Skip to Main Content

History Instructor Guide

Library resources and quick links for History Faculty and Instructors

OER Search Engine

Search: Mason OER Metafinder
 

The Mason OER Metafinder helps you find Open Educational Resources with  a real-time, simultaneous search across 21 different sources of open educational materials. Mason searches OER repositories like OpenStaxOER CommonsMERLOT but also sites like HathiTrustDPLAInternet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections where valuable but often overlooked yet often “open” educational materials may be found. In this case "open" is in quotes because the materials in these additional digital collections have some Copyright restrictions, but are widely and reliably accessible to students on the Web and can be curated in your course following Fair Use.

The Mason OER Metafinder allows users to do a deeper web search than a typical Google search, revealing documents, essays, etc.

 

Humanities OER

Find, Reuse and Retain: Finding OER in the Humanities

Open Educational Resources are ideal for online learning. They are free to reuse and redistribute to your students in Canvas. You can also retain a digital copy of a resource so that it is available to you for future semesters. You may also customize or remix content. When selecting interactive learning activities, be selective about the source file and presentation format. For example, avoid content created with Flash which is largely not accessible and will no longer be supported after 2020. HTML5 files, on the other hand, can be viewed in most browsers and work with iOS devices. HTML5 can also be edited for customization or innovation purposes. 

Find and Reuse: Humanities Illustrations

Online open textbooks are a great resource for Humanities illustrations. Images can be reused in slides, handbooks, and virtual labs.