Subject guides: Open Education Resources (OER): Searching

Where to start your search for OER

For an initial search of any OER content, we recommend you start with Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) which has broad, real-time search capabilities. It will enable simultaneous searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials, including well-known OER repositories such as OER Commons, MERLOT, and OpenStax, and also sites such as HathiTrust, DPLA, Internet Archive and NYPL Digital Collections.

For an initial search of OER textbooks, we recommend starting with the top five major textbook platforms: MERLOT, Open Textbook Library, OpenStax, OASIS, and BC Open Textbook Project.

Finding OER

Finding and reusing OER

Need for a resource
Decide what you need and the format required. It could be an image, video, interactive, textbook, lecture slides, lesson plans or an assessment activity.
Search
Use the different Creative Commons search tools and resources to find what you need. Check the CC license to see how you can use the resource.
Adapt
If the CC license permits, edit the resource to suit your particular needs.
Reuse
Use the resource in your learning materials. Don't forget to add attribution.
Share
Share the resource with others. Include the resource on OER repositories.

The website Creative Commons Search offers a convenient way to search for content provided by independent organisations. You can limit to the type of resource you are searching for example YouTube or Google Images. Be aware that the results displayed may not always be under a CC license. You should always verify the CC license before using the content.

Where to find OERs

Open Educational Resources: Repositories and Collections
Open Educational Resources: Videos and Images

Open Educational Resources (OER): Repositories and Collections

Open Educational Resources (OER): Where to find Videos and Images

The first video below shows how to find creative commons videos on YouTube.

The second video highlights several online sites that feature OER images and videos that are freely available.

Evaluating OERs - CRAAP Test

The CRAAP test can help you evaluate Open Educational Resources (OERs).

CRAAP stands for:

Currency

Relevancy

Authoritative

Accuracy

Purpose

Watch the video below to learn more about using the CRAAP Test to evaluate sources of information.

Open Textbooks Review Criteria



Comprehensiveness: The text covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately and provides an effective index and/or glossary.
Content Accuracy: Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased.
Relevance/Longevity: Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time. The text is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.
Clarity: The text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology used.
Consistency: The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.
Modularity: The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course (i.e., enormous blocks of text without subheadings should be avoided). The text should not be overly self-referential, and should be easily reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader.
Organization/Structure/Flow: The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion.
Interface: The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader.
Grammatical Errors: The text contains no grammatical errors.
Cultural Relevance

Evaluating OERs Checklist

Use this simple checklist, produced by The University of Queensland Library, to quickly decide whether the OER is appropriate for your purposes. OERs will need to be referenced like any other source of information.

Checklist	Yes	No
Licensed for open use
CC license that allows for educational reuse
CC license allows for modification and adaption
Public Domain
Suitability
Aligned with course objectives
Appropriately current
Suitable for your level
Quality
Creator is identified
Creator is reputable
Accurate content
Audio, videos, images are of high quality
Ease of use
Clear and easy to understand
Interface easy to navigate
Accessibility
Audio and video resources have a transcript or subtitles
Alternative formats are available if required (as Word document or PDF)

OER evaluation checklist (docx,15KB) - Downloadable version of the checklist

The Open educational resources (OER) guide by the University of Queensland Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.