Open Textbooks: What are OERs and open textbooks?

Penn State is a member of the Open Textbook Network. 

As a member, the university will be doing the following:

• hosting a live streaming workshop during Open Access Week about adopting open textbooks
• filling a full-time open education librarian position
• collecting measurable evidence of open textbooks' impact on PSU students.
• encouraging PSU faculty to review peers' textbooks in the OTN

Content on this page is adapted from Kwantlen Polytechnic University's Open Textbooks LibGuide by the CAUL Scholarly Communications Committee. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

• Open textbooks are part of a larger movement called "Open Educational Resources."
• An open textbook is a textbook with an open copyright license that allows the material to be freely accessed, shared and distributed.
• Open licenses allow instructors to adapt, remix, and customize existing open textbooks so that the content meets their own learning objectives.
• Many open textbooks are developed through traditional peer review. Others are vetted by experts. As with any textbook, the instructor is the final judge of whether an open textbook meets the needs of the course.
• Open textbooks are free for anyone to view and download in an online format and can be made available in a print format at a nominal cost.