Open Educational Resource (OER) Repositories

OER Repositories Overview

Open Educational Resource (OER) repositories are digital platforms that provide free, openly licensed educational materials. These resources, which include textbooks, lesson plans, videos, and other learning tools, are available for educators, students, and self-learners to use, modify, and share.

Popular OER repositories, like OER Commons Links to an external site. and MERLOT Links to an external site., aim to promote equitable access to high-quality education by offering resources that can be tailored to fit various teaching and learning needs.

Searching & Filtering

Searching through OER repositories involves a few key steps to help find specific materials effectively:

  1. Start with a specific, searchable topic: Enter keywords related to the subject or topic you’re looking for. Many repositories, like OER Commons and MERLOT, have a prominent search bar to begin this process.

  2. Use filtering options: After entering a search query, you can narrow your results using various filters. Common filtering options include:

    • Subject or discipline: Select the relevant academic field.
    • Education level: Choose materials tailored for higher education.
    • Resource type: Filter by textbooks, lesson plans, videos, quizzes, or other formats.
    • License type: Some repositories let you filter based on the type of open license, which determines how you can modify or share the material. For OER, the most common licenses and simplest to understand are Creative Commons licenses. 
    • Language: Choose resources in specific languages.

  3. Check for quality ratings and reviews: Some repositories provide ratings or reviews from educators who have used the materials. This helps you assess the resource’s quality and relevance.

  4. Preview and download: Many OER platforms allow you to preview the material before downloading or using it, ensuring it meets your needs.

OER Repositories

The following repositories provide access to high-quality, openly licensed educational resources, including textbooks, lesson plans, and multimedia content. These platforms allow faculty to search for, download, and integrate OER materials into their courses, ensuring accessible and affordable learning for students. Explore these repositories to find materials that align with your course objectives and adapt them as needed. Before jumping into these, you may want to look at the discipline specific OER resources curated by the ASCCC linked below. You can even search by C-ID!

OER By Discipine Links to an external site.

👀 If you can't find what you were looking for in the ASCCC resources, you can search through these larger repositories below.

General OER Repositories

  1. OER Commons Links to an external site.

    • A broad collection of open resources, including lesson plans, textbooks, and interactive activities.
    • Features OpenAuthor for building and sharing OER content.

  2. MERLOT Links to an external site.

    • Curated online learning resources with peer reviews.
    • Includes materials across multiple disciplines and educational levels.

  3. OpenStax Links to an external site.

    • Provides high-quality, peer-reviewed textbooks for free, primarily focused on higher education courses.
    • Allows PDF and online access for most materials.

  4. LibreTexts Links to an external site.

    • Offers interactive and customizable textbooks with embedded H5P elements.
    • Great for creating and remixing course materials with a range of disciplines available.

  5. Pressbooks Directory Links to an external site.

    • Hosts open textbooks created with the Pressbooks platform.
    • Includes interactive content and can be exported in multiple formats.

Institutional OER Repositories

  1. MIT OpenCourseWare Links to an external site.

    • Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT courses.
    • Covers a wide range of subjects.

  2. BCcampus Open Textbooks Links to an external site.

    • A collection of open textbooks and other resources focused on Canadian higher education.

  3. College of the Canyons OER Links to an external site.

    • Offers textbooks and OER content specifically curated for community colleges.

  4. GALILEO Open Learning Materials Links to an external site.

    • A University System of Georgia initiative providing OER materials across multiple disciplines.

  5. SUNY OER (Milne Open Textbooks) Links to an external site.

    • A collection of open-access textbooks developed by the State University of New York.

  6. Open Textbook Library Links to an external site.

    • A collection of peer-reviewed open textbooks maintained by the University of Minnesota.

  7. Canvas Commons

    • A repository of course materials, including OER, available for sharing across Canvas users.

  8. OASIS Links to an external site.

    • A search tool that connects to multiple OER repositories, curated by SUNY Geneseo.

  9. Open Oregon Links to an external site.

    • Offers information about courses using OER, links to materials, and instructor information.

  10. Open RN & Next Gen RN Links to an external site.

    • OER resources for Nursing, including textbooks, virtual simulations, and NCLEX practice questions.

  11. ROTEL (Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens) Links to an external site.

    • A growing collection of OER textbooks created or adapted with an equity and inclusion lens.

  12. CC ECHO Links to an external site. (CA Consortium for Equitable Change in Hispanic Serving Institutions OER)

    • Textbooks recently created by CCC faculty.

  13. COOL4Ed Links to an external site. (California Open Online Library for Education)

    • Search by C-ID or browse the faculty showcase by discipline and/or institution.

Remember the Public Domain

Don't forget about the public domain! This refers to creative works that are not protected by copyright (for example, works published over 95 years ago). To learn more about the Public Domain, see this excellent guide from the University of Texas Libraries: Public Domain Information. Use the left menu to browse public domain collections of books, images, audio/video, and government sites.

Tip: Librarians Can Be Terrific Allies!

Library icon shows a person reading an open book

Librarians are often the most knowledgeable source on campus when it comes to OER, and they may have already developed guides and resources for you to use. You may have the option to consult a librarian who can search for OER for you. Librarians can also recommend zero-cost options such as e-books, databases, specialized collections, and more. Note: Situations will vary based on your particular library and the resources available.

Last two sections from Teaching with OER and Open Pedagogy for Equity by Aloha Sargent and College of the Canyons, for the California Community Colleges’ Zero Textbook Cost Degree program, is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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