What is LibreTexts?

What is LibreTexts?

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LibreTexts Links to an external site. is a powerful platform for all things OER – publishing, printing, developing, “remixing” (combining and reordering OER), interactive exercises, homework systems, and more. This module will introduce you to LibreTexts and its capabilities, providing an overview of the simplest use-case scenarios.

The LibreTexts project Links to an external site. is a multi-institutional collaborative venture with a mission to unite students, faculty, and scholars in a cooperative effort to establish a vetted, comprehensive, and easy-to-use platform for the dissemination and implementation of customized course materials for post-secondary courses, while significantly reducing existing textbook costs for our students and society.

The project ensures the OER “5Rs” Links to an external site. design are fully met enabling faculty to build course-specific LibreTexts to meet the needs of their students. The "5Rs" emphasize the ability to customize and share content.

The OER 5Rs

  1. Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
  2. Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
  3. Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
  4. Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
  5. Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

The "OER 5Rs" from Understanding OER. Provided by: SUNY OER Services. Located at: https://oer.suny.edu/ Links to an external site.. Project: OER Community Course. License: CC BY: Attribution Links to an external site.

Some of the benefits of LibreTexts:

  • It's a platform for OER storage, development, curation, remixing, and enhancing.
  • Most any resource that is openly-licensed that you have an interest in using should be in LibreTexts - and can be, upon request (LibreTexts - Request OER Integration Links to an external site.).
  • You can “re-mix” in LibreTexts – combining resources and re-ordering content.
  • When you import a LibreText resources into Canvas, updates made to the resource in LibreTexts are automatically “pushed” to Canvas as the LibreTexts pages are embedded in Canvas.