Guide to Open Source Content
Open Educational Resources (OER) represent a transformative shift in scholarly practice, offering openly licensed, freely accessible teaching and learning materials that allow academic staff to reimagine curriculum design with greater flexibility, equity, and innovation.
For those engaged in higher education, OER not only facilitate cost-effective alternatives to proprietary texts, but also support pedagogical renewal through the adaptation and contextualisation of content to suit diverse learner needs.
This guide directs academic staff to reputable repositories and platforms where high-quality, peer-reviewed OER can be discovered and integrated into teaching and research practices.
The following sources for Open Educational Resources (OERs) are based on reputation, breadth, and frequent citation in authoritative guides.
These platforms are recognised for their global reach, diversity of content, and commitment to open access, making them essential starting points for educators and learners seeking high-quality, freely available educational resources.
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) offers free access to virtually all MIT course content, including syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams across a wide range of subjects.
OER Commons is a comprehensive digital library with over 70,000 educational resources, including lesson plans, textbooks, and full courses, suitable for all educational levels.
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is a large, peer-reviewed collection of over 40,000 OERs, including textbooks, simulations, and learning modules, contributed by educators worldwide.
OpenStax provides high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed college textbooks that are free to download and use, covering key subject areas.
The Open Textbook Library features a growing catalogue of free, peer-reviewed, and openly licensed textbooks, primarily for higher education.
Open Culture aggregates thousands of free courses, textbooks, audiobooks, and multimedia resources from universities and cultural institutions globally.
Oasis is an extensive database developed by SUNY Geneseo and currently searches through almost half a million openly available learning resources.
Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) is a powerful search tool that scans across 15+ major OER repositories, making it easy to find a wide range of open educational materials quickly.
Saylor Academy is a nonprofit organisation offering over 100 free and open online courses at college and professional levels, complete with assessments and certificates.
The OERu (Open Educational Resources universitas) is an international network of higher education institutions offering free online courses and learning materials, with pathways to formal academic credit.
TU Dublin Library Services have an excellent guide to get you started with finding, using, creating and publishing/licensing OER in your discipline.