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Finding Open Educational Resources (OER)

This guide has been created to provide UAA and APU faculty members with assistance in finding OER.

In This Guide

Dig Deeper

You've done a cursory search for open educational resources and you haven't found exactly what you are looking for. It may be time to take your search to the next level using some of the repositories and search engines linked on this page.

I highly recommend setting up a time to meet with me before proceeding (see the "Contact Me" box on this page). I am happy to share my expertise and it is likely to greatly reduce the time you spend on this endeavor. If you want to plow forward on your own, be sure to read the Search Strategy page in this guide first.

Though the resources you find through these links should be open, always confirm that the material you wish to use has a Creative Commons or similar license that explicitly allows you to use and/or modify the material. Note that this list focuses on college/university level resources rather than K-12.

On this page:

Complete Courses & Units

These sources provide you with complete courses or units that are entirely open. You can use an entire course, a portion of a course, or just the reading list -- whatever is relevant to your needs.

Open Textbooks

This section include several different types of sources.

  • Curated collection: Directory of hand-picked textbooks from various sources, often by one or more specific colleges/universities.
  • Repository: A large collection of materials that are author-submitted rather than curated. Quality varies.
  • Textbook provider: An organization that has developed textbooks. You will only be searching that "publisher's" materials, direct from the source.

You may also wish to explore complete courses to see which readings and other materials are used in courses similar to yours.

Other Open Books

These links allow you to explore open access books that are not textbooks. Most of these books are not truly OER as they do not allow remixing or revising. Always check the license before using.

Multimedia & Images

Open Journals & Articles

Subject-Specific OER Guides

Most places to locate OER cover a wide range of subjects. This box contains subject-specific resources. Note that these are likely to be just one part of your search.

Contact Me

Profile Photo
D'Arcy Hutchings
Contact:
Instructional Design & Open Education Librarian,
Associate Professor
dlhutchings@alaska.edu
907.786.1982

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work by D'Arcy Hutchings is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Third-party content including, but not limited to images and linked items, are subject to their own license terms.

You may reproduce, reuse, or remix any part of this guide as long as credit is included. We encourage you to license your derivative works under Creative Commons as well to encourage sharing and reuse of educational materials.

Portions of this guide are based on earlier versions of an OER guide created by Jen Klaudinyi of Portland Community College (CC BY-NC US 3.0 license). I've used/adapted many links and link descriptions from Klaudinyi's guide and the Open Professionals Education Network's Find OER page (CC BY Int'l 4.0 license).