Open Educational Resources in Computer Science
Open Educational Resources in Computer Science
OER books come from many sources. Some are developed by the author specifically to teach a course, some are new textbooks from commercial publisher that the author negotiated to be published open access, some are older textbooks where the copyright has reverted to the author. Here are some examples of the variety of OER books you can find.
Gallery of Computer Science OER Books
What are OER - Open Educational Resources?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which can be fully used, shared and adapted in the digital environment.
What are OER? Why use OER? Where is OER? How is OER created? Who can help?
OER Search Engines & Finding Aids
- DOAB : Directory of Open Access BooksAll books listed in DOAB are freely accessible and therefore free to read, but this does not mean readers are free to do anything they like with these books. The usage rights of the books in DOAB are determined by the license.
- Mason OER Metafinder (James Mason University)The Mason OER Metafinder helps you find Open Educational Resources. Unlike other OER discovery sites (e.g, OER Commons, OASIS, MERLOT, OpenStax, etc.), OER Metafinder is not a single database. Instead it is a federated search across 21 different sources of open educational materials.
- OER CommonsOER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum.
Open Textbook Collections
- BC Open Textbooks - Computer ScienceOpen textbooks on CIS topics such as database management and information systems.
- BookboonBookboon.com contains free eBooks and textbooks that can be downloaded as a pdf, although registration may be required. These books cannot be altered, but can be freely printed, shared, or embedded in non-commercial ways.
- MERLOTMERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.
- Milne Open Textbooks (SUNY)Milne Library Publishing at SUNY Geneseo manages and maintains Milne Open Textbooks, a catalog of open textbooks authored and peer-reviewed by SUNY faculty and staff.
- OER Commons - Computer Science Textbooks and Full CoursesTextbooks and full courses in computer science offered at a number of levels. Most have Creative Commons licenses, but check the rights descriptions to be sure.
- Open Textbook Library (University of Minnesota)Textbooks in information systems and programming languages. Most are available for download as PDF or EPUB.
Open Access Books at Commercial Publishers
- JSTOR Open ContentThousands of Open Access ebooks are available from top scholarly publishers, including Brill, Cornell University Press, De Gruyter, and University of California Press.
- The National Academies Press (NAP)The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative, independently-researched information. Almost all of the books are available as PDFs that can be downloaded for free by the chapter or by the entire book.
- Springer Open AccessSpringer offers authors the option to publish open access books in a wide range of areas in science, technology, medicine and in the humanities and social sciences. Their books are available to download free of charge from SpringerLink (HTML, PDF, ePub) or Amazon (MOBI).
- Taylor & Francis Open Access Books & ChaptersTaylor & Francis publish books and chapters across all subjects covered by Routledge, CRC Press and other imprints in the humanities, social sciences and behavioral sciences. Currently, over 1000 books are published open access.
Other Free Ebooks
- eBook Foundation : Free Programming BooksThis list was originally a clone of StackOverflow - List of Freely Available Programming Books with contributions from Karan Bhangui and George Stocker. The list was moved to GitHub by Victor Felder for collaborative updating and maintenance. The Free Ebook Foundation now administers the repo, a not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting the creation, distribution, archiving, and sustainability of free ebooks.
- Internet Archive : Open Source Text BooksA sprawling archive of scanned books digitized in partnership with research libraries.
- Speckyboy : Free eBooks for Web Designers & DevelopersPaul Andrew curates a list of free ebooks into the following categories: CSS & HTML, JavaScript, PHP, WordPress, Git, UX, Miscellaneous Web Design and finally, a selection of Older, Yet Always Relevant Books.
Courses and Videos
- Academic Earth : Computer ScienceA large selection of computer science courses on a variety of topics.
- Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD)The Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD) is a Pathways portal of the National Science Digital Library and funded by the National Science Foundation. CSERD aims to help students learn about computational science and to help faculty and teachers incorporate it into the classroom.
- edX : Computer ScienceReal college courses from Harvard, MIT, and more of the world’s leading universities. Enroll in the latest computer science courses covering important topics in artificial intelligence, cyber security, software engineering, and big data.
- Future Learn: Cyber Security CoursesExplore online criminal activity and undergo cyber security training to protect yourself and others online, or prepare for a career in cyber security.
- MIT Open Courseware : Computer ScienceMIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department offers a variety of online courses. Course format generally includes, lecture videos, interactive concept quizzes (solution key), problem sets, terms and definitions, suggested topics and links, and exams (with solution key).