Learning Objectives

By consulting these materials, users will be able to:

1. Gain a general understanding of OER

2. Determine appropriate OER databases for their needs

3. Locate suitable OER within a database

4. Evaluate OER databases for suitability using a rubric

About OER  & OER Repositories

Open Educational Resources (OER) are publicly accessible teaching, learning, and research materials, which have been purposefully created and licensed to be free for users to engage in the 5R’s of OER, i.e., retain, remix, revise, reuse, and redistribute the materials (depending on the type of license), without the need to ask for permission.  Unlike copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. OER allow teachers to adapt and modify materials to meet their specific needs while also reducing the cost and expanding access to learning (Wikipedia, 2023). 

OER are designed to reduce accessibility barriers by implementing best practices in teaching and to be adapted for local unique contexts. The development and promotion of OER is often motivated by a desire to provide an alternative or enhanced educational paradigm (OER Commons, 2023). 

For additional information on OER in general, please visit the following link: Introduction of OER

OER Repositories are locations where users can access OER materials through the web and engage with the 5 R’s of OER activities (Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, Redistribute). As you will see, each repository may look a little different, but repositories are typically organized by the type of material, which can include, (1) open textbooks, (2) open educational resources, (3) open data, (4) open images, (5) open audio & video, (6) open tools, (7) resources for English language learners, (8) OER guides, (9) open courses, (10) OER networks, and (11) OER podcasts. 

For additional information on OER repositories, please visit the following link: Locating and Sharing OERs.

How to Use the Rubric

Part 1: Rubric Rating

For each rubric criterion, select a rating from 0 (Unsatisfactory) to 3 (Superior). 

• 0 - Unsatisfactory: The site has not met the criterion, or there are major issues pertaining to that criterion. 

• 1 - Needs Improvement: The site has significant areas that require additional work for that criterion. 

• 2 - Satisfactory: The site has met the minimum criterion requirements.

• 3 - Superior: The site goes above and beyond the criterion

After scoring each criterion, total up the scores from the last column to obtain a total score for the repository site. Total scores can range from 0 to 18, with higher scores indicating the site is overall satisfactory to superior across all criteria.

Part 2: Site Critique 

The Site Critique portion of the rubric allows for a qualitative review of OER Repositories.

The first portion includes high-level information for the OER repository, such as the types of materials available and the intended target audience. The Final Verdict section shows whether the OER Repository is Recommended, Use with Caution, or Not Recommended. You can also use this portion of the rubric to provide additional details for each rubric criterion.

Licensing Information

The OER Repository Critique Rubric was developed by Graduate Students at the Florida State University, Instructional Systems and Learning Technology (ISLT) program for EME 5250. This rubric was partially adapted from materials prepared by RubiStar Rubrics and the Washington Quality Review Rubric for Lessons & Units. 

To see the sources adapted to create this rubric framework, please see the References section.

OKR is an open access repository for materials created by the World Bank organization. Most materials adhere to various OER community standards and are distributed with a CC BY license. This repository emphasizes materials related to business, global economies, world development, and related topics.

• Website: Open Knowledge Repository

• Target Audience: Professionals in the Global Finance/Development sector

• Materials Available: Reports, metadata, books, manuscripts, journal articles, and related materials

• Cost: Free

RUBRIC SCORE: 9/18
VERDICT - Recommended

Although OKR’s website is basic, the collections are comprehensive and open. 

Education.com hosts a variety of supplemental learning materials for Pre K-8 students. Each resource can be checked against a dropdown menu of educational standards, and all resources are aligned with USA State and Common Core Standards.

• Website Address:  Education.com

• Target Audience: Pre K-8

• Materials Available: Worksheets, Lesson Plans, Activities, Exercises, eLearning Games/Guided Lessons

• Cost: Mostly free to access, some materials require paid subscription

RUBRIC SCORE: 13/18
VERDICT - Use with Caution

High-quality materials, but some licensing/access restrictions may limit usability.

Lumen Learning aims to provide affordable course materials to strengthen learning using open educational resources (OER). 

• Website Address: Lumen Learning 

• Target Audience: Higher Education

• Materials Available: LMS compatible courseware, study plans, assessments, and professional development for instructors

• Materials Cost: Free materials with some paid components, such as supplemental activities and professional development 

RUBRIC SCORE: 17/18
VERDICT - Recommend

Lumen Learning provides high-quality and credible materials for use in higher education, and the licensing allows users to freely use the resources for any purpose.

Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make discovering open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 115 different sources and contains 440,380 records. OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library.

• Website: OASIS

• Target Audience: Higher Education

• Materials Available: Resources from 115 sources, including courses, course materials, textbooks, public domain and open access books, videos, and podcasts.

• Cost: Generally free, although some individual materials may incur costs.

RUBRIC SCORE: 14/18
VERDICT - Recommend

OASIS is an excellent resource for searching for OER. Because OASIS links to various sources, there is some variability in elements such as licensing and accessibility. However, the benefit of being able to search 115 different sources containing 440,380 records at one time outweighs any drawbacks of this site.

Merlot is a community of staff, volunteers, and members who work together in various ways to provide users of OER teaching and learning materials with a wealth of services and functions that can enhance their instructional experience.

• Website: Merlot 

• Target Audience: Higher Education focused (also has Pre-K, Grade, Middle, & High School)

• Materials Available: Open access textbooks, full courses, simulations, tutorials, animations, case studies, assessments, syllabi, workshop and training material, etc.

• Cost: Mostly Free, with some paid materials (built-in search features allow users to filter for free materials only).

RUBRIC SCORE: 13/18
VERDICT - Recommend

Merlot is a free and open online repository of over 92,000 high-quality and credible educational resources; however, the site is not very easy to find, is not overly accessible, sometimes the licensing is not clear, and sometimes there may be costs associated with the materials.  

OER Commons, launched in 2007, aims to foster a sustainable culture of sharing and improvement among educators. It provides a comprehensive infrastructure for educators to collaborate, identify high-quality OER, and adapt and evaluate them to address the needs of teachers and learners.

• Website: OER Commons 

• Target Audience: Preschool through adult education, including career training

• Materials Available: Textbooks, syllabi, lessons, lectures, homework, full courses, activities, etc.

• Cost: Free

RUBRIC SCORE: 16/18
VERDICT - Recommend

OER Commons is a free and open online repository of hundreds of thousands of high-quality, peer reviewed, and credible educational resources. The only drawback seems to be accessibility.  

BCcampus OpenEd is a free repository of open-access textbooks that can be read and downloaded without an account. Other OER collections may require creating a free account. Their content is licensed as CC BY, allowing the use of the 5R's with proper attribution.

• Website: BCcampus OpenEd 

• Target Audience: Post-Secondary Educators and students in British Columbia; General public

• Materials Available: Textbooks, Course materials, Evaluation tools

• Cost: Free lifetime access, no subscription/account required

RUBRIC SCORE: 18/18
VERDICT - Recommend

High quality design, clearly distinguished licensing and use, easy to use.

Internet Archive is a non-profit library for various free and open materials. IA is unique in that it archives materials uploaded to the web, so copies are accessible even if the original versions are no longer available. IA’s library hosts a massive 735 billion digital materials dating back to 1996.

• Website: Internet Archive 

• Target Audience: Researchers, Historians, Scholars, General Public

• Materials Available: Reports, metadata, books, manuscripts, journal articles, and related materials

• Cost: Free

RUBRIC SCORE: 11/18
VERDICT - Use With Caution

High-quality materials, professional and efficient site, but some licensing/access restrictions may limit usability. Materials housed do not qualify as OER but are open access.