This teaching tip was prepared by Conestoga College’s Library Services department. Please visit their website for a complete list of library resources for faculty.
Library Services offers a variety of online supports to help faculty meet remote teaching goals. Below are some of the ways that Library Services can help faculty provide online course and research materials. These services offer the double benefit of making materials available to all students in a course and often offers cost-savings on course materials.
eReserves (Online Course Readings)
The eReserves service provides 24/7 access to digital versions of required or supplemental course materials that can be linked to through eConestoga. Library staff can offer resource recommendations, vet copyright compliance, check accessibility, post materials to course shells, and more. For more information, visit the library’s eReserves web page.
Electronic Resources
The Library offers access to extensive digital collections of e-books, electronic journals and magazines, research databases, images and streamed videos. These collections are curated in consultation with academic schools to meet curricular needs and staff can assist faculty with procuring, navigating, and finding resources students need. To make purchase recommendations, please use the Request Items Form.
Open Educational Resources (OERs)
OERs are textbooks, course material, presentations, and more which belong in the public domain or have been released under an open license. These free resources allow access, use, adaptation, and redistribution of materials, with limited restrictions. The Library website offers an OER Toolkit that provides information and training for adopting, adapting, and creating OER.
The Learning Portal
The Learning Portal provides access to a wide variety of OERs, tools and learning supports. It is available to all faculty and students at Ontario colleges and provides teaching support for accessibility requirements (AODA), Indigenous inclusion and development, copyright, and use of OERs in the classroom. The Learning Portal also includes an Online Learning Hub to support students with online learning.
