Open Educational Resources (OER)

Finding OERs

Each of these sources allow you to select a subject/discipline to see suggested OER textbooks by subject.

 

Maryland Open Source Textbooks - online space designed to support faculty and staff in discovering materials, collaborating with colleagues, and contributing OER to improve curricula.

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OpenStax- openly licensed textbooks covering math, science, social sciences, humanities, and AP courses

 

Open Textbook Library-openly licensed textbooks covering accounting and finance, business, computer science & information systems, economics, education, engineering, humanities, journalism, media studies & communications, law, mathematics, medicine, natural sciences, social sciences and student success

 

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Non-commercial open textbook organization initiated at the University of California, Davis.Choose Explore Libraries for a subject list > then explore the bookshelves.

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OER Commons  - Higher education textbooks by subject; also allows some filtering by education level

 

 

 

Academic Earth- open access courses covering accounting, art and design, management, business, education, humanities, medicine and healthcare, science and math, social science and test preparation, marketing, psychology from top universities such as MIT, Case Western Reserve, NYU, Stanford, Cornell, Johns Hopkins University and more.

saylor.org Academy-free, online courses, earning certificates, college credits.  Covers art history, biology, business administration, chemistry, communication, computer science, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, political science, professional development, psychology. Sociology, study skills, saylor meta-courses, partner and certificate programs.

 

Open Learning Initiative -open access courses created by Carnegie Mellon University covering American English, speech, anatomy and physiology, Arabic for Global exchange, argument diagramming, biochemistry, biology, causal and statistical reasoning, chemistry, Chinese I, concepts of statistics, French I and II, engineering statics, evidence based practice in management and consulting, health information technology foundations, logic and proofs, media programming, modern biology and NSC stem pathways. There may be a maintenance fee involved, per student.

 

 

Extensive List of open multi-media resources (Johns Hopkins Center for Educational Resources)

Additional Sources to those on the Center for Educational Resources List

Free of charge content on this website covers cultures around the world, in seven different languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish). WDL includes books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films. Many of the items are primary resources dating back as far as 8000 BCE.

 

 

Free online interactive simulations covers math and research-based science. All simulations are open source (see our source code).

OERs are generally published at different sites that can be associated with different universities, states, or platforms. These search engines allow you to search across multiple sites. A few of the more popular sites are listed below.

About the Metafinder

Search: Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)

Merlot II-a repository of online learning tools, websites and digital libraries; here you can access other OER sites and materials.  Includes topics in the arts, education, humanities, science, technology, social science, business, mathematics and statistics.  Materials have a variety of licenses from creative commons to rights reserved.

SOL*R (Sharable Online Learning Resources)-a repository of openly licensed online learning resources such as textbooks, learning activities and tools and full programs in a variety of subject areas

OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search)

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, the Teaching Commons includes open-access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, lectures, k-12 materials, and more.

Open Research Library -- ORL's goal is to "include all Open Access book content worldwide on one platform for user-friendly discovery, offering a seamless experience navigating more than 20,000 Open Access books."

These sites offer OERs adopted by other universities and arranged by specific subjects.