The most exciting aspect of OER comes once you have made the decision to adopt it and selected your content provider(s). Whether you choose to go with OpenStax, MERLOT, or a combination of several open educational resources, reusing, revising, remixing, and redistributing is where it really comes into its own. 

It is probably a given that VitalSource can aid you with the redistribution aspect of OER by uploading content to Bookshelf® and having it made available through the student store, but did you know that we also make it possible to easily enhance, revise, remix, and reuse OER with VitalSource Studio®? 

Studio has PDF import functionality that allows users to extract text and images from PDFs and create impactful learning materials without any knowledge of HTML, CSS, or user interface design. Once the PDF content is imported into Studio, it is converted to the EPUB 3 format, meaning it can be fully accessible for those with visual, auditory, and mobility impairments and fully reflowable on mobile devices..

Once OER content is imported into Studio, users are able to work on the base text, adding interactive features such as videos, audio clips, and interactive practice questions. The process is incredibly straightforward, and the Studio team can support you every step of the way.

Original layout of section 2.2.5 of Understanding Basic Music Theory from OpenStax

Layout of section 2.2.5 of Understanding Basic Music Theory with embedded audio in Studio

Alongside creating enhanced, useful learning materials with minimum hassle, ingesting OER resources into Bookshelf provides institutions deeper insight into students’ study habits through VitalSource's powerful analytics capabilities. Uploading study guides that align to your courses and can be read alongside core content means usage analytics can be collected and examined across both pedagogical materials, supplying an expanded picture of student engagement—this can only assist in early intervention. Having all teaching matter reside on one platform not only provides a more cohesive analytical view for institutions, it also allows for a simpler user experience for students, who can be assured that the bulk of what they may need can be accessed in one place.

If you’re interested in learning more about Studio and how you can use VitalSource to enhance, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute OER content, don’t hesitate to reach out to us: https://get.vitalsource.com/content-creation/intl