Open Educational Resources (OERs): Find OER
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.
Search for OER by Discipline
Get started searching for OER by Discipline with these resources.
- Open Textbook LibraryA consortium of higher ed institutions and systems has networked to support the use of OER within their programs. Supported by the University of Minnesota Center for Open Education within the College of Education and Human Development, the library of textbooks pulls titles from multiple sources, including many others in this list.
- Pressbooks DirectoryThis directory provides an index of over 2,000 books published across 94 Pressbooks networks.
- OER by Discipline Guides from McMaster UniversityThe OER by Discipline Guide: McMaster University is an in-progress (open creation) that lists a broad range of open educational resources organized by disciplines at McMaster University.
- OpenStaxAn initiative of Rice University with free learning modules and textbooks developed and peer-reviewed by educators.
Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (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 52 different sources and contains 155,375 records.
OER Metafinder
Searches 16 OER repositories in real-time, returning the top several hundred or so relevant hits from each site. Created by George Mason University.
OER Widget
Enter an ISBN number and find free online course materials related to a book.
Additional PSU Resources
- PSU Image GuideThis guide focuses on finding, and ethically using images, as well as image collections that are openly licensed for nonprofit/educational use
- Copyright & Fair UseMore information on the topics of Copyright and Fair Use
Open Textbooks
- PDXOpenAn open access textbook publishing initiative established by Portland State University library. PDXOpen publishes open access textbooks designed for PSU courses.
- Open Book PublisherAn Open Access publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences in the UK: run by scholars who are committed to making high-quality research freely available to readers around the world.
- BC CampusCurated collection of open textbooks for 40 high enrollment post-secondary subject areas. Includes reviews and up to date content.
- MILNE Open TextbooksA catalog of open textbooks authored and peer-reviewed by SUNY faculty and staff.
- Project GutenbergThis effort to digitize cultural works has been plugging away at its mission since 1971, when it undertook the creation of an electronic version of the Declaration of Independence, item No. 1 in its collection. Most of the contents are public domain books — both the obscure and the beloved. On any given day nearly 100,000 copies of books are downloaded from the site.
- WikibooksPromising "open books for an open world," this site, which is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, offers 2,900 textbooks, categorized by subject, completion status and reading level. Many of the books are available for download as PDF files.
- Open Textbooks for EngineeringOpen textbooks for engineering discipline and some subdisciplines
Open Streaming Videos
- YouTube Education UniversityBrowse by disciplinary category to find instructional videos (mostly lectures).
Youtube provides a Creative Commons filter. - Moving Image ArchiveOver a million free movies, films, and videos uploaded by users to Internet Archive. Many but not all of these videos are available for free download; check for the permissions information that is included in the video description to determine whether you'll need to contact the producer for permissions.
Supplemental Materials
- OER CommonsA large collection of open syllabi, lesson plans, assignments, learning objects, modules, textbooks, and more created by educators around the world.
- MERLOT - Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online TeachingA curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.
- Open Course LibraryA collection of shareable course materials, including syllabi, course activities, readings, and assessments designed by teams of college faculty, instructional designers, librarians, and other experts, from Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.
- Saylor AcademyOnline courses sponsored by the Saylor Foundation, including many that are peer reviewed and offer open access online teaching materials.
- MIT Open CoursewareMIT OCW is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content, including syllabi, reading lists, and quizzes.
- Khan AcademyKhan Academy offers practice exercises and instructional videos on a variety of subjects
- Open LearnFree learning modules and course materials from the U.K.
Open Images
- Creative Commons SearchConvenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. Not all resources will have been distributed with a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link.
- Open Oregon's Image PageSuggested places to search for open images collected by Open Oregon
- Europeana CollectionsEuropeana is a single access point to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitised throughout Europe.
- Flickr CommonsFreely usable images drawn from the collections of numerous cultural heritage institutions including national museums and libraries.
- Getty Open ContentAll images of public domain artworks in the Getty’s collections. Roughly 4,600 high-resolution images of the Museum’s collection free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose.
- New York Public Library Digital Gallery"NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more." Some of the images are subject to Terms and Conditions.
- Wikimedia CommonsA portal from the Wikimedia foundation that hosts openly licensed and public domain images and media.