Library Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): Find Existing OER

Using the OER You Find

What can you do with the OER you find?

Most OER can be used as-is or adapted to fit your needs.

Check the Creative Commons (CC) license applied to the material for details on how you can use it. See our Creative Commons Licensing page for help interpreting CC licenses.

Remember!

Anytime you use an OER, you're required to include an attribution statement that gives credit to the creator. See the image on the first page of this guide for an example or find more details here: Recommended Practices for Attribution.

This image from VectarPortal.com is licensed under CC-BY 4.0

OER Repositories

Opendora
Find and use OER created by other Minnesota State Faculty.
Minnesota OER Commons
Providing support for educators and curriculum experts, this repository of Open Educational Resources includes open textbooks, interactive lessons, courses, lectures and more.
University of Minnesota Libraries - Published Works
The University of Minnesota Libraries publishes openly licensed textbooks, journals, monographs, syllabi, and other scholarly content. All titles are accessible from this page. Unless otherwise noted, content is released under a Creative Commons license and is free to download, share, and reuse.

Open Textbook Library
From the University of Minnesota, this repository contains openly licensed textbooks that are free to use, adapt, and distribute. They can be downloaded for no cost or printed at low cost. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.
OASIS
From SUNY Geneseo, Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a tool that searches for open content from hundreds of different sources. Try OER by Subject to find materials for a particular discipline.
MERLOT
A curated collection of online learning and support materials, including learning objects and tutorials
LibreTexts
Open access textbooks, exercises, simulations, worksheets, and more on all topics.
Mason OER Metafinder
Search 16 OER repositories simultaneously
BC Open Collection
A curated selection of open educational resources (OER)including courses and textbooks with new materials being added all the time. All materials are openly licensed.
OpenStax
Peer-reviewed, openly licensed, free textbooks with additional learning resources.
OER Commons
Discover resources by subject area, material type, and more. The advanced search allows limiting by conditions of use.
WISC-ONLINE
A digital library of learning objects and courses on many subjects, including general education, career, and technical disciplines. Many learning objects can be downloaded as SCORM packages for LMS integration.

Skills Commons
This repository focuses on OER for technical and industrial programs and workforce development.
Artstor - Open Collections
Over 300 collections of high-quality images, curated from leading museums and archives around the world. Artstor's diverse collections are rights-cleared for education and research, and include Open Access content as well as rare materials not available elsewhere.
LabXChange
A free online platform for high-quality science education resources from Harvard University. Included are virtual lab simulations, interactive content, videos, and more.
American Institute of Mathematics - Open Textbooks
Open math textbooks on a variety of math topics, approved by the AIM editorial board.
Mathigon
Free interactive math courses, activities, and lessons.
Nursing Textbooks from OpenStax
Nursing textbooks designed to meet the standard scope and sequence requirements of their respective courses – and are 100% free online. Complete with free resources for educators (like LMS course shells, lecture slides, instructor answer keys, and more), all OpenStax textbooks are fully customizable.
PhET Interactive Simulations
PhET Interactive Simulations project creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.
OnlineLabs.in
Developed to serve as a comprehensive, encyclopedic reference about online labs in a variety of subjects, particularly virtual laboratory simulations for science education. We categorize useful listings for online lab simulations, virtual science experiments and free educational software.
MERLOT Virtual Labs
Offers a collection of virtual labs in a variety of science disciplines, but note that you will not be able to capture student performance data. Many textbooks also provide interactive lab-based resources if you have adopted the book for your course.

Open Image Repositories

Open Image Repositories
Diversity & Inclusion-Focused Open Image Repositories

Unsplash
Photos and illustrations freely available for download and re-use.
SVG SILH
Free SVG images & icons. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0 (public domain) license.
Pexels - Public Domain Images
Find thousands of high quality public domain images that are free to download and use.
Negative Space
High-resolution, free stock photos licensed under Creative Commons CC0 (public domain).
New Old Stock
Vintage photos from public archives. Free of known copyright restrictions.
LibreShot
Free stock photos licensed under Creative Commons CC0 (public domain). Check the license for each photo as there are some sponsored images with other licenses linked on the page.
Pixnio Free Images
2000+ free images and high-quality photos.
Snappy Goat
Free public domain/CC0 licensed photos, images, and clipart.
Free Images
Millions of free public domain or CC0 licensed stock photos, art, and vector images.
Free to Use Images - Library of Congress
This page features items from the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. Each set of content is based on a theme.

Disabled and Here
Free stock photography featuring disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color), varied body sizes/types, sexual orientations, and gender identities in the Pacific Northwest; License CC BY 4.0
The Gender Spectrum Collection
The Gender Spectrum Collection is a stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond the clichés. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
AllGo Plus-Size
Free stock photography collections featuring plus-size people. While attribution is not required to use the photos, please credit AllGo and photographer Michael Poley of Poley Creative.
Images of Empowerment
Free images of women’s lives and work. Created by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Getty Images; License: CC-BY-NC-4.0
Nappy
Free high-resolution photos of Black and Brown people, licensed under Creative Commons Zero CC0 (public domain).
PICNOI
Free photos of people of color. Attribution appreciated by linking to the site.
#WOCinTech Chat
Free photos of women and non-binary people of color working in the Tech field. Licensed under CC BY #WOCinTech Chat or wocintechchat.com.
Redefining Women Icon Collection
Icons of women. Licensed under Creative Commons CC0 (public domain).