OER (Open Educational Resource)

The following  OER sites cover most subject areas and are searchable by grade level, subject, and material type.

• BetterLesson
  High School level strategies and lessons for English/Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Technology and Engineering.

• ck-12
  Includes textbooks, interactives, simulations, and assignments.

• MERLOT
  Offers lessons, animations, simulations, textbooks, presentations, and more.  Narrow your search by left sidebar options or choose 'advanced search' link in upper right corner. 
  MERLOT Awards by Year and just for fun!

To browse teaching tools:  (For example: a chemistry teacher looking for ideas for a high school class)

1. Choose Advanced Search/Advanced Material Search (top right corner)

2. Skip ‘keyword’ box

3. Choose a discipline (ex: Science and Technology)

4. Choose a sub-discipline (ex: Chemistry)

5. Under ‘Other Attributes’ you can narrow your search by: Material Type (ex: animation), Audience (ex: high school) and then click ‘Search’

6. At results page you can narrow your search by choices shown in the left sidebar (ex: has learning exercises)

TIP: You can always narrow your results by looking to the left sidebar on any search page

At the results page, choose one to go to a summary page.  If it looks interesting choose the ‘Go to Material’ page. 

• OER Commons
  Easy to refine search by subject, educational level, and material type.

What are OERs?

"OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge." 

Definition taken from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation