Open Educational Resources (OER)
OER Websites and Search Tips
OER Search Tools
Use one of the following search engines to find OER options across multiple repository collections.
- Mason OER Metafinder
This is your one-stop-shop for OER! The Mason OER Metafinder helps you find Open Educational Resources. Unlike other OER discovery sites (e.g, OER Commons, OASIS, MERLOT, OpenStax, etc.) with our Metafinder you aren’t searching a static database. Instead, the OER Metafinder launches a real-time, simultaneous search across 21 different sources of open educational materials as you hit the Search button.
Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) - 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 117 different sources and contains 388,707 records.
- Open Textbook Store
OpenTextBookStore was created by educators frustrated with the time involved in finding adoptable open textbooks, with the hope to make open textbook adoption easier for other faculty.
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OER Commons
OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. -
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." -
Open Textbook Library
Part of the Open Education Network, the Open Textbook Library includes OER that are licensed by authors and publishers to be freely used and adapted.
Tips for Searching OER:
- Use the advanced searching feature if there is one. This will save you some time and limit your search.
- Start with broad terms (ex. disease instead of cancer) and then narrow.
- As you narrow, think about disciplinary language. Is there something else this topic might be referred to as?
- If you still aren't getting good results, try to start with the browsing feature (even if it's very broad). Sometimes the term your searching isn't used but you still know it would be under a broad subject like "humanities" or "writing".
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This infographic shows the process of searching for OER.
Note: this infographic was adapted and modified from the University of Texas at Austin's original infographic.
For more information, see their Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning website.