Manhattan University Knowledge Base

Open Educational Resources (OER) Repository

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Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed teaching and learning materials that can be used, adapted, and shared at no cost. These resources include textbooks, course materials, multimedia, and other educational content designed to support learning across a wide range of subjects.

Using OER can help reduce costs for students, improve access to high-quality educational materials, and provide instructors with greater flexibility in course design. Whether you're an educator looking for supplemental materials, a student seeking additional learning resources, or an instructional designer exploring new ways to enhance online courses, OER offers a wealth of options.

Below, you'll find a curated list of websites where you can discover a variety of open educational resources. Each platform provides different types of content, including full courses, textbooks, and multimedia, making it easier to find resources that fit your specific needs.

Open Online Learning Resource Aggregators

OER aggregators are platforms that collect and organize open educational resources (OER) from multiple sources, making it easier to find high-quality teaching and learning materials in one place. Instead of searching multiple individual websites, educators can use OER aggregators to efficiently locate textbooks, lesson plans, multimedia, and other instructional materials that are freely available for use and adaptation.

  1. Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)
    Searches across multiple OER repositories at once.
  2. Open Textbook Library https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks
    Hosts textbooks across disciplines with peer reviews from faculty.
  3. OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search)
    A search tool that pulls OER from multiple repositories.
  4. Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)  
    Great for open-access scholarly books.

Open Educational Content Providers

While OER aggregators collect and index materials from multiple sources, open educational content providers create and distribute their own openly licensed instructional materials. These organizations develop high-quality educational content, including textbooks, videos, lesson plans, and interactive resources, that are freely available for use and adaptation.

Below are some of the most well-known open educational content providers:

Khan Academy

Khan Academy offers a vast collection of free instructional videos, practice exercises, and learning materials across subjects such as math, science, history, and economics. While the content is not openly licensed for modification, it is freely accessible for learners worldwide.

OpenStax

Developed by Rice University, OpenStax provides free, peer-reviewed, high-quality textbooks that are openly licensed under Creative Commons. These textbooks are widely used in higher education and can be modified to fit course needs.

MIT OpenCourseWare

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers MIT OpenCourseWare, a comprehensive library of free course materials, including lecture notes, assignments, and exams from actual MIT courses. These materials are openly licensed for use and adaptation.

Saylor Academy

Saylor Academy provides full online courses with open textbooks, assessments, and certifications. These courses span multiple disciplines and are freely available for learners and educators.

CK-12 Foundation

CK-12 offers free, customizable, and interactive textbooks (FlexBooks) in STEM and other subjects for K-12 and higher education. These resources allow teachers to adapt content to their specific classroom needs.

CK-12 Foundation

CK-12 offers free, customizable, and interactive textbooks (FlexBooks) in STEM and other subjects for K-12 and higher education. These resources allow teachers to adapt content to their specific classroom needs.

Wikibooks

A Wikimedia project, Wikibooks provides a collection of open-content textbooks that anyone can edit and improve. It covers a range of subjects, making it a dynamic and evolving repository of learning materials.

Open Simulations & Interactive Widgets

Interactive simulations and widgets provide engaging, hands-on learning experiences that help students visualize complex concepts, conduct virtual experiments, and interact with educational content in dynamic ways. These tools are particularly useful in STEM education but can be applied across various disciplines. Below are some of the best open-access simulation and widget providers.

PhET Interactive Simulations

Developed by the University of Colorado Boulder, PhET provides free, interactive math and science simulations designed for students of all levels. These simulations allow learners to explore physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics concepts in an engaging, game-like environment.

Concord Consortium

The Concord Consortium offers a vast collection of free, research-based interactive simulations in STEM education. Topics include molecular dynamics, genetics, energy transfer, and more. Many of these resources integrate well with learning management systems and classroom instruction.

Desmos

Desmos is a powerful, free graphing calculator and math exploration tool that enables students to visualize equations, create interactive graphs, and explore mathematical concepts dynamically. It is widely used in classrooms for algebra, calculus, and beyond.

GeoGebra

GeoGebra offers free online tools for interactive mathematics, including graphing, geometry, algebra, and calculus. It provides a range of dynamic visualizations that support inquiry-based learning and student engagement.

CK-12 Simulations & Interactives

In addition to its open textbooks, CK-12 provides interactive simulations, including virtual labs, 3D models, and adaptive learning exercises. These resources help students grasp STEM concepts through experiential learning.

NetLogo is an open-source simulation platform that allows users to explore complex systems and behaviors in fields like biology, physics, and social sciences. It is particularly useful for computational modeling and agent-based simulations.

Molecular Workbench

Molecular Workbench from the Concord Consortium provides interactive, research-based molecular simulations in chemistry and biology. Students can manipulate molecules, test hypotheses, and observe reactions in a virtual lab setting.

Virtual Microscope

Virtual Microscope provides access to high-resolution digital microscope slides, allowing students to explore biological specimens without needing a physical microscope. Its widely used in biology and medical education.

Open Courseware & MOOCs

Open Courseware (OCW) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide structured, freely accessible learning experiences, often developed by universities and educational institutions. These resources offer full courses, including lecture materials, syllabi, assignments, and sometimes assessments. While some MOOCs require payment for certification, the core learning materials are often available for free.

Below are some of the most well-known Open Courseware and MOOC providers:

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW)

MIT OpenCourseWare is one of the most well-established open educational resources. It offers lecture notes, assignments, exams, and even some recorded lectures from actual MIT courses. Topics range from engineering and science to humanities and social sciences.

Open Learning Initiative (OLI - Carnegie Mellon University)

Carnegie Mellons Open Learning Initiative provides openly licensed online courses in subjects like statistics, biology, and computer science. The courses are designed with built-in learning analytics to help students track their progress.

edX Open Courses

edX offers online courses from top universities like Harvard, MIT, and Berkeley. While certification typically requires payment, many courses allow free access to lectures and course materials. Some edX courses can be credited toward degrees.

FutureLearn

FutureLearn provides free courses from universities worldwide. Learners can access video lectures, discussions, and activities for free, with the option to pay for certificates or extended access.

Open Yale Courses

Yale University offers free access to high-quality lecture recordings, transcripts, and course materials from a variety of disciplines. Unlike some MOOCs, Open Yale Courses do not include quizzes or assessments but provide full lecture series from renowned professors.

TU Delft OpenCourseWare

Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands offers OpenCourseWare in engineering, sustainability, and technology fields. These courses include lecture materials, assignments, and projects.

OpenLearn (The Open University, UK)

OpenLearn provides free courses across a broad range of subjects, including history, education, health, and science. Many courses include interactive activities and self-assessment tools.

Open Access Journals & Research Repositories

Open Access (OA) journals and research repositories provide free, unrestricted access to scholarly articles, research papers, and academic publications. Unlike traditional subscription-based journals, open access publications allow educators, students, and researchers to explore cutting-edge studies without financial barriers. These resources support evidence-based teaching, academic research, and the integration of the latest findings into coursework and instructional design.

Below are some of the most well-known open access journal directories and research repositories:

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

The Directory of Open Access Journals is a comprehensive database of peer-reviewed open access journals covering a wide range of academic disciplines. It provides researchers and educators with access to thousands of high-quality, freely available scholarly articles, ensuring that knowledge is widely shared and accessible.

ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)

Managed by the U.S. Department of Education, ERIC is a central repository for research related to education, including journal articles, conference papers, and reports. It serves as a valuable resource for educators, instructional designers, and policymakers seeking research on teaching methods, learning outcomes, and educational technology.

PubMed Central (PMC)

A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, PubMed Central provides free access to full-text biomedical and life sciences research articles. It is an essential resource for students, faculty, and researchers in health sciences, nursing, and medicine, offering a wealth of peer-reviewed studies.

arXiv

Operated by Cornell University, arXiv is an open-access repository that houses preprints and published research in fields such as physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, and engineering. It is widely used by academics and researchers to share their work quickly and openly.

Open Educational Images & Graphics

Open image repositories provide access to freely available photos, illustrations, icons, and other media, often under Creative Commons or public domain licenses. These resources ensure that visuals can be used, adapted, and shared without copyright restrictions.

Wikimedia Commons

A project of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Commons hosts millions of freely usable media files, including photographs, illustrations, and diagrams. Many images are available under Creative Commons licenses, allowing educators and students to integrate them into their work with proper attribution.

Pixabay

Pixabay offers a vast collection of high-quality public domain images, illustrations, and vector graphics. All content on Pixabay is free to use for educational and commercial purposes without attribution, making it an excellent resource for course materials and multimedia projects.

Unsplash

A popular source for high-resolution photography, Unsplash provides stunning visuals that are free to use without restrictions. While primarily known for artistic and landscape photography, it also includes educational and conceptual images useful for presentations and digital content creation.

The Noun Project

For icons, symbols, and vector graphics, The Noun Project offers a vast library of free and openly licensed icons. These can be used in presentations, infographics, and instructional materials to enhance visual communication. Some icons require attribution, but many are available for unrestricted use.

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