of fair use...using a cartoon as an example of an artistic technique you are teaching is an educational use. In contrast, using a cartoon for entertainment in a biology class is less likely to be an educational use."
  • Illustrative use: "Using a work for any of the illustrative purposes, “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, [and] research,” weighs in favor of fair use."
• Using a factual work: "Use of a factual work is more likely to be fair. Facts themselves are not copyrightable."
• Use is the sort the rightsholder is unwilling to license: "Fair use is designed in part to enable criticism... art criticism that requires reproducing the art is often fair use."

Less Likely:

• Commercial use: "Uses in university work are generally not commercial..."

• Bad faith: "Lying, cheating, or otherwise acting in bad faith in order to gain access to the work you use"

• Using work that is not yet published: "Congress amended the fair use statute to clarify that fair use can apply to unpublished materials, 'if such finding is made upon consideration of all the [fair use] factors.'

• Using a creative work: "The strength of copyright is greater for creative works at the core of copyright protection, such as novels, paintings, and songs."

• Using "the heart" of the work: "Using the “heart of the work” weighs against fair use." Note: "heart of the work" is loosely defined, but generally refers to the most important, distinguishing part of the work.

• Using more of the work: "In general, the more you use, the less likely your use is to be fair... [however] other factors and subfactors can outweigh this one... If the amount used is necessary to the transformative purpose of the use, this factor is neutralized."

Attributions: 

• "Fair Use", Penn State University Copyright Information Office, 2022, CC-BY 4.0

• Title 17 (Copyright Act) Section 107: "Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use", Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, CC BY (made changes)-NC-SA 2.5

The digital tools, checklists, and guidelines below, created by copyright specialists and librarians from different institutions, will help you assess and evaluate fair use. 

For more copyright-related resources, see the Copyright page of this guide.

Attribution: PickPik Royalty-free photos