Searching and finding Open Educational Resources (OER)
Overview
This resource is about finding and recognizing OER.
How to search for Open Educational Resources (OER)?
Which material to use for my OER?
How to attribute open material using the TASLL rule?
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) by ZHAW, University Library (17 October 2022).
How to search for Open Educational Resources (OER)?
There are different ways to search for different formats and resource-types.
There is a comprehensive link list on Creative Commons, which is regularly update.
OER-specific search platforms:
- Wikimedia Commons
- openverse (extensive library of images and audio)
- OER Commons - you can search directly for subject-specific content or use sites within OER Commons that has it all aggregated, like the Open Textbook Hub
Openly licensed material under own licence:
Some platforms like Pixabay, Unsplash and thenounproject use their own licence. If you use their resources, you need to link to their licence. Always read the licence before using the content, in order to know what is allowed and what is not:
- Pixabay - has its own licence - images, videos and music and sound effects
- thenounproject and its licence - search for icons and photos, 3 different licences: Public domain, Attribution Licence CC BY 3.0 and royalty-free Licence, always read the licence.
Search engines - you need to use filters to find OER material
- Google - search for OER in the search field, e.g. "psychology OER" or adjust the usage rights filter in advanced search settings to "free to use or share, even commercially"
- Flickr - refine your search by setting "any licence" filter to Creative Commons
OER subject resources - you can find them through google by searching for open textbooks
- Open Textbook Library on a variety of subjects
- Open Library
- Cal Poly Humboldt - OER subject resources
- bc campus open textbooks
- University of Adelaide - OER subject resources
- Virtual linguistics Campus - OER platform for linguistics
- Open Textbook Hub on OER Commons
OER guides
- University of Adelaide - OER Guide
OER portals like Zenodo, PLOS
- Zenodo, examples of OER material: see our Students4OER-area for different resources that have been released under an open licence
- PLOS - open access, you can go through a suite of open access journals on PLOS
TASK 1:
- Try out a few of the search sites listed above
- Search for a resource from your subject field
- Read Step 3
- Go to Step 4 and follow instructions
Which material to use for my OER?
Material for OER - in order to publish your OER under an open licence, you need either to be the rights holder, that is you have the usage rights, or the material you use needs to be under an open licence. If you use copyrighted material, it is very rare that you can obtain the right to use and the right to publish it under an open licence, therefore:
Use your own material – where you have all the rights to use and publish the material
Use material under an open licence – the licence gives you the right and information, so you know what you can do with this work!
Plan using openly licensed material right from the beginning of developing your OER.
- Always check the licence. Is it published under an open licence, e.g. Creative Commons. The licence tells you what you can do with the resource.
How to attribute open material: TASLL rule
If you use other people's material, it needs to be under an open licence, so you know what you can do with the work.
If you can use it, in accordance with the licence of the work, attribute it, using the TASLL rule:
Image used: "Physio" by Olli Homann is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0, text added by ZHAW University Library
A good platform is openverse, it generates the attribution automatically, but you still need to go to the original location of the resource and see if it is correct:
TASK 2:
- Go to the following image on openverse
- Now look at the attribution that is generated automatically by openverse: "Physio School #06" by Broken Window Theory is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
- Go to the image on Flickr and see if the licence autogenerated by openverse is correct:
- Is the licence correct?
- What can you do with it?
- Can you use the attribution from openverse as it is?