Finding OER to Use in Your Courses

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:                     

1. Identify keywords related to your course and its learning outcomes and/or objectives.
2. Search OER repositories for relevant resources.
3. Review the resources you’ve located for fit, currency and accessibility.
4. 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

OER Defined

Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium - digital or otherwise - that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.

-Hewlett Foundation https://hewlett.org/strategy/open-educational-resources/ 

Video: CC BY 4.0 by the Council of Chief State School Officers,  Music: The Zeppelin by Blue Dot Sessions: CC BY NC 4.0