Where to Find OER
All content used or adapted for resources created as part of Open at Scale should be openly available – be it images, videos, or textbook chapters. As part of our Open at Scale Business and Nursing environmental scans, we’ve already uncovered existing OER in each discipline to get you started:
- Open at Scale Business OER Environmental Scan
- Open at Scale Nursing OER Environmental Scan
eCampusOntario has also developed a working spreadsheet to document existing OER that can be adapted for each of the Nursing projects.
However, there are a multitude of other OER out there to borrow or adapt, including textbooks, courses, multimedia, data, and supplementary materials. These can be found by searching regular search engines (like Google) using certain keywords and limiters, but it is easier to find them through dedicated OER repositories or websites. Below are a sampling of such repositories and websites.
Repositories
eCampusOntario Open Library – The Open Library is the home of open educational resources in Ontario. Since the initial launch in 2017, eCampusOntario has continuously improved the library to meet the needs of Ontario post-secondary educators and learners.
Oasis – “Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 80 different sources and contains 331,461 records.”
SOL*R (Shareable Online Learning Resources) – This is BCcampus’ OER respository.
OER Commons – A large collection of a variety of types of OER, including textbooks, courses, and ancillary materials.
MERLOT – MERLOT is “a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.”
OER Handbook for Educators – The Handbook is “a guide for those who are just getting started in the creation of open educational resources (OER).”
The Orange Grove – A digital OER repository of instructional resources that can be reused, remixed, and redistributed.
Textbooks
BCcampus’s BC OpenEd Resources page – Provides general information about OER and a list of textbooks that have been “created…or…re-created from existing [OER] by BC post-secondary faculty, reviewed by B.C. faculty and made available under a Creative Commons license.”
OpenStax – Supported by Rice University, OpenStax has a huge collection of open, peer-reviewed textbooks on a large variety of subjects.
Project Gutenberg – The collection contains tens of thousands of digitized books available for download; audiobooks are also available.
AU Press – Athabasca University’s AU Press publishes open access journals and books with a focus on Canada, the North American West, and the Circumpolar North.
Libretexts – Open, accessible, free, interactive textbooks.
Open Textbook Library – This library includes a number of open, accessible books that can be downloaded for free or printed for a low cost.
Multimedia
Creative Commons Search – A repository of various types of media, including images, music, and videos.
Vimeo – Videos with a CC license can be found through Advanced Search options.
Flickr: Creative Commons – Flickr is an “online photo management and sharing application” and many photos are available under CC licenses; Flickr allows searching by type of license.
Pixabay – Pixabay allows you to download and share royalty free photos and videos.
Unsplash – All photos published on Unsplash (taken by photographers around the world) can be downloaded and used for free.
Pexels – This searchable repository provides access to free stock photos licensed under a Pexels license.
Courses
Khan Academy – A collection of instructional videos and practice exercises on topics including math, science, programming, history, English, economics, and standardized test prep.
MIT OpenCourseWare – Offers free access to almost all MIT course content.
Saylor Academy – A non-profit organization committed to providing free and open online courses.
Coursera – An educational platform partnered with dozens of prestigious universities and institutions (including MoMA, Stanford, Yale, the University of Toronto, and the University of London).
Open Course Library – A collection of quality, free, downloadable courses that can be used for teaching.
Utah State University Open Courseware – Offers free access to a number of courses offered at Utah State.
SUNY OER – Offers ready-to-adopt courses in a variety of areas.
Supplemental materials
Supplemental, or ancillary, OER materials can include lecture notes, lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, assignments, and activities.
PhET – Interactive math and science simulations with lesson plans and activities.
OER Commons – A large collection of a variety of types of OER, including textbooks, courses, and ancillary materials.
Citizendium – A community of authors developing quality, free knowledge that can be shared.
Connexions – OpenStax CNX is available in two formats – Pages and Books – which are accessible and can be reused.
HippoCampus – Free and accessible videos, presentations, and simulations.
Internet Archive’s OER Library – A library of OER that contains a number of accessible courses, video lectures, and supplemental materials from universities in the US and China.
IOER (Illinois Open Educational Resources) – Offers free, open, quality educational and career content. The tools can be used to find, share, and produce resources.
National Science Digital Library – A library of resources that educators can access to reuse or revise for their own courses.
Skills Commons – Free OER that can be used in workforce development and training.
Teaching Commons – A collection of OER including open textbooks, syllabi, and lectures that can be reused, revised, and redistributed.
Lumen Learning – Offers open, accessible OER materials to improve learning.
Attributions
The chapter was adapted from B.C. Open Faculty OER Toolkit by Shannon Moist used under a CC BY 4.0 international license. Download this book for free at http://open.bccampus.ca
Additional resources taken from:
OER Knowledge Cloud. (n.d.). OER Repositories and Resources. Retrieved from https://oerknowledgecloud.org/content/oer-repositories-and-resources
Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cccoer.org/learn/find-oer/general-oer/