The OER Discovery Tool
The OER Discovery Tool helps you quickly find Open Educational Resources (OERs) as alternatives to traditional textbooks and other course materials. It reduces the time and effort you usually spend to search for high-quality educational content that is not only freely accessible but also openly licensed for (re)use, adaptation, and sharing. These OERs can be (re)used to make courses more accessible, sustainable, and cost-effective for both teachers and students.
Finding Open Educational Resources : OER Discovery Tool
Why is this important?
Currently, many licensed course materials can only be accessed by a limited number of students at a time, and some materials may not be available digitally. This creates barriers to learning and adds financial pressure for students who must purchase textbooks. The tool addresses this by making it easier to find and use Open Educational Resources: materials that are freely available and carry open licences allowing teachers to (re)use, adapt, remix, and customise content to better meet their students’ needs.
How does it work?
The tool analyses all UM course description and learning outcomes and automatically creates a search strategy. You can adjust or refine this strategy if needed. It then searches five large international OER repositories to find the most relevant openly licensed educational content within minutes.
Need extra support?
Do you need more support in making use of the tool for course revisions or are you looking for alternative learning materials with an open license, then reach out to Team Open Science in Education for a one-on-one consultation. Write to us at: openeducation-ub@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Connection to UM Strategy
This tool aligns with UM’s strategic ambitions around Open Science and sustainable, inclusive education. It reduces dependence on expensive licensed resources, facilitates teaching innovation and aligns with UM’s broader ambitions in Open Science and sustainable education.
It enables teachers to make data-informed decisions about course content whilst leveraging the pedagogical benefits of OERs: such as the ability to contextualise the learning materials for their courses – for example, by adapting them to specific course objectives or the local teaching context. It complements the UM Library’s existing infrastructure and supports our goal of making education more open and inclusive, aiming for educational equity.
Domain specific OER Repositories
Working with your domain specialist, we recommend exploring subsets of a selection of repositories or domain specific ones. Please let us know when you are looking for specific material or have suggestions to add to the lists.
Just as you are supposed to do when using licensed material, you ought to cite the source or author of the OER you use. This in case your material is being checked on unauthorised use of copyright protected material (e.g. in Canvas or a video you publish), but also to give credits to the original creator. This is especially a topic in the context of recognising and rewarding educational activities like creating educational material.