Open Educational Resources: Arts, Humanities, & Music

The history of Art is long and varied, spanning tens of thousands of years from ancient paintings on the walls of caves to the glow of computer-generated images on the screens of the 21st century.

From Lumen Learning, a course on art appreciation.

An exposition of the philosophy, principles, and materials of music from the Baroque Period to contemporary period with illustrative examples from the Baroque Period, Classical Period, Romantic Period, Contemporary Classical Music and Popular Music.

An open-source, interactive, online “text”book for college-level music theory courses. Supports active student engagement with music in the theory classroom. That means that this text is meant to take a back seat to student music making (and breaking).

Designed to help students listen. This course encourages students to be self-reliant--to get up close to the music, without mediation or interference.

Introduction to works representative of a variety of music traditions. These include the repertoires of Western Europe from the Middle Ages through the present; of the United States, including art music, jazz, folk, rock, musical theater; and from at least two non-Western world areas.

Explores basic music theory so thoroughly that the interested student will then be able to easily pick up whatever further theory is wanted. Music history and the physics of sound are included to the extent that they shed light on music theory.

Explanations (suitable for any age) of the basic elements of music, with suggested activities for introducing the each concept to children at early elementary school level. The course may be used by instructors not trained in music; all necessary definitions and explanations are included.

Becoming Human is a fast-paced, irreverent introduction to evolutionary theory, especially human origins. The book discusses traces of evolution in our bodies, basic evolutionary theory from Darwin to the genomic revolution, sexual selection and reproduction, and how human brain development affects our evolution, including into the future.

Intended to be an introductory text about the Native peoples of North America (primarily the United States and Canada) presented from an anthropological perspective.

This online text comprehensively addresses all major ancient civilization including Egypt, Greece, Rome, Africa, and China.