Open Educational Resources (OER): Finding

Steps for searching OER can be tedious and it is very time consuming, listed here are options before you start searching for OER.

Step 1. Before searching for OER, go though these three pages (links below) to get an idea on different Open educational resource options available in your subject area, 

• OER Textbooks: Collections of textbooks designed with open licenses and for reuse, remix, and redistribute within courses for free. 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.

• OER Repositories:  These are repositories of open educational resources covering most of educational disciplines.  Open Repositories are websites which house open books, textbooks, lectures, tutorials, quiz/test, case studies, assessment tools, images, syllabi, simulations, online courses and other resources of educational value. One such  example is MERLOT.

• Open Courseware Collections: These are collections of materials submitted by faculty members at universities that are part of the Open CourseWare (OCW) movement. Open CourseWare (OCW) is a free and Open digital publication of high quality college and University-level educational materials. These materials are organised as courses, and often include course planning materials and evalutaion tools as well as thematic content. Open CourseWare are free and openly licensed, accessible to anyone, anytime via the internet.

Step 2. Depending on your course syllabus, decide whether to use an already existing textbook, or an open course or maybe a combination of open resources which best suits your needs.

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 61 different sources and contains 160,727 records. OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library in consultation with Alexis Clifton, SUNY OER Services Executive Director.  OASIS Development Team:  Allison Brown - Digital Publishing Services Manager; Bill Jones - Digital Resources & Systems Librarian; Ben Rawlins - Library Director.