There are many types of OERs (images, videos, worksheets, activities, government reports, maps, modules, entire courses, etc). One popular type of OER is the open textbook. Open textbooks are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. They can be read online or downloaded at no cost, and they can often be printed at low cost. Below are some examples of high quality open textbook collections:

Open Textbook Library (Links to an external site.) (UMN) – A well-curated, peer-reviewed collection of over 400 open textbooks in 14 subjects. Standards for inclusion are fairly rigorous, making the collection a high quality resource.

OpenStax (Links to an external site.) (Rice University) – Peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks and accompanying ancillary materials, such as slides and test banks. OpenStax textbooks have been adopted at numerous universities (Links to an external site.) throughout the world. In the 2017-2018 academic year, use of OpenStax textbooks saved $145 million for students at over 4,000 schools. (Links to an external site.)

Open SUNY Textbooks (Links to an external site.) – An open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries. All textbooks are faculty-authored and peer-reviewed.

OER Repositories & Search

Cool4ED (Links to an external site.) – A CSU, UC, and CCC collaboration, Cool4ED has Showcase Reviews (Links to an external site.) which offer a quick place to look before an extensive search. The reviews by California faculty are thorough and include a detailed accessibility report.

OER Commons (Links to an external site.) – A large repository, OER Commons is easy to search.

OASIS (Links to an external site.) – This user-friendly tool helps you search for OER from 73 different sources and contains nearly 200,000 records. Developed by SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library.

MERLOT (Links to an external site.) – Browse or search over 40,000 discipline-specific learning materials contributed by the member community.

Open Oregon (Links to an external site.) – With an extensive list of resources, Open Oregon offers information about the actual classes using the OER, including the institution, course name, links to materials, and instructor information.

Page adapted from: “Digital Citizenship (Links to an external site.)” by James Glapa-Grossklag and Aloha Sargent for Online Network of Educators, (Links to an external site.) licensed under CC BY 4.0 (Links to an external site.)

Text adapted from: “OER Examples (Links to an external site.)” by Michelle Reed (Links to an external site.) for the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries (Links to an external site.), licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Links to an external site.)

“Open Textbook Library logo” by Center for Open Education, University of Minnesota (Links to an external site.) is licensed under CC BY 4.0

“OER Commons logo” by OERCommons.org (Links to an external site.) is licensed under CC BY 4.0