Open Educational Resources (OER)
đź“šFind great materials for free!
Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely available teaching and learning materials that can be used, adapted, and shared. These tools help faculty find, remix, and create high-quality, openly licensed course content.
đź“š MERLOT
Purpose: A curated collection of peer-reviewed online teaching and learning materials.
Best for: Finding discipline-specific open resources reviewed by educators.
Pro Tip: Check the “Peer Review” tab on materials for quality insights before adoption.
đź“š OER Commons
Purpose: Digital library of openly licensed educational materials across subjects and grade levels.
Best for: Discovering and remixing complete lessons, textbooks, and activities.
Pro Tip: Use the built-in “Open Author” tool to publish and share your own OER creations.
đź“š LibreTexts
Purpose: Platform offering free, editable textbooks and learning modules across disciplines.
Best for: Adopting or adapting open textbooks with built-in learning tools.
Pro Tip: Use the LibreTexts “Remixer” to create custom books tailored to your course objectives.
đź“š OpenStax
Purpose: Nonprofit publisher providing free, peer-reviewed, high-quality textbooks.
Best for: Replacing costly textbooks with open, accessible alternatives.
Pro Tip: Explore the “Instructor Resources” tab for test banks, slides, and LMS integrations.
đź“š Rebus Community
Purpose: Open publishing platform for collaboratively creating OER textbooks.
Best for: Faculty authors interested in contributing to or starting open publishing projects.
Pro Tip: Join the Rebus community forums to connect with other educators creating open materials.
đź’ˇ Faculty Tips
- Check each OER’s license (CC BY, CC BY-SA, etc.) to understand reuse and attribution requirements.
- Mix and match OER chapters or lessons to fit your specific learning outcomes.
- Consider adopting OER as a first step toward a zero-cost textbook course.