OER Websites and Search Tips
Instructors can find OER in a variety of resources. Most OER organizations or collaborations have a database or central list of resources that faculty have added. Some databases also feature annotations or faculty feedback. Additionally, many disciplines have their own OER websites. The list below is not comprehensive but can instead be used as a starting point for faculty doing interdisciplinary work or work in any discipline. Remember that not all of the learning materials in these repositories and sources are OER for modifying but most of the content is freely available under Fair Use and/or with attribution.
General Education Search
Recorded Lectures & Video Tutorials Search
Open Textbooks
Modular Course Components
Complete Courses
OER and OCW Search Engines
- Openverse (Creative Commons Works)Search creative commons works on Openverse, formerly Creative Commons Search.
Math
- My Open MathProvides free problem sets for practice. Almost ten textbooks already designed for courses.
- American Institute of Mathematics: Approved Open Textbooks ListOver 15 open textbooks covering different levels of calculus, algebra, and statistics.
- Scottsdale (AZ) Community College Math BlogFree links and pre-developed courses used at Scottsdale.
Humanities
- Art Images for College TeachingUniversity of Michigan compilation of images for teaching or assignment purposes.
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)A basic search for OA books, including OA textbooks.
- Open Humanities PressOpen books and journals, mostly on theoretical topics/ frameworks.
Language Learning
- Center for Open Educational Resources and Language LearningForeign language resources and activities -- more heavily covers the romance languages
Sciences
- National Science Digital LibraryProvides a robust search to limit by activity type, media format, and age level.
- PLOS OneMore advanced, specific science resources that are open and could be used in a classroom setting.
- AMSER: Applied Math and Science Educational RepositoryFunded by the NSF and organized by large LC headings.
- The Chem CollectiveCreated by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon to help those teaching/ learning Chemistry.
- Scitable by Nature EducationA free science library and personal learning tool. Currently concentrates on genetics and cell biology.
Social Sciences
- Open Acess Publishing in European NetworksContains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Nursing and Allied Health
- HEAL (Health Education Assets Library)Images, videoclips, animations, presentations, and audio files that support healthcare education
Tips for Searching OER:
- Use the advanced searching feature if there is one. This will save you some time and limit your search.
- Start with broad terms (ex. disease instead of cancer) and then narrow.
- As you narrow, think about disciplinary language. Is there something else this topic might be referred to as?
- If you still aren't getting good results, try to start with the browsing feature (even if it's very broad). Sometimes the term your searching isn't used but you still know it would be under a broad subject like "humanities" or "writing".
Also, see below for an infograpic which visualize the process of searching for OER.
*Note: this infographic was adapted and modified from the University of Texas at Austin's original infographic. For more information, see their Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning website.
The Library Can Help!
Librarians are experts in finding and evaluating resources. This includes Open Educational Resources (OER). The library has copyright/ author rights experts as well as librarians with subject expertise that can help you navigate this new and growing area. Please contact your subject librarian or the Scholarly Communications and Publishing for more information. They will help you or direct you to someone that might know more about the resource.
