Research Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER), Information for Faculty: Search for OER

Metafinders

OERSI (Open Educational Resources Search Index) collects metadata on OERs specifically for higher education. A selection of search filters in the left column help searchers narrow down results to a relevant list of possibilities.

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. Great place to search when you know what type (audio, textbook, etc.) of material you are looking for.

The Mason OER Metafinder allows you to simultaneously search across the multiple OER repositories (e.g., MERLOT II, OAOpen.org, OER Commons, OpenStax CNX, etc.) as well as many open archival repositories (e.g. HathiTrust, Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, etc.).

OER Textbooks

Open Textbook Library
Hundreds of complete, open college-level textbooks. Many include peer-reviews. BVU is a member of the Open Educational Network, which supports OTN.
Pressbooks Directory
This site keeps a running tally on all books published using the Pressbooks platform. Searchable by language, subject, license and other filters.
OpenStax College
A nonprofit based at Rice University offers open textbooks in math, science, social sciences & humanities.
Mobius OER
This site lists OER created in Missouri. Resources are arranged by subject area.
Iowa State's OER by Discipline
Abbey Elder, OER Librarian at Iowa State University, maintains this list of OERs available by discipline. This list should cover the most common OERs.
OER by Discipline Directory
The BCcampus Open Education OER by Discipline Directory lists a wide range of open educational resources organized by discipline. It acts as a referratory where the name of the resource, a link to where it can be accessed, its licence, and then a short description are provided.
LibreText
Libretext's mission is to create 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. Click on "Explore the Libraries" to see what texts are available.
Course Materials for Educators from BC Campus
BCCampus OpenEd publishes open textbooks largely designed for use in first and second year undergraduate courses.
Milne Open Textbooks (formerly SUNY Open Textbooks)
Milne Open Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants.
OER Commons
Offers a variety of OER at a variety of levels and subjects. Use limiters on left side of results page.
American Institute of Mathematics
Lists open textbooks by course title. All the books have been judged to meet the evaluation criteria set by the AIM editorial board.
OAPEN
The OAPEN Library contains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of humanities and social sciences.
Project Gutenberg
offers over 60,000 free eBooks most of which are now in the public domain. Great resource for historical and classic texts.

OER Repositories

These OER repositories include textbooks like the group above, but here you'll be likely to also find syllabi, test banks, instructional materials, videos and more. These are also places you can share things that you've created!

MERLOT
One of the biggest OER repositories, but a bit unwieldy and difficult to search. Use limiting options on the left side of results page.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Contains links to a wide range of multimedia objects form libraries, archives and museums around the United States.
The copyright status of items vary because it is collected from many sources. However, many items are public domain or available for re-use, and there is information in a "rights" field for each item.
Teaching Commons
The Teaching Commons brings together high-quality open educational resources from leading colleges and universities. Curated by librarians and their institutions, the Teaching Commons includes open access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, and more.

Open Courseware & Materials

MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare makes the materials used in the teaching of MIT's subjects available on the Web.
Open Course Library
from Washington State University, is a collection of educational materials – including textbooks, syllabi, course activities, readings, and assessments.
OpenCulture
1,500 free online courses from the world's leading universities -- Stanford, Yale, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Oxford and more.
Open Yale Courses
provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by teachers and scholars at Yale University.

OER use in Iowa

Iowa OER

A page of OER resources for the K-16 education community in the state.

IPAL OER Project

During the 2021-2022 academic year, the Iowa Private Academic Library (IPAL) group was awarded a $250,000 GEER grant to support the adoption and creation of OERs on our campuses. This report lists the 62 projects that were funded. To learn more about any of these projects, please contact the faculty member named.

OERs used in other Iowa colleges and universities

These OERs has been created in or adopted by other Iowa colleges and universities. This list is maintained to help faculty learn what their colleagues in the state are using and creating. Look here for ideas or collaboration opportunities.

Recording of webinars for the Iowa OER Action Team

View past webinars from the Iowa OER Action team. Good basic information and local contacts to reach out for more information.

Open Educational Resources (OER), Information for Faculty

Library contact information