Selected OER WebSites
It would be useful to have a list OER websites, i.e., web sites that include OER or link to them. Such a list would be even more useful if it could provide the urls of the websites together with brief descriptions about them.
Accompanying the massive growth in online and distance learning, there has been an exponential growth in interest in OER, and more and more organizations and associations are making content available. One problem with this massive growth in material is that there are no centrally agreed standards. So you never know what you're going to get when you do an Internet search. Perhaps because of this, some sites provide lists of websites that have passed their quality criteria as regards the OER they provide.
Any list of web sites is bound to be out of date as soon as it is published. However, for people just starting to explore OER, here is one list of important websites, adapted from a published list courtesy of the author and publisher ...
List of OER Web Sites
Kinuthia, W. 2009, "Open Resources for Open Learning in Developing Countries: Deciphering Trends for Policies, Quality, and Standards Considerations". In S. Marshall, W. Kinuthia and W. Taylor (Eds) Bridging the knowledge divide: Educational technology for development, Information Age, Charlotte, NC, USA.
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Open Educational Resource |
Resource Description and Features |
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Collaborative environment for developing, sharing, and publishing scholarly content on the Web. |
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Commonwealth of Learning (COL) |
Wiki-based portal for development of free educational content. |
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Digital library system to capture, store, index, preserve, and redistribute output of university’s research faculty in digital formats. |
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Scalable general-purpose digital object repository system that supports repositories, digital libraries, content management, digital asset management, scholarly publishing, and digital preservation. |
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Provides online access to Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums. |
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The Open University "LearningSpace" |
The LearningSpace provides free access to Open University course materials to learners anywhere in the world. Excellent for teachers as it provides dowloadable, fully adaptable, courses/modules in many formats. Particularly useful if you're using Moodle because you can simply download it, and open it in your system. |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) OpenCourseWare (OCW) |
Large-scale e-publishing initiative that provides free, searchable access to MIT's course materials for educators, students, and self-learners globally. |
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Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) |
Searchable collection of peer-reviewed learning materials created by registered members, and a set of faculty development support services. |
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National Science Digital Library (NSDL)
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Created by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide organized access to high quality resources and tools that support innovations in teaching and learning. |
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Open Archives Initiative (OAI)
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Develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content. |
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Open Learning Support |
Utah State University's (USU) self-managed OER for educators and learners worldwide. |
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A Wiki-based collaborative project aiming to build a collectively created online encyclopedia. |
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Media repository for freely licensed photographs, diagrams, animations, music, spoken text, video clips, created and maintained by volunteers. |
More OER Websites
Click on the other resource links on this site:
