There is a multitude of OER to choose from, ranging from full textbooks and courses, multimedia resources, and primary sources.
Video: How to Find and Evaluate OER:
Four easy steps to look for open content:
- Identify keywords related to your course and its learning outcomes and/or objectives.
- Search OER repositories for relevant resources.
- Review the resources you’ve located for fit, currency and accessibility.
- Reflect on the materials you have located.
Aggregated OER Collections
- ASCCC OERI Discipline Repository: Resource summaries by Discipline and TMC
- Cool4ED – California Open Online Library for Education initiative, which aggregates searches across several collections, including SkillsCommons for free workforce development resources.
- OASIS – Allows search for OER from hundreds of sources. It was developed by SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library.
- MERLOT – Provides access to thousands of discipline-specific learning materials contributed by the member community.
- Open Oregon – Aggregates proprietary and openly licensed materials by course name, institution, and instructor information.
- OER Commons – A public library of OER with tools for content authoring & remixing. It also provides collaborative workspaces for creating, curating, and discussing OER.
- LibreTexts – Comprehensive textbook library allows for curation and creation of Open textbooks and resources
Open Media Collections
- Creative Commons Image Search – Openly licensed still images, music, and videos across several repositories, including YouTube, Google, SoundCloud, and more.
- Getty Institute Open Images – Searchable database of Creative Commons licensed images.
- Library of Congress – Millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts—all in the public domain for use and reuse by all.
Open Data Collections
- Data.gov – Comprises U.S. federal data with links to U.S. states, cities and counties with web sites that
- provide open data.
- World Bank Open Data – Global development data that is free and openly licensed.
- PLOS – Science and medicine research articles with images, figures, tables and graphs, all licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license that allows for adaptations and derivatives.
Open Textbooks
- Open SUNY Textbooks – State University of New York’s collection of faculty authored and peer-reviewed open textbooks.
- OpenStax Textbooks – AP-level open textbooks spanning multiple subjects that are developed and peer-reviewed by educators.
- Open Textbook Library (UMN) – A peer-reviewed collection of hundreds of open textbooks spanning multiple subjects. All textbooks are quality reviewed by faculty from a variety of institutions.
Using OER to Build your Course
Free OER Authoring Tools
- LibreTexts – Offers the ability to build, remix and import into an LMS or print on demand
- MERLOT’s Content Builder – Access templates for creating tailored websites with a variety of designs, including e-portfolio structures, lesson plans, online courses, and others.
- OERPub’s Textbook Editor – Create textbooks from scratch using this simple editing tool.
- OpenAuthor – Bring in and adapt your own resources, as well as resources from its affiliated OER Commons library, to create new or remixed OER.
- OpenStax Hub – Adapt, remix, and localize OpenStax textbooks.
- TED-Ed Content Builder Tool – Add TED videos to a lesson builder template, and supplement the video with questions and additional content.
- Rebus Open Textbook Community – Develop open textbooks with a community of creators.
- WikiBooks – Access wiki-based adaptable open textbooks and create new wiki textbooks.
References:
Abbey Elder OER Starter Kit
“Finding OER..” by ASCCC OERI is licensed under CC BY 4.0