Find OER - OER - Open Educational Resources - Bristol Community College Library Learning Commons at Bristol Community College

Steps for Searching

Repositories

Start your OER search with an online repository. Because repositories collect and compile a variety of resources on specific topics, they tend to be a one-stop shop. When using repositories, be sure to use the advanced search features to specify that you want open resources, to help you find specific resources.

Search Engines

If repositories don’t provide the materials you need, you can also try using a general search engine with advanced filters. For example, a Google Advanced Search offers options for searching materials with certain usage rights. With these filters, you can tailor your results, for example, to show only materials that are free to use, share, or modify

Library Collections

Although the materials in the LLC may not technically be OERs (insofar as the library is paying someone for access to them), library collections are typically free for faculty members and students to access because the library has already purchased access to this digital content. Libraries give you access to databases, journals, and catalogues that you can use to build your course without additional costs to students. You may not be able to upload the material to your course directly, but you can always provide links that students can access, provided that they're familiar with how to gain access to library materials remotely.

Need Help? No problem! Contact your Library Liaisons for additional help.

OER Search Engines

Great places to start your search include OASIS, and the Mason OER Metafinder repositories. You can also search Open Massachusetts, the state's repository.

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 115 different sources and contains 440,380 records.
OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library.
Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)
When using the Metafinder you aren’t searching a static database. Instead, the OER The Mason OER Metafinder launches a real-time, simultaneous search across 22 different sources of open educational materials as you hit the Search button.

Open Textbooks

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 115 different sources and contains 440,380 records.
OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library.
Open Textbook Library
Textbooks in the Open Textbook Library are considered open because they are free to use and distribute, and are licensed to be freely adapted or changed with proper attribution.
LibreTexts
The LibreTexts mission is to unite students, faculty and scholars in a cooperative effort to develop an easy-to-use online platform for the construction, customization, and dissemination of open educational resources (OER) to reduce the burdens of unreasonable textbook costs to our students and society.
OpenStax
Nonprofit based at Rice University the repository includes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed college textbooks that are absolutely free online
Pressbooks Directory
A free, searchable catalog that includes 8,445 open access books published across 207 unique networks using Pressbooks. It's easy to copy, revise, remix, and redistribute any openly licensed content found here using Pressbooks' publishing platform.
B.C. Open Collection
A curated selection of open educational textbooks.
OER Commons
OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners.
Merlot
The MERLOT collection consists of tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages, together with associated comments, and bookmark collections, all intended to enhance the teaching experience of using a learning material. All of these items have been contributed by the MERLOT member community, who have either authored the materials themselves, or who have discovered the materials, found them useful, and wished to share their enthusiasm for the materials with others in the teaching and learning community.
All the materials in MERLOT are reviewed for suitability for retention in the collection. Many undergo the more extensive "peer review" for which MERLOT is famous. MERLOT presents annual awards for various categories of materials added to or used in the collection. As described in Material Link Checking and Removal, all material URL's in the collection are reviewed frequently for sustainability.
Open Culture
A repository of 200 free textbooks (aka open textbooks) written by knowledgeable scholars.

Open Courseware Resources

Saylor OER Courses by subject/class
OER courses by subject/class created for instructors building open courses. Excellent resource.
Lumen Learning
Offers complete courses composed of mostly open materials that can be copied and adapted for free. Lumen also offers partnering with institutions to manage and adapt resources for courses at a cost to students. Contact us if you would like to partner with Lumen.
Open Course Library
The Open Course Library (OCL) is a collection of shareable course materials, including syllabi, course activities, readings, and assessments designed by teams of college faculty, instructional designers, librarians, and other experts.
MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare is a free and open collection of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.
Open Massachusetts
A platform for sharing open educational resources created and adopted by faculty from Massachusetts Public Higher Education Institutions
Boundless Courses
Courses originally developed by the company Boundless, and currently maintained by Lumen Learning. Includes texts broken into chapters and modules, so that part or a whole chapter or book can be incorporated into a course.

more... less...

Originally curated by the company Boundless. In collaboration with the Boundless team, Lumen Learning imported these OER courses to the Lumen Platform, to ensure they remain freely available to the education community after Boundless ceased operations. Lumen maintains the Boundless content in the same condition it was provided to us, and courses may contain some formatting and accessibility issues.
Open Education Consortium
Open education encompasses resources, tools and practices that employ a framework of open sharing to improve educational access and effectiveness worldwide.

more... less...

All materials used in courses under the OECx banner are open educational resources. The authors of the content have openly licensed these resources for reuse, modification and sharing in educational contexts. For specific permissions, please refer to the licensing terms applied to each course.
Open Washington
Hosted by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The list includes videos, images, course materials and textbooks.
Teaching Commons
The Teaching Commons showcases high-quality open educational resources from leading colleges and universities and makes them available to educators and students around the world. Curated by librarians and their institutions and hosted by bepress, the Teaching Commons includes open-access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, lectures, k-12 materials, and more.
SkillsCommons
The US Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program created a free and open online library called SkillsCommons containing free and open learning materials and program support materials for job-driven workforce development. The $1.9 billion investment by the US Department of Labor produced a comprehensive collection of workforce-related Open Educational Resources (OER) created by over 700 community colleges across the nation. The OER can be found, reused, revised, retained, redistributed and remixed by an individual, institution, and industry for FREE with the proper attribution to the original author of the resources.
SkillsCommons.org was designed and managed by the California State University Long Beach (CSULB) and its MERLOT program for the Department of Labor’s TAACCCT program under a 4+ year cooperative agreement. The California State University Long Beach /MERLOT team works with other TAACCCT partners to support the TAACCCT grantees in the creation and contribution of quality OER that are stored in the SkillsCommons online library. SkillsCommons is sustained as a CSULB-MERLOT service now that the cooperative agreement has concluded.
Open Professionals Education Network
Good selection of OER resources from search engines and source links focused on technology, engineering, science and services areas.

Open Media

Creative Commons Search Engine
This tool is helpful when searching for a variety of media (music, video, images, etc.), but do make sure your results are openly licensed before using or remixing.
Getty Open Content Search
The Getty Search Gateway allows users to search across several of the Getty repositories, including collections databases, library catalogs, collection inventories, and archival finding aids.
Flickr Creative Commons
Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search through content under each type of license.
Wikimedia Commons
A collection of freely available media files.
Google Images
After conducting a search, select Tools from the drop-down menu choose Usage Rights and limit results to Creative Commons licenses.
YouTube
Steps for finding CC licensed material.
1.Search for a video
2.From the results, go to the Filters link on the top right corner.
3.Go to Features and select Creative Commons
Vimeo
Browse the Creative Commons licensed videos on Vimeo. Learn about what you can and can't do with other people’s videos on Vimeo to help you share, rework and reuse legally.