There are a number of websites that enable you to search specifically for different types of OER. On this site there are 2 options in the search, which is a Google custom search: ‘this site’ and ‘other OER sites’.  The ‘other OER sites’ search feature looks through a large number of OER repositories and other websites where OER is published when you enter the search term.

These repositories may contain whole courses of OER or extracts of courses which have been released as OER as a sample of what a course provider offers to formal students - the Open University’s OpenLearn platform is an example.

You can filter your searches on Google and YouTube to only show openly licensed images or videos. For example when you are searching for an image on Google you can choose to see images with specific types of open licence under the dropdown menu ‘labelled for reuse’.

There are two ways to find openly licensed videos on YouTube. When searching for videos you can choose to add a range of different ‘filters’ and this includes ‘Creative Commons’ as a ‘Feature’ of the type of video you are seeking. You can also look to see what kind of licence is attached to an individual video. Some videos are available for reuse and can be edited and remixed on YouTube.

Flickr, which is a large online photo and image repository, allows you to filter your search results to pick out images with the following licence options:

• Any licence (all results in your search)
• All creative commons
• Commercial use allowed
• Modifications allowed
• Commercial use & modifications allowed
• No known copyright restrictions

You can find more detailed instructions on how to find OER on Google and YouTube and other platforms in this presentation by the ROER4D project called How and where to find OER?

Similarly, Solvonauts enables you to search different types of OER from over 1500 repositories and other sources.

There are also specific repositories that only contain OER including open textbooks. The OER Quality project has created and crowd sourced a list of repositories around the world.

Members of the OER Quality project have been involve in creating a map of repositories.

Sometimes it can be difficult to find the resource you need for your own learning, or to help others. In the instance of OpenLearn, the repository that holds OER created by The Open University (UK), teams in Scotland and Wales have created themed “learning pathways” to help learners navigate their way through material, develop their interest in a particular area and build confidence, whilst introducing them to Higher Education study.

• You can read more about how the Pathways programme was developed in Scotland
• You can read more about the Pathways programme in Wales

JISC Digital Media offers some very helpful advice on finding video, audio and images online that you can use in education - please note that some of the sites mentioned are not necessarily OER repositories.

Image source: Open - Giogio Raffaelli CC BY-NC 2.0 Downloaded from Flickr

Some of the content of this article is remixed from material which now appears in the Open Educational Practice course Becoming an open educator which the OEPS project has created.