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?
Open Educational Resources for Biology
OER books come from many sources. Some are developed by the author specifically to teach a course, some are new textbooks from a 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.
Examples of Biology Open Textbooks
More Biology Open Textbooks
Anatomy and Physiology
General Biology
Environmental Biology
Microbiology
Cell and Molecular Biology
Open Textbook Collections to Search or Browse
- Applied Math & Science Education Repository (AMSER) -- (Science Collection)AMSER (the Applied Math and Science Education Repository) is a portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by those in Community and Technical Colleges but free for anyone to use. This is a link for their Science Collection.
- BC Campus (Biology Collection)Maintained by post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. Search for quality open textbooks offered in a variety of digital formats; the first step in adopting open educational resources. Search by subject and download them to your computer.
- Directory of Open Access Books (Biology & Life Sciences)All 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.
- 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.
- MERLOT (Biology Collection)MERLOT 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 (Biology Collection)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.
- National Academies Press (Open Biology & Life Sciences Collection)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.
- OER Commons (Life Science Collection)Textbooks and full courses in biology offered in various specialties, and at a number of levels. Most have Creative Commons licenses, but check the rights descriptions to be sure.
- OpenStax (Science Collection)Peer-reviewed open textbooks, backed by additional learning resources including Canvas Cartridges, sample PowerPoint slides, instructor solution manuals, and sample syllabus examples.
- Open Textbook Library (Biology Collection)Maintained by the University of Minnesota and offering open textbooks in major areas of Biology study.
- 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).
Open Lab Simulations
- Microscope Imaging StationThe Microscope Imaging Station at the Exploratorium provides a unique opportunity to explore the microscopic world.
- Virtual Biology LabVirtual Biology Lab is a free, online resource provided for educational purposes. VBL simulates natural environments with the way life responds to changing conditions.
- Virtual Biology Labs (Rutgers)Rutgers University offers lab exercises in cell structure, cell reproduction, and chromosome structure and meiosis. Students will work through the labs with step by step instructions.
- Web Adventures from Rice UniversityThis website offers interactive games that will teach students about the Scientific Method, Cholera, or the Pox Virus as if they were the scientist researching the disease.
- Cells AliveCells Alive represents 30 years of capturing film and computer-enhanced images of living cells and organisms for education and medical research