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Fair Use & Copyright: Find Open Educational Resources

A guide for instructors on how to apply fair use to classroom materials

OER Websites and Search Tips

Instructors can find OER in a variety of resources. Most OER organizations or collaborations have a database or central list of resources that faculty have added. Some databases also feature annotations or faculty feedback. Additionally, many disciplines have their own OER websites. The list below is not comprehensive but can instead be used as a starting point for faculty doing interdisciplinary work or work in any discipline. Remember that not all of the learning materials in these repositories and sources are OER for modifying but most of the content is freely available under Fair Use and/or with attribution.

General Education Search

Recorded Lectures & Video Tutorials Search

Open Textbooks

Modular Course Components

Complete Courses

OER and OCW Search Engines

Math

Humanities

Language Learning

Sciences

Social Sciences

Health

Tips for Searching OER:

  1. Use the advanced searching feature if there is one. This will save you some time and limit your search.
  2. Start with broad terms (ex. disease instead of cancer) and then narrow.
  3. As you narrow, think about disciplinary language. Is there something else this topic might be referred to as?
  4. If you still aren't getting good results, try to start with the browsing feature (even if it's very broad). Sometimes the term your searching isn't used but you still know it would be under a broad subject like "humanities" or "writing".

Also, see below for an infograpic which visualize the process of searching for OER.
*Note: this infographic was adapted and modified from the University of Texas at Austin's original infographic. For more information, see their Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning website.

Infographic about seaching for open educational resources

The Jenks Library Can Help!

Librarians are experts in finding and evaluating resources. This includes Open Educational Resources (OER). The library has copyright/ author rights experts as well as librarians with subject expertise that can help you navigate this new and growing area. Please contact the Jenks Library for more information.

About this LibGuide

Creative Commons License
Based on the LibGuide Open Educational Resources (OER): Find OER at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

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