Open Educational Resources
OER can be open educational resources, teaching, learning, and research resources that, through permissions granted by the copyright holder, allow others to use, distribute, keep, or make changes to them. OER are teaching resources that have an open-copyright licence (such as one from Creative Commons), or they are part of the public domain and have no copyright. Depending on the licence used, OER can be freely accessed, used, re-mixed, improved, and shared.
Access free OER online or get a printed copy for a nominal fee
Open textbooks come in multiple formats. Many can be read online or delivered via PDF and/or EPUB format for e-readers, or can be printed via our print-on-demand service via SFU Document Solutions for a nominal fee. Find the book and check out the printing cost. SFU Document Solutions will notify you once it's ready to pick up/ship.
OER offered by BCcampus
BCcampus has their B.C. Open Collection for a curated selection of open educational resources (OER) that can be accessed by educators in B.C. and beyond to use in the classroom, in an institutional learning management system, or on other teaching and learning platforms. All materials are openly licensed. This means they are free to use, customize, and share. Find Materials by Subject from BCCampus and choose your free textbooks and enjoy downloading PDF and/or EPUB versions. Follow the instructions if you want to order hardcopy versions, then choose black & white or colour versions for a nominal printing cost via SFU Document Solutions.
SFU courses that adopted OER materials for the Spring/January 2026 Semester*
*extracted from semesterly Faculty/Department course materials adoption submissions to the Bookstore
| Course | Course Name | Instructor | Open Textbook/OER Name |
|---|---|---|---|
|
BUS 478 D600 |
STRATEGY | CARCANO | OER: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT |
| CHEM 281 D100 | ORGANIC CHEMISTRY AND LABORATORY I | BRITTON | OER: OPENSTAX ORGANIC CHEMISTRY |
| CMPT 115 FIC 1-2 | EXPLORING COMPUTER SCIENCE | HAKIMI | OER: HOW TO THINK LIKE A COMPUTER SCIENTIST: INTERACTIVE ED. |
| CMPT 120 FIC 1-2 | INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING SCIENCE AND PROGRAMMING | WELDESELASSIE | OER: HOW TO THINK LIKE A COMPUTER SCIENTIST: INTERACTIVE ED. |
| CMPT 120 D100 | INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING SCIENCE AND PROGRAMMING | CUKIERMAN | OER: HOW TO THINK LIKE A COMPUTER SCIENTIST: INTERACTIVE ED. |
| CMPT 413 D100 | COMPUTATIONA LINGUISTICS | CHANG | |
| ENGL 112 FIC 3-4 | LITERATURE NOW | ZILLWOOD | (DIGITAL ARCHIVE) JEALOUS HUSBAND RETURNS IN FORM OF PARROT (PUBLIC DOMAIN) THE TELL-TALE HEART |
| ENGL 115W FIC 3-4 | LITERATURE AND CULTURE | ZILLWOOD | (PUBLIC DOMAIN) NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (PUBLIC DOMAIN) BRAVE NEW WORLD |
| EVSC 100 FIC 1 | INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE |
MORTEZAPOUR |
OER: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE |
| EVSC 100 D100 | INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE | ROSENGARD | OER: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE |
| MATH 100 D100 | PRECALCULUS | GRAY | EBOOK FREE: OPENSTAX PRECALCULUS |
| MATH 100 D400 | PRECALCULUS | SINGH | EBOOK FREE: OPENSTAX PRECALCULUS |
| MATH 157 D100 | CALCULUS I FOR THE SOCIAL SCIENCES | HONIGS | OER: (SFU) CALCULUS EARLY TRANSCENDENTALS: DIFFERENTIAL & MULTI-VARIABLE CALCULUS FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES |
| PHIL 110 D100 | INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC AND REASONING | GUINDON | OER: FORALLX: SFU - AN INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LOGIC |
| SA 150 D900 | INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY | MACDONALD | OER: OPENSTAX INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY |
| STAT 360 D100 | ADVANCED R FOR DATA SCIENCE | SHI | OER: ADVANCED R |
FAQs:
What is OER?
In the BCcampus Open Education Self-Publishing Guide, we’ve shared our definition of open educational resources (OER): “teaching, learning, and research resources that, through permissions granted by the copyright holder, allow others to use, distribute, keep, or make changes to them.”
OER are teaching resources that have an open-copyright licence (such as one from Creative Commons), or they are part of the public domain and have no copyright. Depending on the licence used, OER can be freely accessed, used, re-mixed, improved, and shared.
Are open textbooks OER?
Open textbooks are a subset of OER, and while we focus much of our effort on creating, assessing, sharing, and supporting open textbooks, there are many types of OER available, such as:
- Online courses
- Videos
- Audio
- Presentation slides
- Syllabi
- Course outlines
- Supplemental materials, such as quizzes and assignments
Why should I use OER?
One of the driving factors for the adoption of OER, such as open textbooks, is they are free. But cost savings is not the only benefit of using OER – they are an essential part of an open pedagogy, and can be used to create a powerful learning experience for your students. Studies have revealed a “positive relationship between the use of OER and student academic achievement” [PDF] and suggest that OER may help to decrease withdrawal rates while increasing overall student grades.
Former BCcampus Director of Curriculum Services, Paul Stacey, shared a comprehensive article on the Economics of Open, which provides an abundance of reasons to choose and use OER.
OER can:
- Increase access to education
- Provide students with an opportunity to assess and plan their education choices
- Showcase an institution’s intellectual outputs, promote its profile, and attract students
- Convert students exploring options into fee-paying enrollments
- Accelerate learning by providing educational resources for just-in-time, direct, informal use by both students and self-directed learners
- Add value to knowledge production
- Reduce faculty preparation time
- Generate cost savings – (this case has been particularly substantiated for open textbooks)
- Enhance quality
- Generate innovation through collaboration
Where can I find more information about OER at SFU?
When will you post future SFU courses that adopt OER materials?
January courses will be posted here in February
May courses will be posted here in June
September courses will be posted here in October
Ideally, this information provided will allow students to make more informed course selection decisions during their enrolment dates. However, since course adoption information can fluctuate last minute, be dynamic and/or fluid, the OER materials adopted by Faculty/Departments are posted on this page after the term starts for accuracy purposes. Keep in mind, not all Faculty/Departments notify the Bookstore about their course material requirements, so there is a high probability that more classes adopt OER materials than what is shown above. Lastly, if Faculty/Departments used OER materials for their course(s), there is a greater chance they will use OER materials again in the future classes that they teach.