OERs are free or low cost teaching and learning materials that are licensed, often under a OER License term, to allow users to retain a copy of the content and reuse, revise, remix and redistribute it. OERs can include textbooks, videos, tests, entire courses, course modules and syllabi. Below are lists of OER repositories, textbooks, and courses. Before you get started, be sure to visit How Do I Start webpage and watch the following short video for tips on how to refine your searches.

 

Repositories

  • Merlot: this massive resource offers access to learning objects, full course curricula, open access journals, assessment tools, open textbooks, discipline-specific pedagogical resources, and more. Material is peer reviewed, and reviewer and user comments are accessible to all.
  • COOL4Ed: Part of the California MERLOT program, it has a great index of Open Source course materials, including reviews by UC, CSU and CCC faculty.
  • OER Commons: Searchable open access repository of educational resources including full university courses, complete with readings, videos of lectures, homework assignments, and lecture notes; interactive mini-lessons and simulations about a specific topic, such as math or physics; adaptations of existing open work; electronic textbooks that are peer-reviewed and frequently updated.
  • Connexions: This resource allows instructors to pull from a range of learning objects and organize the material to create their own courses. It offers textbooks, journal articles, learning objects, and assignments. Once organized, the material can be viewed as either a PDF or EPUBS document for distribution to students.
  • AMSER: Materials in the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository are free for use and adaptation. Most resources are at the high school and community college levels.
  • Khan Academy: This resource offers open educational resources primarily in mathematics and science but has expanded to include other subject areas. These 3,000 plus online videos are self paced and allow students to focus on the specific lessons they need help with.

Textbooks

  • Openstaxcollege: Great source of peer-reviewed textbooks. Tend to lean more toward the sciences. Usually have additional resources such as ppt slide shows and tests to go along with textbook.
  • Open Textbook Library: This library is a tool to help instructors find affordable, quality textbook solutions. All textbooks in this library are complete and openly licensed.
  • Open TextBook Store calls itself a “Store,” but they are not a publisher. It provides freely and openly available math textbooks created by Washington CTC faculty.
  • Community College Consortium: Open textbook collection more focused on Community College level materials, although many of them do contain those as well.
  • College Open Textbooks: A collection of colleges, governmental agencies, education non-profits, and other education-related organizations that are focused on the mission of driving awareness, adoptions, and affordability of open textbooks.
  • LibreTexts project: This is a multi-institutional collaborative venture to develop the next generation of open-access texts to improve postsecondary education at all levels of higher learning.
  • BCcampus has a curated collection of open textbooks that align with the 40 highest enrolled post-secondary subject areas in British Columbia.

Courses

  • Open Course Library: The WA Open Course Library project offers 81 of Washington's most enrolled courses. There are a lot of great readings in these course files. Great community college content
  • Saylor.org: Saylor offers full courses online. It can be really helpful to use the reading lists from Saylor to find and organize your courses.
  • Open Courseware: An independent search engine that indexes open education classes from places like MIT, Yale and UMass.
  • LearningSpace from Open University: All of the learning materials presented on this site are CC licensed, but don't confuse "Learning Spaces" with the full Open University- their licensing/copyrights are different.
  • MIT OpenCourseWare: Offers approximately 2,000 courses in a range of disciplines, which include lecture notes, online textbook material, assignments and exams with answers, and multimedia. The course content is downloadable, with the exception of the video materials, through iTunes.
  • MITx. These MIT course are open to everyone and include recorded lectures, course material, and assessments.
  • Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University.
  • JHSPH Open Courseware offers open materials and images from more than a hundred courses developed by the faculty of John Hopkins University.
  • OCW Utah: Open education course materials aimed at a high school level.
  • Bridge to Success: Materials, mostly study skills, to support students transitioning to college.
  • Academic Earth: Find lectures and videos from some of the most respected instructors in the world.
  • Stem Cell School: Lessons and quality digital imaging about stem cells and stem cell science.
  • Boundless provides a number of open course packages (47 course packages in Biology alone) in 22 discipline areas.