Open Educational Resources
Introduction: using this resource content
content
Introduction: using this resource
Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed text, media, and other digital assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. There is no universal usage of open file formats in OER.(Wikipedia)
- This page is a collection of open resources available on the web.
- You can filter the resources using the free text filter options at the top of the 'title' and 'description' columns (1) and the 'keywords' column (2).
- The resources are divided into groups based on type (3) which can be filtered using the drop down option at the top of the column.
- At the top right of the list you have the 'clear all filters' option which will reset all filters (4)
- You can also suggest a new resource to be added to the collection (5)
General Statement
This page is for resources which are already freely available on the Internet, with no subscription required by the user or the institution. Please remember to read any Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statements for these resources before you decide to start using them. You should also check the provenance of resources and ensure that the licence suits your requirements. Don't use them if you are not comfortable with their Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statements.
This page may be considered to be 'in development' and should not be considered exhaustive.
The LTA would welcome contributions to this database of resources. You can contribute by clicking on the 'suggest a new resource' option at the bottom of the list (6).
Any other suggestions please email lta@uhi.ac.uk
Table of Open Educational Resources
| Title | Description | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Institute of mathematics - approved OER texts | The American Institute of Mathematics approved textbooks covering all aspects of mathematics. | Books | algebra, trigonometry, calculus, differential equations, analysis, statistics, logic, combinatronics |
| An introduction to open educational resources | In this free course, An introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER), you will look at some institutional OER initiatives. Read full description These will include MIT's open courseware, Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative and The Open University's OpenLearn. You will get a flavour of how different OER initiatives design and present the content for their audiences. This OpenLearn course will also give you the opportunity to find, discuss and redesign some OER material. You can choose your audience for the material and redesign it to fit their needs. | Course | openlearn, free course, open education, introduction OER |
| Arthur Andersen case studies in business ethics | A selection of case studies in business ethics covering accounting, finance, marketing and more. | Collection | business, ethics, case study, case studies, finance, marketing |
| OER - Arthur Lakes Library Colorado | A collection of open resources including books, texts, images, audio, video, simulations and labs | Collection | oer, psychology, civics, computer science, electrical engineering, biology, environmental science, epidemiology, geology, maths, microbiology, physics, neuroscience, chemistry, |
| Bcampus OpenEd | Search for quality open textbooks offered in a variety of digital formats; the first step in adopting open educational resources. Search by subject and download them to your computer. | Books | art, history, biology, business, law, leadership, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology |
| OER Commons | A digital public library and collaboration platform covering multiple disciplines. Includes lesson plans, case studies, games, assessment, simulations, interactions, data sets and many other types of material. | Collection | business, natural science, social science, English, communication, humanities, languages, technology, mathematics, biology, chemistry, computing, psychology, statistics, history |
| Creating open educational resources | Are you interested in creating your own open educational resources? Read full description This free course, Creating open educational resources, will help you to write a learning course and provide you with links to various resources for open-learning materials. You will learn about the different purposes of self-instruction and receive advice about the techniques and strategies to help the learner. | Course | openlearn, open university, create, creating, open educational resources, introductory, free course |
| Creative Commons Search | CC Search is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone. Creative Commons, the nonprofit behind CC Search, is the maker of the CC licenses, used over 1.4 billion times to help creators share knowledge and creativity online. | Images | art, history, biology, business, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology, sociology |
| Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) | The primary aim of DOAB is to increase discoverability of Open Access books.The directory is open to all publishers who publish academic, peer reviewed books in Open Access and should contain as many books as possible, provided that these publications are in Open Access and meet academic standards. | Books | art, history, biology, business, law, leadership, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology |
| The economics network - OER | Open educational resources in economics. Includes experiments, handbooks, questionnaires, PBLs, lectures, case studies and more. | Collection | economics, experiments, handbooks, questionnaires, PBLs, lectures, case studies, research |
| Case studies in construction materials | Case Studies in Construction Materials provides a forum for the rapid publication of short, structured Case Studies on construction materials and related Short Communications, specialising in actual case studies involving real construction projects. | construction, open access, materials, engineering, case studies, building | |
| Case studies in engineering failure analysis | Discontinued in 2018 this journal provides open access to articles on engineering failure analysis. | engineering, materials, failure, analysis | |
| Flickr | Huge selection of images. Be sure to select 'ExploreThe Commons' to search the free to use image base. | Images | art, history, biology, business, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology, sociology |
| British Library Free images on Flickr | A selection of images from the British Library made available on Flickr | Collection | openlearn, free course, open education, introduction OER |
| free stock music | Royalty free music, can be used in projects and learning resources. | Music | music, royalty, free, sound, sounds |
| Global OER Graduate Network Research Methods Handbook | This guide explores some of the issues faced by researchers with a focus on open research, drawing on insights from researchers within the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN). | Handbook | research, methodology, OER, open, mixed methods research, research, GO-GN |
| Grasple - open exercises | Open exercises and lessons on mathematics and statistics. | Collection | lessons, maths, mathematics, math, statistics |
| Gratisography | At Gratisography, we’re the world’s quirkiest collection of high-resolution free stock images, comprised of the world’s best, most creative pictures — images you just won’t find anywhere else. | Images | animals, business, fashion, food, nature, objects, people, urban, whimsical |
| Green tea press | A selection of books available under free licenses that allow readers to copy and distribute the text; they are also free to modify it, which allows them to adapt the book to different needs, and to help develop new material. These books are available in a variety of electronic formats. | Books | computer science, computing, python, programming, java, dsp, php, bayes, structure |
| IntechOpen | Huge range of open access books. Physical sciences, engineering and technology, life Sciences, health sciences, social sciences and humanities. | Books | physical sciences, engineering, technology, chemistry, computing, information science, earth, planetary, environmental, agriculture, biochemistry, biology, medicine, psychology, social sciences |
| IntechOpen Engineering | Open access journals, freely available, accessible, dynamic content. | Books | acoustic, aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, control, electrical, electronic, energy, environmental, industrial, knowledge, mechanical, system, vehicle, engineering |
| International Federation of Operational Research Societies | The aim of the Developing Countries On-Line Resources page is to offer the OR worker all publicly-available materials on the topic of Operations Research for Development. Read full description It also aims to provide a venue for people who are working in the area to share their completed or in-process work, learn from others, and stimulate comments and discussions on the work | Collection | developing countries, operations research, development, sustainability, sustainable, agriculture, community, education, environment, industry, labour, safety, finance, communication, energy, health, |
| Journal of business cases and applications | The Journal of Business Cases and Applications is dedicated to publishing quality applied business cases and classroom applications/exercises designed to assist business academics in the classroom. The goal is to share cases and exercises developed for classroom use in any area of business education | Journal | business, ethics, technology, finance, management, accountancy, legal |
| Khan Academy | Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. | Course | math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, health, medicine, cosmology, astronomy |
| Leeds OER policy | Leeds University Open Educational Resources Policy | Policy | leeds, oer, policy, open education |
| Librestock | Scan across multiple systems for free photos. Make sure you check the license before use as sometimes the sponsored 'paid' images appear first. | Images | art, history, biology, business, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology, sociology |
| Libretexts | A range of alternative texts across multiple disciplines that can be used either directly or as content for building customized remixes (i.e., texts that are generated from existing content often with customized editing and/or content interspersed) for use in the VLE. | Books | chemical, civil, computer, materials, environmental, electrical, engineering, science, biology, Spanish, mathematics, medicine, physics, social sciences, statistics, goesciences, business, biology |
| Lumen Learning - OER | A selection of OER courses originally curated by Boundless. In collaboration with the Boundless team, Lumen Learning imported these OER courses to the Lumen Platform, to ensure they remain freely available to the education community after Boundless ceased operations. | Course | business, natural science, social science, English, communication, humanities, languages, technology, mathematics, biology, chemistry, computing, psychology, statisitcs, history |
| Mason OER Metafinder | The Mason OER Metafinder helps you find Open Educational Resources. Unlike other OER discovery sites (e.g, OER Commons, OASIS, MERLOT, OpenStax, etc.) the OER Metafinder launches a real-time, simultaneous search across 22* different sources of open educational materials as you hit the Search button | Collection | art, history, biology, business, law, marketing, strategy, management, finance, operations, HR, leadership, chemistry, computing, computer, data, programming, engineering, database, economics, English |
| mathematics in industry - case studies | Mathematics-in-Industry Case Studies aims to meet the publication needs of the burgeoning community of mathematicians who work on problems that are important to industry. Its central theme is the stimulation of innovative mathematics by the modelling and analysis of problems. | Journal | maths, mathematics, math, case study, case studies |
| MERLOT | The MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers. | Collection | art, history, biology, business, law, leadership, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology |
| MIT OpenCourseWare | MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to publish all of the educational materials from its undergraduate- and graduate-level courses online, freely and openly available to anyone, anywhere. (Wikipedia, 2020). | Course | art, history, biology, business, law, leadership, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology |
| Morguefile | A community-based free photo site. All photos found in the Morguefile archive are free for you to download and re-use in your work, be it commercial or not. The photos have been contributed by a wide range of creatives from around the world, ranging from amateur photo hobbyists to professionals. | Images | art, history, biology, business, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology, sociology |
| My World of Work | Created by Skills Development Scotland to address the Covid-19 crisis, this site provides a portal to free online courses from providers around the world such as Coursera, Futurelearn, Alison, edX. | Course | Udemy, Amazon, Coursera, Futurelearn, Alison, edX, IBM, Google Digital Garage, Microsoft, Cisco, Open University |
| University of the Highlands and Islands - Open Access Content | A collection of open access resources compiled by the University of the Highlands and Islands Library team. These resources are already freely available on the Internet, with no subscription required by the user or the institution. | Collection | UHI, library, open access, free, ebooks, medical, pubmed, DOAJ, DOAB, CORE, BASE, EThOs, proquest, muse |
| OER Commons - Open Textbooks | Free, adaptable, openly licensed textbooks and supplemental resources. | Books | art, history, biology, business, law, leadership, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology |
| Old book illustrations | Public domain illustrations taken from books. In particular Victorian and French romantic illustrations. | Images | animals, buildings, monumants, humour, landscapes, narratives, patterns, ornaments, people, plants, science, technology |
| Open Michigan | Primarily medical resources from The Regents University of Michigan. | Collection | Architecture, chemistry, dentistry, education, educational technology, engineering, health, history, information, law, literature, science, arts, mathematics, medical, nursing, pharmacy, physics, stat |
| Open textbook initiative | The open textbook initiative aims to establish a university culture in the use and adoption of open educational textbooks as an alternative. This site provides a portal to a wide selection of textbooks from a selection of institutions. You will also find links through to other types of OER. | Books | art, history, biology, business, law, leadership, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology |
| Open textbook library | Open textbooks are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost, or printed at low cost. | Books | accounting, finance, business, computer, information systems, economics, education, engineering, humanities, journalism, media studies, communications, law, mathematics, medicine, social, science |
| Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) | A search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 97 different sources and contains 385,629 records. | Search tool | textbooks, courses, audiobooks, podcasts, videos, learning objects, modules, course materials, simulations, open access books, |
| Openstax | OpenStax is a nonprofit educational initiative based at Rice University, with a mission to give every student the tools they need to be successful in the classroom. Openstax publish high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed college textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print. | Books | openstax, books, free, maths. science, social science, humanities, business, Rice University |
| Openverse | browse through over 600 million items to reuse | Search tool | art, history, biology, business, law, leadership, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology |
| PHET Simulations | Interactive simulations for science and mathematics from the university of Colorado. | Collection | simulation, science, physics, chemistry, earth, biology, interactive |
| Pixabay | Pixabay provides stunning free images and royalty free stock photos | Images | images, royalty free, pixabay, photos, illustrations, vectors, videos music |
| Royalty free music | Free creative commons - non commercial music for use in your learning and projects. | Music | music, royalty, free, sound, sounds |
| Smithsonian Open Access | Nearly 3 million images from Smithsonian including 3D. Special section for educators. | Images | art, history, African, american Indian, museum art |
| Open SUNY Textbooks | Open SUNY Textbooks is an open textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants and SUNY Geneseo. | Books | engineering, history, art, computing, research, nursing, psychology, physics, mathematics, education, STEM, literacy, biology |
| Swinburne University of Technology Commons | A selection of edational videos, many produced in collaboration with other universities such as Loughborough, the University of Limerick and the University of Southern Queensland. | Videos | maths, mathematics, math, statistics, screencast, narrated, engineering, health, science, business |
| Teaching commons | A US site that provides educational resources from the leading colleges and universities. You can search by institution, type of resource or subject area. | Collection | arts, humanities, business, education, engineering, law, life sciences, medicine, health, physical, mathematics, social, behavioural |
| TED Talks | TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). | Videos | art, history, biology, business, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology, sociology |
| UK Government Open Data | UK Government Open Datasets on Business, economy, environment, crime, defence, education, health, transport, town and cities. | Data | open government, open data, data, dataset, Business, economy, environment, crime, defence, education, health, transport, town, cities. |
| UK open textbook project | The UK Open Textbook Project collates outputs from open textbook projects around the globe. Read full description It provides links to open libraries, toolkits, research publications in relation to open textbook publishing and links to initiatives that are taking place. There is also advice on writing your own open textbook. The Learning and Teaching Academy and Educational Development Unit of the University have experience of open textbook publishing, gained as part of the Jisc funded Institution as e-textbook publisher project. | Books | libraries, library, toolkit, open textbook, publishing, Jisc, etips, etextbook, e-textbook |
| University of Minnesota Libraries | The University of Minnesota Libraries publishes journals, monographs, textbooks, and other scholarly content. Read full description All titles are accessible from this page. Unless otherwise noted our content is released under a Creative Commons license and is free to download, share, and reuse. For example, https://open.lib.umn.edu/intropsyc/ and https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/ | Collection | journal, monograph, textbooks, syllabi, science, arts, sustainability, politics, history, heritage, pharmacy, medicine, law, transport, rivers, learning, technology, research, religion |
| Unsplash | Freely usable images - wallpapers, textures, patterns, backgrounds | Images | nature, architecture, business, film, animals, travel, fashion, food, drink, religion |
| State Library Victoria's Digital Image Pool | Copyright free images including photos, maps, posters, illustrations, architectural drawing and more. | Images | Architecture, history, art, british colonial, business, industry, children, film, performing arts, government, law, plants, literature, science, technology, music, sport, games, war |
| Wikibooks: engineering | Covering various aspects of engineering: biomedical, chemical, electrical, civil, mechanical, nuclear and systems. | Books | engineering, biomedical, chemical, electrical, civil, mechanical, nuclear, systems. creative commons, wikimedia, wikibooks |
| Wikimedia | Home of the wiki projects that can be used in learning and teaching such as wikibooks, wikidada, wikinews. | Collection | creative commons, wikimedia, wikinews, wikidata, wikipedia, wiktionary, wikiquote, wikibooks, wikisource, wikinews, wikiversity, wikispecies, mediawiki, wiki voyage, |
| World Bank - open knowledge repository | A collection of open books and journals relating to almost every conceivable topic including markets, justice, tourism, finance, education, economics, health, law, ICT, peacekeeping... | Journal | markets, justice, tourism, finance, education, economics, health, law, ICT, peacekeeping... |
| Youtube | Videos on almost every conceivable subject or topic. Be sure to filter to the creative commons option and check the provenance and license type prior to use as not all content is uploaded legally or licensed appropriately. Do not embed YouTube videos in your learning, instead provide a link. | Videos | art, history, biology, business, chemistry, computing, engineering, economics, English, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, politics, professional development, psychology, sociology |
| Bensound Royalty Free Music | A collection of royalty free music covering a range of genres. | Music | music, royalty, free, |
| Heritage Library | Vintage illustrations, all in the public domain. | Images | art, illustrations, PNG, vector, high resolution, seashells, rustic, floral, birds, memories, fruit, baseball, nature, cars, ocean, animals, biology, people |
| LearnHigher: Free teaching and learning resources for staff in higher education | A large library of ready-made materials on a range of key skills topics including: academic writing, critical thinking, referencing, group work, research, information literacy. | Collection | academic writing, assessment, critical thinking, reflection, report writing, research, literacy, referencing, employability |
| UHI Open Access Content Portal | A selection of free open acccess resources inlcuding search engines, databases, books, journals, theses and publishers. | Collection | free, open acccess, resources, search engines, databases, books, journals, theses, publishers. |
| Wikimedia in Education | This booklet has been produced by Wikimedia UK and the University of Edinburgh, bringing together a collection of case studies from across the UK in order to provide insight into the use of the Wikimedia projects in education. Read full description Educators worldwide are using Wikimedia in the curriculum – teaching students key skills in information literacy, collaboration, writing as public outreach, information synthesis, source evaluation and data science. | Handbook | wikimedia, wikipedia, oer, open, open education, wiki data, case studies, creative commons, University of Edinburgh |
Suggest a new resource
Suggest a new resource
In line with the values of the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Strategy (LTES), the Learning and Teaching Academy (LTA) is currently creating an online searchable directory of open educational resources available both inside and outside the university.
To help populate the directory we are inviting staff and students to propose open educational content for inclusion.
As part of this process you have the option of providing your contact email and telephone number. These details will only be used to contact you if there is an issue with your submission, for example, missing data. The remaining data will be used to populate the online directory.
Please indicated below whether you consent to the LTA using the data you submit for the purpose outline above.
Please read our privacy notice.