Free PDF guides
Five guides, each twenty pages or more, written for the people who actually have to do this: students returning after a break, students in their first year, researchers who have to find a direction in a literature they cannot read, and lecturers who have to reopen a course to a class that is also nervous. Every one is free to download, print and share.
Every resource mentioned in them is free and open — open textbooks, open courseware, public-domain books and open-access papers. The guides were written around what is actually free to read, because that is the part that is hard to find out.
A week-by-week starter plan for new university students: lectures, reading, notes, timetables, catching up and the first 30 days.
A practical week-by-week plan for returning to teaching after a break and welcoming an anxious class without embarrassing anyone.
Twelve open libraries, subject-by-subject free textbooks, courseware and research sources — with reading plans that actually get finished.
The back to school re-entry plan is for anyone who has been away from study for a while — a gap year, a pause, a career change, illness, money, or caring work. It is the one to read if the hardest part is starting again rather than the course itself.
The first 30 days plan is for students in their first year. It covers what actually happens in week one, how to take notes you will still understand in March, and how to catch up when you fall behind without deciding to give up.
The researcher’s restart is for new and early-career researchers: finding a direction, reading a literature that is too big, writing a first paper, and surviving a rejection.
The lecturer’s re-entry plan is for teachers and tutors about to teach again — how to design a first week that does not humiliate anyone, how to design assessment students can actually use, and how to notice the student who is quietly drowning.
The free resources guide is the reference: the twelve open libraries, free textbooks by subject, open courseware, open-access papers, and how to tell a real download from a catalogue record that only looks free.