If you aren’t sure where to start, use a metafinder that pulls in content from multiple repositories, such as SUNY’s Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS). If you are looking for open textbooks, try the Open Textbook Library. If you are looking for videos, start with YouTube or Vimeo. A more comprehensive list of OER repositories can be found in the boxes on the right.
Start by searching with basic keywords, such as "psychology" or "abnormal psychology," rather than specific terms, such as “mental disorders."
As you keep looking, use alternate search terms specific to the discipline you are looking for. You can identify terms by looking at your course syllabus or schedule, or by browsing the topics in your current textbook's Table of Contents.
Approach your search like you would research for an ongoing project. If a particular tool or search term provided you with good results, save those terms in your note-taking tool of choice so you can trace back your results and try again later. As new OER are being produced annually, you will want to check back regularly for additional resources that may be available.
Check the OER you find for basic accessibility markers, and make note of any particularly well-crafted content you come across for later. For items with clear and present issues, make note of those and how they could be overcome or adapted for future use.
Seek out lists of resources that have been compiled by instructors and OER professionals already. The number and depth of resources you find through this method will vary widely, but it is a great way to quickly find any resources that have already been pulled together for a specific course.
NOTE TO SELF: ADD SECTION ON EVALUATING OER
Adapted from Iowa State University Library, "Open Educatonal Resources (OER) - Tips for Finding OER" by Abbey Elder
This tab highlights large repositories of OER and/or freely available resources in multiple subject areas or disciplines.
OER Commons is a dynamic digital library and network. Explore open education resources and join our network of educators dedicated to curriculum improvement. With a single point of access from which they can search, browse, and evaluate resources, including textbooks, lessons, videos, and more, in OER Commons’ growing collection.
MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community. MERLOT does not house content, but is a collection of links to other content. One of the biggest OER repositories, but a bit unwieldy and difficult to search. Use limiting options on the left side of results page.
Hundreds of complete, open college-level textbooks. Many include peer-reviews.
Searchable directory of OER textbooks developed by institutions and educators using the Pressbooks platform.
Multi-institutional repository via California State Univ. and MERLOT for OER web-based collections -- texts, exercises, and more -- for Chemistry, Biology, Geosciences, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Social Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Business, Photosciences, and Humanities.
The US Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program has 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 Open Educational Resources (OER) are produced by community colleges across the nation and can be found, reused, revised, retained, redistributed and remixed by individuals, institutions, and industry.
Open educational resources from colleges and universities. Part of the Digital Commons Network. Includes search box for keywords searching; also browsable by Institution, Type, and Subject Area.
A project by the University of British Columbia that presents case studies in various disciplines, including Business, Civil Engineering, Conservation, Digital Literacy, Economics, Education, Forestry, Inclusive Practices, Land & Food Systems, Law, Political Science, Public Policy & Global Affairs, Social Justice, and Soil Science. Mostly Canadian examples. Except where otherwise noted, content is licensed CC BY (Creative Commons - Attribution).
A service of the California State University-MERLOT program. Include open and free textbooks, courses, course materials, open access journals and articles. Include thorough reviews by faculty and detailed accessibility reports.
This provides access to nearly 400 textbooks and includes many interactive elements. This organization has received some funding from the U.S. government.
Includes tens of thousands of learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder webpages for creating teaching and learning materials
An online library of OER and other freely available instructional materials
This provides access to over 3,500 textbooks and other books from 119 pressbook networks, including many run by higher education institutions. The books represent many disciplines.
A curated and carefully maintained multidisciplinary OER site from educators across the entire state of Michigan. All grade/education levels are covered from Kindergarten to Adult Education. Includes open textbooks and full courses as well as remixable lessons and activities.
Lumen has a collection of high-quality OER that can be used as-is or modified to fit students’ needs. The OER in the catalog are free, but Lumen also offers additional courseware for a fee. As of summer 2022, Lumen is transferring much of its course catalog to Course Hero, a homework help site, which, at least for the moment, continues to offer the material for free.
This tab highlights collections of OER textbooks, many of which come from state or institution-specific sites.
An open textbook is an openly-licensed textbook offered online by its author(s). The open license sets open textbooks apart from traditional textbooks by allowing users to read online, download, or print the book at no additional cost.
For a textbook to be considered open, it must be licensed in a way that grants a baseline set of rights to users that are less restrictive than its standard copyright. A license or list of permissions must be clearly stated by the author. (Source: Varied Characterizations of Open Textbooks by Open Access Textbooks)
View and share free educational material in small modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports or other academic assignments.
Hundreds of complete, open college-level textbooks. Many include peer-reviews.
Curated collection of open textbooks and courses, many reviewed by British Columbia faculty.
Searchable directory of OER textbooks developed by institutions and educators using the Pressbooks platform.
OER textbooks from Rebus Community projects.
A project of the Wikimedia Foundation, this collection of group written textbooks in a variety of sources follows rules similar to Wikipedia.
The primary aim of DOAB is to increase discoverability of Open Access books.
Affordable Learning Georgia's new site for open and interactive educational resources. This site turns the OER texts funded by ALG into interactive e-textbooks. E-textbooks include downloadable source files.
List of all open textbooks available through the Affordable Learning Georgia initiative
Explore collections of open educational resources created and shared by Texas higher education.
Collections of OER across the curriculum, including Arts and Humanities, Business, Food Science and Nutrition, Education, Languages and Literature, Medicine/Health, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.
Open access textbooks developed by Portland State University faculty.
Zero-cost textbooks used by College of the Canyons, organized by discipline
Collection of open textbooks and open access monographs published by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.
This tab includes sites and repositories that include peer reviews and/or accessibility reviews of OER texts and course materials.
Some textbooks available through this site have reviews, and some do not. Reviews are extremely thorough, and reviewers list their name, title, and institution.
A list of ALL of the reviewed open textbooks available through this Canadian OER site. Textbooks are listed alphabetically by title.
List of accessible OER textbooks on the BC Campus Open Ed repository site, which meet the requirements of the BC Campus Accessibility Checklist.
The California Open Education Resources Council facilitates the peer review of open textbooks which are showcased in the California Open Source Digital Library (COOL4Ed). Choose a discipline, course, and then look for the "accessibility reviews" column.
This tab highlights collections of OER courses, many of these are from specific state or institution sites.
This link should prompt you to log into your Canvas faculty account at TCC. Use the search box as well as the filters to narrow down results by document type (courses, modules, etc.), grade/levels, and more. TIP: Check the license/copyright status of each potential result in Canvas Commons, on the upper right corner of each shared item's record. The default status is copyrighted, which means you won't be able to reuse it. If the resource is shared with a CC license, then you can reuse it and import/download into another Canvas course shell.
Open courses in different subject areas and degree programs.
This catalog contains openly-licensed course materials developed for the Open Educational Resources (OER) Degree Initiative, led by Achieving the Dream. Lumen maintains this content in the same condition it was provided by participating faculty and institutions. Except where otherwise noted, all material is licensed under a CC BY license.
Multi-institutional repository via California State Univ. and MERLOT for OER web-based collections -- texts, exercises, and more -- for Chemistry, Biology, Geosciences, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Social Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Business, Photosciences, and Humanities.
List of openly licensed courses created by Saylor.org
Collection of online courses and video lectures from 25 universities including MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley and Princeton.
A collection of course materials for high-enrolled courses in Washington state's community and technical colleges. All content is stored in Google docs. Note that some courses have openly licensed ancillary materials but require low-cost textbooks.
The California Open Education Resources Council facilitates the peer review of open textbooks which are showcased in the California Open Source Digital Library (COOL4Ed). Choose a discipline, course, and then look for the "accessibility reviews" column.
Online OER courses created by State University of New York (SUNY) in the subjects of Arts, Business, English/Communication, Mathematics, Natural Science, Social Science, Technology, and Transitional Studies.
Content is CC BY NC SA licensed. Most courses have an open + free version (click "Enter course" to access)
Online OER courses developed at Penn State, with a particular emphasis on OER in the energy, environmental, sustainability, and geography course areas.
Open collections and courses from University of California, Irvine. "UCI Open is an open education project supporting the needs of learners and educators everywhere: on our campus, within California, throughout the United States, and the entire world. "
CK-12 is probably the biggest open content provider for K-12 STEM content. CK-12 provides standards-aligned teaching resources. Content is mapped to a variety of levels and standards, including common core.
Literature resource with "over 2,000 high-quality free reading passages for grades 3-12, complemented by aligned interim assessments, growth-oriented data, and expert-led teacher development." Also includes a digital Spanish library for grades 3-10. Some texts are in the public domain and freely viewable, while others require educators to create a free log-in account to view and use.
Lesson plans and curriculum for CTE and K-12 courses. Does require a free log-in to access full resources. Butte County Office of Education and California Dept. of Education. Content on this site has a CC BY NC SA license.
Collection of free, open access, and openly licensed books in education, educational technology, and instructional design. Also includes textbooks for writing and ESL, and more. Online and PDF download options. Each resource has licensing/terms of use info.
An open access resource for faculty and librarians. It is intended to be a collaborative space for adapting and experimenting with research assignments and sharing the success or lessons learned so that others may benefit. The database contains multiple, reliable and reproducible research assignments.
Literature resource with "over 2,000 high-quality free reading passages for grades 3-12, complemented by aligned interim assessments, growth-oriented data, and expert-led teacher development." Also includes a digital Spanish library for grades 3-10. Some texts are in the public domain and freely viewable, while others require educators to create a free log-in account to view and use.
Online repository for Spanish language instructional OER. All resources posted on this site carry CC licenses.
The Center for Open Educational Resources & Language Learning (COERLL) is one of 16 National Foreign Language Resource Centers (LRC's) funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The overall mission of these federally-funded centers is to improve the teaching and learning of foreign languages by producing resources (materials and best practices) that can be profitably employed in a variety of settings.
The US Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program has 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 Open Educational Resources (OER) are produced by community colleges across the nation and can be found, reused, revised, retained, redistributed and remixed by individuals, institutions, and industry.
Lesson plans and curriculum for CTE and K-12 courses. Does require a free log-in to access full resources. Butte County Office of Education and California Dept. of Education. Content on this site has a CC BY NC SA license.
A portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by those in Community and Technical Colleges but free for anyone to use
Growing collection of free virtual labs, experiments, and simulations used in teaching the science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines in higher education.
Site of open access books "built by scientists, for scientists." Books are peer-reviewed and edited. Browse by subject or search for specific keywords.
Site of open access books "built by scientists, for scientists." Books are peer-reviewed and edited. Browse by subject or search for specific keywords.
Collection of free, open access, and openly licensed books in education, educational technology, and instructional design. Also includes textbooks for writing and ESL, and more. Online and PDF download options. Each resource has licensing/terms of use info.
This tab highlights sites of materials in the public domain.
Public domain means there is no copyright attached to these materials. This term can refer to both historical resources whose copyright has expired as well as to modern works whose creators have released their materials into the public domain and waived copyright.
Find the full text of classics and public domain works from the first massive ebook-creating organization in existence. Nothing fancy here, just files with the full text.
"The Standard Ebooks project is a volunteer driven, not-for-profit effort to produce a collection of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open source, and free public domain ebooks that meet or exceed the quality of commercially produced ebooks." EPUB and ebook files compatible for multiple ebook devices.
Download 800 free and openly licensed/freely available eBooks to your Kindle, iPad/iPhone, computer, smart phone or ereader. Collection includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
A website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. Many are in the public domain. Searchable listings, or browse by author, titles, or subject.
This online collection spans more than 100 years of cinema history, from 1890-1999. Most, but not all, of the featured films are in the public domain, and available to download as well as watch.
Links to over 1000 free movies online, many of which are in the public domain. Includes classic, indies, noir, westerns, etc. Organized by genre and title.
Please note that open access materials are NOT necessarily openly licensed. In general, you can link to open access materials, but you must check each site's terms of use for any further copyright or usage restrictions (e.g. restrictions on downloading or making copies of materials).
Open access (OA) refers to online research outputs that are free of all restrictions on access (e.g. access tolls or subscriptions). Open access can be applied to all forms of published research output, including peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed.
Quality-controlled scientific and scholarly open-access journals, covering a wide range of subjects and many languages. The aim of the DOAJ is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals.
International through its Open Access Initiative is committed to make genuine and reliable contributions to the scientific community. OMICS Group hosts over 300 leading-edge peer reviewed Open Access Journals and organizes over 100 International Conferences annually all over the world.
SpringerOpen journal portfolio includes peer-reviewed, fully open access journals across all areas of science. It ranges from very specialized titles to SpringerPlus, an interdisciplinary open access journal that covers all disciplines.
Almost 600 open access titles are available in this leading scientific database. The TCC Library also has a subscription to this database, which provides access to more scientific journal titles that are not openly accessible.
All articles in open access journals which are published by Elsevier have undergone peer review and upon acceptance are immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Elsevier Open Access Journals also available in ScienceDirect.
Each site linked below may contain content which may vary in open licenses or usage permissions.
Extensive stock photo collection of WOC (women of color) in tech. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
Stock photos featuring plus-size people. No modification or commercial use allowed. See front page for sample attribution statement.
Photo repository of real, diverse preK–12 students and teachers in different education and tech categories. Licensed CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons - Attribution - NonCommercial).
Illustrations of Black people, organized in themed packs, e.g. Activism, Business, Education, STEM, and more. Browse image packs available for free. Site's licensing allows you to reuse, revise, and/or remix images.
Stock photographs featuring people with disabilities in tech or business settings. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY ND) License.
Photo collection featuring disabled Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) across the PNW. LGBTQ+, Lifestyle, Social, and Work categories. Licensed CC-BY (Creative Commons - Attribution).
Stock photo library featuring trans and non-binary models. Photos licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons - Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives) license.
"A digital asset library of women STEM innovators, for educational and other noncommercial use." Scroll down page for categories of images and videos, including Women in Tech, #SheCanSTEM, Health & Medicine, and more.
Photo library of women's activities, particularly work and health-related, from around the world. Explore by location or subject. Licensed CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons - Attribution - NonCommercial).
Photo library of Black and Brown people. Explore collections and categories. Licensed CC0 (Public Domain).
Library of hand-drawn, mix-and-match illustrations of people of different genders, ethnicities, and abilities. Licensed CC0 (Public Domain).
Collection of icon illustrations of women in different active scenarios and careers. CC0 (Creative Commons Zero - Public domain) license.
Free stock photos and videos in a variety of categories and formats. Modification allowed, and attribution not required; site license equivalent to CC0 Public Domain.
All images and videos on Pixabay are released under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) public domain license. Searchable by keyword or by type (video, illustration, photo, etc.).
All images on this repository site are licensed under the CC0 public domain license.
Photos and images on this site have a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) public domain license. Searchable by keyword or by categories.
Unsplash photos are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) public domain license. Searchable by keyword or by collections.
Flickr hosts millions of Creative Commons-licensed images. Notably, Flickr provides a separate Creative Commons licensed videos collection. Search tip: After searching with a keyword, click the "Any license" filter to narrow down to images with different kinds of open licenses.
Morguefile is a free photo archive. The site was created to serve as a free image exchange for creative professionals and teachers to use in their work. Search Tip: Search by keyword and then click on the license link for more specific info on how to use that image.
Search for over 700 million free images, photos, and audio in the public domain and under Creative Commons licenses. Site used to be known as Creative Commons Search.
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository that is completely dedicated to providing educational media that are released either in the public domain or under Creative Commons license. Search tip: To check the license information on any image, scroll down the page to the Licensing section.
Each site linked below may contain content which may vary in open licenses or usage permissions.
TED Videos have a CC BY NC ND 4.0 license, and TED encourages users to freely view, share, and download the videos without restraint. The website is provided as a public service to promote the spread of good ideas.
TED-Ed is TED’s youth and education initiative. TED-Ed Originals are short, award-winning animated videos about ideas that spark the curiosity of learners everywhere.
Playlist of current educational documentaries available to stream for free from Netflix via YouTube. Current titles include: 13th, Our Planet series, Amend: The Fight for America series, We the People series, Abstract: The Art of Design series, and more. Open access. Guidelines and terms of use linked on this playlist.
Khan Academy provides top-quality educational videos that are organized by discipline and skill levels. They provide videos from various disciplines including Math, Science, Economics, Finance, and Humanities.
YouTube provides millions of Creative Commons-licensed videos (among their billions of video collections). The key is filtering them to isolate the Creative Commons-licensed ones.
Like YouTube, Vimeo hosts millions of Creative Commons-licensed videos. In addition, Vimeo provides a separate Creative Commons licensed video collection which makes the filtering process much easier.
"A digital asset library of women STEM innovators, for educational and other noncommercial use." Scroll down page for categories of images and videos, including Women in Tech, #SheCanSTEM, Health & Medicine, and more.
A shared digital video collection, managed by School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Includes video collections from NASA, National Arcives, Internet Moving Images Archive, and more. Search by keyword or browse videos by genre, duration, color, and sound. Most videos are from government agencies and under public domain.
This online collection spans more than 100 years of cinema history, from 1890-1999. Most, but not all, of the featured films are in the public domain, and available to download as well as watch.
Links to over 1000 free movies online, many of which are in the public domain. Includes classic, indies, noir, westerns, etc. Organized by genre and title.
Open-source films (also known as open-content films and free-content films) are films which are produced and distributed by using free and open-source and open content methodologies. Their sources are freely available.
Each site linked below may contain content which may vary in open licenses or usage permissions.
"Free Music Archive and Tribe of Noise are known for free to download music licensed under Creative Commons."
Massive lists of public domain music and songs, as well as royalty free music. From the Public Domain Information Project site.
Includes openly licensed audio together in one search. Each record includes an "Attributions" tab, so you can easily copy-and-paste the attribution.
Listen to music, interviews, field recordings, and more from the Library's historic sound recording collections.
Download hundreds of free and openly licensed audio books, mostly classics, to your MP3 player or computer. Includes fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.
This is a community music remixing site featuring remixes and samples licensed under Creative Commons licenses.
Offers free sound clips for download in either wav or mp3 format. Each sound clip has license information, so look for that column when determining license and usage.
List of free/open source sound websites
"The concept of Citizen DJ is grounded in hip hop culture." Includes free-to-use audio and video collections from the Library of Congress. Scroll down the home page to view music collections. All sounds are free-to-use for remixing.
Except where otherwise noted, the content on this page is adapted from Tacoma Community College Library and is licensed under CC BY SA 4.0.
