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Open Educational Resources (OER): OER for Sociology

Links, videos and other resources for OER

Finding OER for your Discipline: Getting Started

So, you want to find OER for your subject area?

Suggestions for getting started:

  • Talk with your colleagues. Who do you know who is using OER in your discipline, here at Clark and elsewhere? What OER are they using? Do they have any subject-specific OER advice?
  • Prioritize accessibility from the beginning. Clark follows WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility guidance. Like commercially published materials, many OER are published with accessibility issues. An advantage of OER is that, often times, we can intervene and improve the accessibility of materials ourselves. Check out the Accessibility box below for more information and please evaluate OER for accessibility before sharing with students.
  • Consider Backwards Course Design. When we design our courses backwards - beginning with learning goals - choosing course texts and other instructional materials are often the last part of the process. If you shake up your course with open pedagogy, you may even invite your students to help find, evaluate, and introduce course readings!

three young women sitting under an arched rock formation, enjoying a picnic outdoors.

"The Picnic Party" by Mary Dillwyn, The National Gallery of Art is in the Public Domain, CC0

Searching the Open Web

OER-specific search tools

You can search for OER using search tools like the Mason OER Metafinder, OASIS, or OER Commons, but these tools often produce an overwhelming number of results. 

OpenWashington recommends various repositories for beginning your search.. Check out our Find OER page for a long list curated by Clark librarians.

Searching for OER with typical search engines

A strategic search on the open web (via Google, Duck Duck Go, etc.) will often connect you to popular OER and OER guides from other colleges. Try searching with a combination of key words:

  • a couple key words that describe your subject (Biology, Microbiology, Anatomy & Physiology...)
  • type of material you're looking for (textbook, images, quizzes...)
  • "OER"
  • "community college"

A search on Google for biology textbook oer community college, for example, will usually return subject-specific OER guides created by other community college libraries.

All Access New York Times Accounts for Clark Students, Faculty, and Staff!

Sample of Sociology OER

OER Communities or Projects Specific to this Discipline

Library / Zero-cost Materials for this Discipline

The library recommends 17 databases for all things Sociology.

Our streaming videos database, Academic Videos Online (AVON) has accessible videos with closed captioning, transcripts, and audio descriptions!

Search our library catalog for e-books, print books, magazine articles, scholarly journal articles, and more.

Accessibility

All resources at Clark College need to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standards. Basic things to look for or create are alt-text for images, headers for text, and descriptive audio or a media alternative for videos.

OpenWA Open Image Attribution Builder

Librarian

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Katy Anastasi
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(360) 992-2558

Reference and Instruction Librarian

A group of disabled queer Black folks talk and laugh at a sleepover, relaxing across two large beds. Everyone is dressed in colorful t-shirts and wearing a variety of sleep scarves, bonnets, and durags. On the left, two friends sit on one bed and paint each other’s nails. On the right, four people lounge on a bed: one person braids another’s hair while the third friend wearing a C-PAP mask laughs, and the fourth person looks up from their book. In the center, a bedside lamp illuminates the room in warm light while pill bottles adorn an end table.

"Group Sleepover" by Jonathan Y. Eden for Disabled and Here. Disabled and Here is in the Public Domain, CC0.

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