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Portland, Maine

UNE joins the Open Education Network

UNE joins other institutions in the region who are members of OEN, including the University of Southern Maine and Bates College.

The University of New England has joined the Open Education Network (OEN), an alliance of colleges, universities, and other organizations working together to promote the use of open educational resources (OERs) — especially open textbooks — in higher education.

OERs are defined as “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.”

Unlike traditionally copyrighted material, these resources are available for “open” use, which means users can freely use, edit, modify, customize, and share them. Types of OER include labs, quizzes, articles, assignments, and textbooks.

Course materials may be a barrier to student success if students cannot afford or access needed materials. As a member of OEN, UNE Library Services will collaborate with UNE faculty, professional staff, and students to collect information about OERs at UNE and to promote awareness and use of open textbooks and other OERs in academic programs, with the goal of promoting inclusion, equity, and affordability.

The Open Education Network offers a supportive community that advances the use of OERs and practices. It also maintains the Open Textbook Library, a database of over 1,178 textbooks in a variety of subjects that are free to use, adapt, and distribute.

Housed at the University of Minnesota, the OEN has hundreds of organizational members and is growing steadily. UNE joins other institutions in the region who are members of OEN, including the University of Southern Maine and Bates College.

Image of Open Education Network member badge

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.