The Scholar Commons Open Educational Resources collection features openly available learning and teaching materials created by faculty and staff across USC locations. Materials in this collection are freely available to access and are openly licensed. Content may include:
- Assignments
- Artistic works
- Lecture presentations
- Video recordings
- Textbooks
- Syllabi and,
- Other educational content deemed relevant to the collection such as lab manuals, diagrams, or worksheets.
University of South Carolina system authors or creators of OER resources may suggest materials for inclusion in the OER collection. The final decision on which materials to include in the collection resides with library personnel with responsibility for collection management of the Scholar Commons within the University of South Carolina system.
Copyright and Accessibility
All OER materials included in the Scholar Commons OER collection must adhere to all applicable copyright laws of the United States. In addition, for inclusion in the OER collection, materials must be licensed using an open license of the author’s selection such as Creative Commons. While OER authors and creators are ultimately responsible for selecting an appropriate license, they are encouraged to consult with a librarian before contributing resources for inclusion. Preference will be given to materials that are licensed to meet the 5Rs, i.e., retain, revise, remix, reuse, and redistribute.
It is expected that materials in the collection will meet minimum standards for accessibility such as readability by a screen reader, include alternative captions for images. In addition, when possible, materials should be compliant with the University of South Carolina’s current Digital Accessibility standards at the time the materials are uploaded. It is the author or creator’s obligation to make material submitted accessible as set forth above.
-
Mapping Contemporary Spain: Peninsular Cultures and Civilizations
Ángel M. Rañales
"Mapping Contemporary Spain" is a digital course project of SPAN 319 (Peninsular Cultures and Civilizations) from the University of South Carolina Aiken. This project is a mapping tool to navigate the marvelous cultures of the Iberian Peninsula. Each peninsular culture and civilization are represented in a well selected object which the creators have researched about as part of the course. Each of the following objects is a footprint of human civilization in Iberia.
This project is a testimony to the importance of preserving and studying foreign cultures. Each object presented in this resource has a history and a story to be told and appreciated.
Keywords: Iberia, Peninsular Cultures, Spanish, Digital Humanities, Student Learning
-
Diccionario de la inmigración y la Otredad en las Américas en el siglo XXI
Flor Urbina Barrera and Araceli Hernandez-Laroche
Tiene como objetivo ser fuente de consulta amigable y visual para un público diverso, interesado en las expresiones sociales contemporáneas, particularmente para los estudiosos del tema que puedan poner en contexto la migración de los países latinoamericanos sin restringirla exclusivamente al cruce entre México, Centroamérica y los Estados Unidos.
Estudiar las migraciones internacionales desde una perspectiva social, cultural y cotidiana, nos muestra a grandes y pequeños contingentes de población en movimiento, tanto en la frontera norte de América Latina, como entre las fronteras de los países de Centro y Sudamérica. En el contexto actual, ante la visible presencia de grupos humanos provenientes de diversos países que se acercan a los puertos de entrada a los EE. UU. en busca de cruzar de forma regulada o con la implementación de estrategias de ingreso irregular, la atención se ha volcado desde agencias e instituciones locales e internacionales, para analizar y atender el fenómeno. Si bien es cierto, esta dinámica es la que presenta visibles complejidades, la migración en las Américas no se reduce exclusivamente a las fronteras de Norteamérica.
Keywords: immigration, latin america, central america, mexico
-
Introductory Biology II Lab Manual
Melissa A. Storm
Explore the diversity of life on the planet Earth with a focus on organisms found in the Southeast of the United States, examine the evolutionary relationships between organisms and the ways in which scientists are currently expanding their understanding of those relationships every day through this BIO 102 Lab Manual
How to use this book:
Each unit of this book represents the information you will learn during a week of lab class. Within each unit you will find types of information to help you learn the content.
At the beginning of each unit, you will find lists of reinforced skills and learning outcomes.
- Reinforced Skills: This section lists skills and knowledge that you should have acquired in your first semester Biology class, your first semester Chemistry class, or from earlier education. If the content listed is unfamiliar you should brush up on the content before class. The early chapters of your lecture text and well-maintained educational websites will be good sources for this information.
- Learning Outcomes: These are the skills and knowledge you should acquire during the lab activities and by studying the content after class. The learning outcomes can be a big hint about what is likely to be on assessments during the class.
Inside each unit you will find written material explaining the content, diagrams, photographs, tables, and bolded vocabulary terms. Interspersed with the content are examples, practice activities, and in-lab activities for you to explore and complete.
- Examples: When a concept is unusual, specific, or requires the working of math, you will find an example provided. The examples show specific instances of how to apply a concept or work on a problem. In chapters without complex concepts, but many structures to learn the examples are replaced with diagrams or photographs of the organisms you are studying.
- Practice Activities: Problems that the information you just learned should allow you to solve. Practice activities may include examples worked in class or additional problems you can work through on your own. They make great practice problems to work through and discuss with your instructor during office hours if you are finding the concepts challenging.
- In-lab activities: These activities contain the instructions and data tables needed for the activities you will complete in the classroom. Reading the steps before beginning each activity will help you complete the tasks more quickly and successfully. While drawing pictures of specimens and labeling them may seem like an antiquated activity, it is a far superior way to learn the material than taking a photograph.
At the end of each unit, you will find a Structures and terms to know list and a set of review questions.
- Structures and Terms to Know: These list the vocabulary you should be able to use and the physical structures you should be able to identify on the organisms we study in class. Use these lists as guides for your studying for the practical portions of assessments. These lists are word banks for practical tests but remember that you will have to know the words and spell them without the list in front of you.
- Review Question: Practice questions to help you gauge your understanding of the lab material. These are great to complete in study groups or as review for exams.