Open Educational Resources (OER)

The Libraries' Teaching and Learning Team supports undergraduates in general education courses, as well as graduates, faculty, and community members familiarizing themselves with the Mason Libraries. As part of their overall portfolio, Teaching and Learning staff work collaboratively with Mason Publishing to help faculty identify appropriate OER materials for undergraduate teaching.

Other services offered include:

• Reference and Research Support
  • The Gateway Library offers drop-in reference and research services, especially for undergraduate research.
• Classroom Instruction Sessions
  • Classroom Instruction provided by the The Teaching and Learning Team facilitates the development of research and critical thinking skills.
• Workshops
  • In addition to by-request workshops, the Teaching and Learning Team offers regular workshops on the Zotero citation management software.

The Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) investigates and supports open educational, resource, and access models that increase access and affordability to high quality educational resources for Virginia students. VIVA efforts focus directly on the costs of higher education for Virginia students, empowering faculty to contribute to the growing field of open course materials and providing statewide support to open education library leaders.

VIVA offers course redesign grants, participates in the Open Textbook Network, and coordinates OER initatives across the Commonwealth's academic libraries.

Mason's Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning is a one-stop destination for all George Mason faculty and graduate students seeking to explore and test new ideas for teaching methods and techniques including online course delivery and integrated instructional design.