LibGuides: Bergen CC OER Faculty Handbook: Where Do I Start?

Alternative No Cost Resources

The Library makes available to the college community many types of electronic resources, such as journal articles, e-books, and streaming video, that can be incorporated into courses and into Moodle at no extra cost. While these are not OER, there is no cost to students to use library resources.

Need help with library materials? Contact your library liaison!

Where to Find OER

Creative Commons Search
Search multiple providers of OER. Verify CC licenses of results before use.
Creative Commons Search for Images
Find images that you can use and remix across several open archives.
Google Advanced Search
Under "usage rights" select "free to use or share"
MERLOT II
"Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching": database of thousands of peer-reviewed learning objects. Some have use restrictions or cost.
OER Commons
Search curated collections. Use the authoring tool to develop your own OER. Created with funding from William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education.
OpenStax
High quality OER textbooks, supported mainly by Rice University. Collection currently focuses on math, science, and social sciences.
Open Textbook Library
High quality OER textbooks. Part of the Open Textbook Network, supported by the University of Minnesota and several funding partners.
College Open Textbooks
Provides open textbooks with a focus on community colleges.
CCCOER Find OER
Find repositories of OER. Learn how to search for more OER.

Copyright Questions

This short video explains the basics of copyright licensing. Also the resources on the page give a quick overview.

Open Licenses - CCCOER
For additional information.

Tips for Success

Tips for finding and using OER:

There are lots of OER materials out there. It takes time and persistence to find the ones that best fit you and your students' academic and research needs.
Instead of focusing on the textbook that you want to replace, focus on what you want your students to know or do.
Use the resources on this page to find OER relevant to your discipline and courses. These links are great starting points, but if you need help finding the OER that work for you, contact your subject librarian for personalized help.
If you find an article in a library database that you want to use in a course, Library staff can help you with copyright considerations and provide access to the resource through reserves, embed in an online course, or on a website.
Talk with your subject librarian with any questions you have about finding and using OER.