Where to find OER materials
OER repositories
Before you begin writing, please review the following OER repositories to see if there are any OER you can adopt or adapt and integrate into your writing. There are many OER already in existence, and since these are generally openly licensed, you can use them without the copyright holder’s permission. This will save you time and effort. Of course, there will not always be OER that you can use straight out of the box, but you may be able to adapt an OER to suit your needs.
Here are some of the main OER repositories you can search:
- Open Textbook Library-Over 1000 openly licensed textbooks are available.
- IntechOpen-Over 5,000 openly licensed peer-reviewed textbooks.
- Pressbooks Directory– Search for other OER built using the Pressbooks platform. These are easy to adopt or adapt.
- BCcampus Open Ed
- LibreText
- OER Commons- One of the largest OER repositories.
- OpenStax– High-quality textbooks for introductory-level college courses.
OER metafinder
The Mason OER Metfinder search across several repositories but not all of them. It is, however, a good starting point if you cannot find anything in the repositories listed above. Use the topics tab on the left-hand side to refine your search.
Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)Many additional repositories are discipline specific. Please consult the OERU unit for more guidance.
Taking an existing OER and using it as is in your course. For example, you might adopt a textbook from OpenStax.
Taking one or more OER resources and merging or rearranging these to make a new OER. Adapting can be as simple as rearranging chapters in an existing OER textbook or combining chapters from several OER.
