Research Guides: Open and Affordable Course Materials: Course Material Repositories

Find Existing Open Educational Resources

Every year, more high-quality open course materials are published in more subject areas. You can use these as-is, remix or customize them for your course (if their license permits), or simply browse them for inspiration.

The repositories below include a wide range of open textbooks and teaching materials. You can search most repositories by keyword or browse by subject. Many resources are listed across multiple sites, but others are harder to find. Search different keywords in multiple places, and make sure to double-check the terms before reusing anything!

It can be daunting to wade through OER repositories, and there are more than what's listed here. Please schedule a consultation with us if you'd like support finding relevant OER for your courses.

Start Your Search

Not sure where to begin? Search these three curated collections of open textbooks and course materials.

M.O.S.T. OER Commons
Features OER textbooks and other materials created or used at Maryland institutions, along with higher ed-focused content from many of the providers listed below. Visit the UMD dashboard page and scroll down to Collections to explore OER authored or used by College Park instructors.
Open Textbook Library
Large, vetted collection of peer-reviewed open access textbooks. Includes additional reviews from faculty adopters (add yours!).
Google Advanced Search
The vast majority of content on Google is not openly licensed, but the Advanced Search can narrow down to OER and other open access material. Enter your keywords at the top, then scroll down to Usage Rights and select the appropriate license (try Free to Use, Share, or Modify). Note: The filters aren't foolproof! Be sure to evaluate usage permissions, and try your searches in other focused repositories, as well.
OASIS
SUNY Geneseo's OASIS tool searches over 115 OER sources, including many of the ones listed on this page.

More Repositories

Deepen your search with other recommended collections. The sources here all focus on open content, but we advise you to double-check license terms before reusing any materials.

Pressbooks Directory
Search over 6,800 open access textbooks published on the Pressbooks platform. Many include interactive H5P activities to engage learners.
OpenStax
From Rice University, a widely-used collection of over 60 textbooks written by expert authors in a range of disciplines. Each comes with supplementary teaching resources, including instructor guides, Canvas cartridge downloads, test banks, and lecture slides.
Milne Open Textbooks
A catalog of open textbooks authored and peer-reviewed by SUNY faculty and staff.
LibreTexts
Hosted at UC Davis, textbooks/modules and learning materials (case studies, simulations, etc.) covering a range of subjects.
BCcampus Open Collection
Open textbooks, course packs, lesson plans, assessment tools, and more.

MIT Open Courseware
Open material from thousands of Massachusetts Institute of Technology courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.
OER Commons
A dynamic digital content hub for full courses, modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources.
MERLOT
Tens of thousands of discipline-specific learning materials, learning exercises, and Content Builder web pages. Many undergo more extensive peer review.