OER: What Are They and Why Use Them?
What are OERs?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are informational materials freely available through the public domain or specially licensed to facilitate unobstructed retention, remixing, revision, reuse, and redistribution of the contents for educational purposes. These materials provide several benefits when used to replace textbooks and other course materials that students are frequently expected to buy when enrolled in courses.
Why should I consider using OER?
For students, OER can significantly reduce or eliminate the direct costs of enrolling in a course and ensure they have immediate and reliable access to the information they need to be successful. OERs can ensure that the student's economic circumstances do not hinder access to high-quality learning opportunities.
For faculty who choose to use OER in their courses, they have more opportunities to customize content delivery to match their lesson plans, more opportunities to incorporate a broader range of formats and delivery modes for that content, and ensure their students have immediate access to the course content from the first day of classes. The customizability of OER also provides opportunities to include additional perspectives and expose students to different voices than might be included in traditional textbooks.
For more information, consider visiting our OER Guide using the following link:
OER Repositories
Free open textbooks created by the BC faculty. Funded by British Columbia's Ministry of Advanced Education. Open the "Subjects" at the left to find business resources.
Business Fundamentals was developed by the Global Text Project, which is working to create open-content electronic textbooks that are freely available.
A clearinghouse for open textbooks authored by faculty at three State of California Higher Education Systems (CCC, CSU and UC). Search for textbooks from Merlot or those available with a Creative Commons License.
A large collection of peer-reviewed online teaching and learning materials including case studies, tutorials and more. MERLOT opened in 1997 and is supported by the California State University System. Merlot offers discipline specific Communities.
Business is one of Merlot's discipline specific Communities. You can search by the ISBN of a current textbook to find related OER materials.
Lecture notes, interactive simulations, online textbooks, and assessments. For undergraduate and graduate courses.
LearningEdge, launched in 2009, is a collection of teaching case studies and management flight simulations developed by MIT Sloan faculty and students. MIT Sloan offers authorized educators worldwide free access to teaching notes and videos that accompany the teaching materials available on LearningEdge.
A single search source that pulls from multiple OER collections, including MERLOT and Open Stax. OER Commons has forged alliances with over 500 major content partners. Search by keyword, subject discipline, education level, material type, media format, and conditions of use.
Textbooks and free educational material in small modules. Users can create customized versions of the books - selecting specific content modules and adding their own.Founded in 1999 at Rice University.
The library is sponsored by the Center for Open Education at the University of Minnesota. All textbooks have been reviewed by faculty and are in current use or are affiliated with a professional society.
OAPEN is the Open Access Publishing in European Network and their Library contains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of humanities and social sciences. OAPEN works directly with publishers to build a quality controlled open collection.
Business textbooks from University of Minnesota's Open Textbook Library
Find free and open materials from multiple OER collections including Merlot and OpenStax. Search by education level, material type, media format, and conditions of use.
Resources range from open textbooks, individual learning activities and tools, all the way to full programs. Sharable Online Learning Resources is supported through BCcampuses in British Columbia.
OER Textbooks by Discipline
Principles of Accounting is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of a two-semester accounting course that covers the fundamentals of financial and managerial accounting. Due to the comprehensive nature of the material, we are offering the book in two volumes.
This book is specifically designed to appeal to both accounting and non-accounting majors, exposing students to the core concepts of accounting in familiar ways to build a strong foundation that can be applied across business fields.
Principles of Financial Accounting is a needed contribution to open source pedagogy in the business education world. Instructor resources are available.
Features: Peer-reviewed by academic professionals and tested by students; Over 100 charts and graphs; Instructional exercises appearing both in-text and for Excel; Resources for student professional development
Accounting Principles: A Business Perspective uses annual reports of real companies to illustrate many of the accounting concepts in use in business today.
This book is intended for an undergraduate or MBA level Financial Accounting course. It covers the standard topics in a standard sequence, utilizing the Socratic method of asking and answering questions.
The text focuses on core introductory financial accounting topics that match pre-requisite requirements for students advancing to Intermediate Financial Accounting. Excluded are advanced topics that are covered in Intermediate Financial Accounting, such as leases and bond amortization.
This text is intended for a first course in Intermediate Financial Accounting. It presumes that students have already completed one or two Introductory Financial Accounting courses. The book reflects current International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), such as IFRS 15 - Revenue from Contracts With Customers.
This text provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals.
Business Ethics is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the single-semester business ethics course. This title includes innovative features designed to enhance student learning, including case studies, application scenarios, and links to video interviews with executives, all of which help instill in students a sense of ethical awareness and responsibility.
Business Law I Essentials is a brief introductory textbook designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of courses on Business Law or the Legal Environment of Business.
Fundamentals of Business, third edition (2020) is an 370-page open education resource intended to serve as a no-cost, faculty customizable primary text for one-semester undergraduate introductory business courses.
This textbook provides context and essential concepts across the entire range of legal issues with which managers and business executives must grapple. The text provides the vocabulary and legal acumen necessary for businesspeople to talk in an educated way to their customers, employees, suppliers, government officials—and to their own lawyers.
Business professionals will work with taxes, gross earnings, product prices, and currency exchange; they will be offered loans, lines of credit, mortgages, leases, savings bonds, and other financial tools. This textbook covers all of these topics and how these financial tools can maximize their earnings and minimize their costs.
This course allows students to develop effective written communication strategies specifically for the workplace. From idea gathering to drafting to delivery, this course will prepare students to write a variety of documents, including memos, letters, and reports, tailored to professional audiences.
Business Communication for Success (BCS) provides a comprehensive, integrated approach to the study and application of written and oral business communication to serve both student and professor.
The author's goals in writing Exploring Business Version 2.0 was simple: introduce students to business in an exciting way. This textbook has been used in classes at: College of Alameda, Columbia Basin College, Flagler College, Johnson County Community College, Pasadena City College, Penn State University, Renton Technical College, San Diego Mesa College, Sierra College, Yuba College.
Principles of Economics 3e covers the scope and sequence of most introductory economics courses. The third edition takes a balanced approach to the theory and application of economics concepts. The text uses conversational language and ample illustrations to explore economic theories and provides a wide array of examples using both fictional and real-world scenarios.
Principles of Macroeconomics 3e covers the scope and sequence of most one semester introductory macroeconomics courses. The third edition takes a balanced approach to the theory and application of macroeconomics concepts. The text uses conversational language and ample illustrations to explore economic theories and provides a wide array of examples using both fictional and real-world scenarios.
Principles of Microeconomics 3e covers the scope and sequence of most one semester introductory microeconomics courses. The third edition takes a balanced approach to the theory and application of microeconomics concepts. The text uses conversational language and ample illustrations to explore economic theories and provides a wide array of examples using both fictional and real-world applications.
An open textbook for learning about entrepreneurship and what makes entrepreneurs successful, all while developing your entrepreneurial skills. Videos and interactive exercises are provided liberally throughout the text.
This book offers suggestions for future research through a variety of topics including prosocial action, innovation, family business, sustainability and development, and the financial, social, and psychological costs of failure.
This book provides an overview of the world of entrepreneurship. Topics covered include an introduction to entrepreneurship; opportunity recognition and design thinking; evaluation entrepreneurial opportunities; business models; business planning; financing entrepreneurship; business set-up, start-up, and growth; strategic entrepreneurship; innovation and entrepreneurship; and the entrepreneurial environment.
This textbook and its accompanying spreadsheet templates were designed with and for students wanting a practical and easy-to-follow guide for developing a business plan. It follows a unique format that both explains what to do and demonstrates how to do it.
This is a modular open textbook designed for entrepreneurial journalism, media innovation, and related courses.
This book is for those whose financial management focus is on small businesses. For you, we adapt the traditional financial management themes emphasized in corporate financial management courses to meet the needs of small businesses.
Principles of Finance provides a strong foundation in financial applications using an innovative use-case approach to explore their role in business decision-making. An array of financial calculator and downloadable Microsoft Excel data exercises also engage students in experiential learning throughout. With flexible integration of technical instruction and data, this title prepares students for current practice and continual evolution.
In this book, you will be introduced to the concept of information systems, their use in business, and the larger impact they are having on our world. This book is written as an introductory text, meant for those with little or no experience with computers or information systems.
This text is intended for use in undergraduate and/or graduate courses in Management Information Systems and Information Technology. Every topic is related to specific business examples, so students gain an immediate appreciation of its importance. Rather than lead with technical topics, the book starts with strategic thinking, focusing on big-picture issues that have confounded experts but will engage students.
Students need to understand systems and the systems concept, and they need to understand the role of ICT in enabling systems. Students will learn the characteristics of good systems (e.g., intuitive, likable, error-resistant, fast, flexible, and the like). Knowing the characteristics of good systems will permit students to demand well designed systems and to suggest how existing systems should be changed.
A selection of textbook chapters, ancillary materials, videos, and other educational materials organized and presented by Saylor Academy. This course covers the various components of business information systems, with particular emphasis on the means by which information is transmitted, the software that displays the information, and the systems that manage the data that businesses use every day.
Principles of Management is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the introductory course on management. This is a traditional approach to management using the leading, planning, organizing, and controlling approach. Management is a broad business discipline, and the Principles of Management course covers many management areas such as human resource management and strategic management, as well behavioral areas such as motivation.
This introductory textbook to organizational behavior covers a wide range of topics such as diversity in the workplace, motivation, organizational culture and communication, and more! It discusses each of the topics through both an ethics and national culture lens at the end of each chapter. Multiple formats of the text are available.
This book covers the basics of project management. This includes the process of initiation, planning, execution, control, and closeout that all projects share.
In a world that is becoming more virtual, more global, and more complex, the project manager's ability to function in this environment becomes critical to the success of the project. Project Management from Simple to Complex explores project management within this complex, virtual, and global environment.
Principles of Management teaches management principles to tomorrow’s business leaders by weaving three threads through every chapter: strategy, entrepreneurship, and active leadership.
Small Business Management in the 21st Century offers a unique perspective and set of capabilities for instructors. The authors designed this book with a “less can be more” approach, and by treating small business management as a practical human activity rather than as an abstract theoretical concept.
Financial Strategy for Public Managers is a new generation textbook for financial management in the public sector. It offers a thorough, applied, and concise introduction to the essential financial concepts and analytical tools that today’s effective public servants need to know.
Mastering Strategic Management is designed to enhance student engagement in three innovative ways. The first is through visual adaptations of the key content in the book. The second way the authors capture student interest through their textbook is by using a real-world company as the running example in each chapter.
This text is an adaptation of Mastering Strategic Management. It offers an introduction to the key topics and themes of strategic management. The authors draw on examples of familiar companies and personalities to illustrate the different strategies used by today’s firms—and how they go about implementing those strategies. Students will learn how to conduct a case analysis, measure organizational performance, and conduct external and internal analyses. In short, they will understand how organizations operate at the strategic level to be successful.
From the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University, this open textbook addresses business communication which is concise, direct, clear, and compelling.
Principles of Marketing teaches the experience and process of actually doing marketing – not just the vocabulary. It carries five dominant themes throughout in order to expose students to marketing in today's environment: Service-dominant Logic, Sustainability, Ethics & Social Responsibility, Metrics, and Global Coverage.
This text introduces students to the marketing strategies and tools that practitioners use to market their products.
The newly updated edition - based on Quirk's unique Think, Create, Engage, Optimise structure and processes - includes chapters on the latest marketing trends as well as updated facts and figures and all new real-world case studies showing the application of digital best practice.
This remix of existing Communication and Marketing texts aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to public relations for undergraduates.
