Dorothy Gagnon
- Senior Library Technician
Virtual Reference Coordinator -
-
They are online educational resources.
Search this MetaFinder for supplementary free materials!
Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)To search the Metafinder you input your topic, then limit it by type of material or date. More results will trickle in as it searches other sources. The results should be helpful as supplemental materials for your course or an alternative for your textbook. You can also search individually:
Link to Accessibility Toolkit from BCcampus:
All open textbooks from the OpenStax collection are accessible according to this accessibility statement.
For the longest time, human societies evolved very slowly but since not so long ago, our pace of change has been increasing exponentially and the faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and a lot faster. This constant evolution is only possible through the production and assimilation of knowledge and the system transmitting it from generation to generation. The most efficient system we have come up with so far is formal education, a process whose pinnacle of achievement is a degree from a top university. The education given at these institutions opens a huge window of opportunities as students learn from the highest qualified professors and acquire the most cutting-edge knowledge available.
But the system as it is cannot deliver this knowledge to everyone. It is by nature exclusive. Now imagine that this were to change. How would our world be if everyone could benefit from the opportunities offered by studying at these institutions.
Well, this is already happening. Some of the best universities in the US are already sharing their courses online. And this is just part of a trend. The trend of open educational resources. OERs are revolutionary technologies of knowledge delivery that use the Internet to share and spread educational content making high quality education available for each motivated person to access for free.
Opening access to top university courses is just one of the many things OERs can do. They can also serve as the best high school tutor guiding you through thousands of topics with interactive exercises. They make up what may be the biggest textbook library in the world and provide the best tailored way to improve and broaden your professional skills at your own pace.
OERs are creating a new system of education. One which is better adapted to respond to our highly dynamic economy. Equal access to knowledge means equal opportunities in life. And in a world with equal opportunities, it all depends on you. Now that's the power of freedom.