Library Guides/ Open Educational Resources

Open courses, courseware, and MOOCs

On this page, we present a few lists of websites where you can find open courses, courseware (such as syllabi, assignments, and class activities), and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and recorded lectures. For those, most likely those in the Humanities & Arts, looking for older materials to use as courseware, such as scans of old documents or public records, we recommend also looking at the page for the multimedia resources, as we have put websites hosting such resources (museums, public institutions) in those lists.

There are a number of points that may be relevant to you as you use this page to find relevant OER:

There are multiple lists, as we have tried to split them by general subject areas, in order to simplify the searching process. If applicable, we have indicated more specific subject fields in the description of the source.
These lists are generally ordered based on usability, breadth, and perceived quality of the listed website, with likely more useful websites being listed first. However, this ordering is subjective, and therefore may not align with your experience of the listed websites.
Related, these lists are not compiled by subject experts in the specific field, the ordering cannot be used as indication of the quality of the specific OER found on these websites. We suggest using the evaluation criteria in our guide on searching for and evaluating OER to help you judge the quality of the OER found on or via these websites.
It may be that some listed websites provide resources that are not open, but only free, or require further login to fully access the listed resource. As much as possible, we'll try to indicate the general license information for the resources on each website, but we strongly recommend closely examining the license for any resource that you may wish to start using.

If you have found an interesting website or resource on or via this list, and you want to know how you could start using it, the OER support services are here to help. You can reach us at: oer-library@rug.nl.

Open courses, courseware, and MOOCs: General

In this list, you can find websites with open courses and videotaped lectures, open courseware (syllabi, assignments and assessments), and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that cover a range of fields.

Open Course Library - CC BY - A link through page for courses saved in Google Drive with a permissive license. Some courses unfortunately require asking for access, and they are a bit old, but the drive environment is really useful
Wolfram demonstrations project - CC BY-NC-SA - Interactive demonstrations and class activities for many subjects. Including full downloads and source code and good license information
UCI Open - CC BY-SA - Full courses with lecture recordings (unfortunately YT, so not downloadable) and ancillary materials, all under a permissive license
eCampus Ontario H5P catalog - CC and other open licenses - Huge collection of H5P modules, HTML-based inserts that you can use to make websites and online environments more interactive
Community of Online Research Assignments (CORA) - CC BY-NC-SA - Website with many assignments on many different topics. Includes slides and other necessary materials to do each assignment
Saylor Course Academy - CC BY - In-depth online courses with materials (unless third-party or the final exams) that can be easily adapted. Do need to sign up and log in to save progress
Boundless Courses - CC BY-NC-SA - Multiple courses with a permissive license. Easily adaptable texts and good licensing information
TED - CC BY-NC-ND - Many interesting talks and lectures by professionals from all types of fields. Quite restrictive license however, as you cannot just show clips, and have to use a embedded player
SAGE Research Methods Testing - CC BY-NC - Collection of course materials related to research methods and data analysis for different fields. Metadata is a little sparse
Open Pedagogy Notebook - CC BY - Collection of open pedagogy examples from teachers of different HE institutions. The descriptions are in a blog-style format, which is a little difficult to adapt, but can be very inspirational
Open Case Studies at UBC - CC BY - Collection of case studies focusing mostly on sustainability. Quite text heavy, so takes a while to determine the usefulness of each resource
Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT) - CC BY-NC-SA - Large community of people looking to make Open Science training more common. Has a lot of initiatives with varying amounts of direct educational usefulness, which can make navigating the website quite confusing at times
Openlearn from Open University - CC BY-NC-SA - Open courses on a number of topics. Quite integrated in the site, so adapting is a little bit of a hassle. To make full use, signing up for free is useful. Website is a little busy visually, which can make navigation a bit hard
TeachOER - CC licenses - Showcase of OER and assignments using open materials. Website is a little tricky to navigate, and not all examples are very in-depth
OER Africa - Varies on resource - OER from universities in Africa. Lacks an easy browse or search section, and has minimal metadata
MIT OpenCourseWare - CC BY-NC-SA - Syllabi and resources from MIT with a permissive license. Many of the materials are uploaded on their own, which can make finding coherent sets of information a bit difficult
Class Central - Free, but not open - Search engine for online courses, videotaped lectures and MOOCS. Easy to search, but not truly open, just free.
Khan Academy - CC BY-NC-SA - Staple website with modules and videos explaining many topics. General license is permissive, but website does not provided many options to use content outside of its own platform, making it less easy to adapt. For full use, you need to sign up (free)
Remix, Reuse, Reshare - an open resource of learning activities - CC BY-SA - Learning activities for different classes. Search is very comprehensive, but requires some time to go through. Permissive license makes reuse easy
University of Edinburgh videos - CC licenses - Videos about many topics, but also many that aren't directly educational. Licenses are good, but some videos lack a download function, which makes reuse more difficult. Video quality varies
Alison - Free, but not open - Online courses on many subjects. Need login to access, website has quite some ads, and copyright status is problematic
Science Forward seminar - CC BY-NC-SA - Videos series on scientific skills and scientific topics. Also has links to other open materials. Website can be a little slow, and as they are posted to Youtube, you cannot actually download and alter the video
Course Hero - CC licenses - Study modules and guides with CC licenses. However, many of these are just repost from different websites such as Openstax. Still, can be used for inspiration on how a course with such OER can look
OERu - CC BY, unless otherwise noted - Collection of open (mini) courses. Some of them are time-bound, meaning you cannot easily adapt it for your own teaching. Redirects to other sites for the ones that are not time-bound, which makes browsing difficult
State University of New York (SUNY) OER ready-to-adopt courses - CC licenses - The SUNY front for a lot of Lumen Learning courses, which has the same issues as the main site
Open.ed Open Educational Resources University of Edinburgh - CC licenses - Videos by the University of Edinburgh, both made for video presentations, and recorded talks. Clear license information, but the browsing takes some time due to the website layout, and no download option to adapt these (often branded) videos
HippoCampus - Mixed, also copyrighted materials - Videos, simulations and examples on different fields. Format of the website is a little annoying to work through, and there is no clear download option for the open materials
Academic Earth - Depends on resource - Search engine for open courses of different US universities and colleges. Unfortunately not all up-to-date, so materials can be missing, or locked behind logins
Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) - Depends on resource- Link-through to modules that can be used in courses. P2PU focuses mostly on getting communities together to use other free (but not necessarily open) resources, so the website is not great for finding OER
BBC Bitesize - Free but not open - Online lessons for mostly primary and secondary education. Videos are region-locked, and the rest of the materials is copyright protected, so at most it can serve as inspiration
Open Yale Courses - CC BY-NC-SA - Videotaped lectures of many fields, but that are all quite dated (late 2000s), and the books which are the basis of the courses are still copyright protected
TED ED - Youtube Standard license - Video collections of third-party creators on many topics, as well as many self-produced, high quality and engaging animations. Unfortunately, Youtube is their main platform, so the actual resources are copyright protected and under a restrictive license
Standfordonline Free Content Library - Free but not open - Some blog articles, some recorded webinars, and free courses. However, these courses are time-gated MOOCs, meaning that you cannot alter the content, or always see them, making them less useful
Open Syllabus - Depends on resource - A search engine and galaxy plot for assigned readings in different fields. As these sources only mentioned the assigned readings, which are often copyrighted books, and do not provide information on how the materials are used, the usefulness of this website is limited
Open Learning Initiative - Independent Learners route - CC licensed - Open courses, but in practice not meant for university students. However, you can check and modify the courses from the independent learners route, though they are not in a modifiable format, and a hassle to get to
MOOC list - Free, but often not open - A search engine/list of MOOCs. MOOCs are often only free (or low cost) using materials that are not openly licensed, and are time-gated. Therefore, this resource is generally not useful to find open alternatives for teaching
OpenupED - Free, but often not open - A search engine/list of MOOCs made by European institutions. MOOCs are often only free (or low cost) using materials that are not openly licensed, and are time-gated. Therefore, this resource is generally not useful to find open alternatives for teaching
Open Education Database - Free, but often not open - A list/search engine for open courses and MOOCs. License information for found resources can be difficult to find, and the scale of the results also vary wildly (full programs to individual courses), complicating the search for OER
California Educators Together - CC licenses - Need to register to get some of the lesson plans, other materials lack license information, much of the content is focused on pre-university level education
Futurelearn - Sometimes free, sometimes paid, often not open - MOOC search engine and platform. MOOCs are often only free (or low cost) using materials that are not openly licensed, and are time-gated, making them difficult to use in teaching
Openlearnware - CC licenses - Recorded lectures from Darmstadt University. Good license, but almost all in German, making reuse difficult
Coursera - Sometimes free, sometimes paid, often not open - MOOC search engine and platform. MOOCs are often only free (or low cost) using materials that are not openly licensed, and are time-gated, making them difficult to use in teaching
EdX - Sometimes free, sometimes paid, often not open - MOOC search engine and platform. MOOCs are often only free (or low cost) using materials that are not openly licensed, and are time-gated, making them difficult to use in teaching

Open courses, courseware, and MOOCs: STEM & Medicine

Openlab at City Tech Bio OER - CC BY-NC-SA - Multimedia enhanced biology lessons/modules with a permissive license, as well as the syllabus for the course that used these modules. Also an interesting example of what you could make yourself, or ask students to make for a course
PhET interactive simulations - CC BY - HTML5 based STEM simulations and teaching activities build around these simulations, all with a permissive license. Can be downloaded and embedded on websites for ease of use. Registration required to see activities
TU Delft OpenCourseWare - CC BY-NC-SA - Open courses and course materials, as well as a link to MOOCs. High quality materials with a permissive license
Open Education Resources for nursing - CC BY - Open online textbooks and (VR) nursing simulations in H5P, as well as lesson plans for these simulations. Comprehensive, although perhaps a little US focused
Anatomy Tool - CC licenses - Anatomy and medicine simulations, quizzes and images by Dutch and Flemish universities
Clinical Anatomy - CC BY-NC-SA - anatomy lessons, images and interactive simulations, all presented on an easy to use website
Modular Electronics Learning project (ModEL) - CC BY - Extensive tutorials and readings on electronics and circuits. Website is not visually very appealing and quite word heavy, but easy enough to get through
Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) - CC BY-NC-SA - recorded lectures, course materials and assignments on programming, AI, and linear systems. Lots of materials with a good license, but all quite dated (circa 2008)
OpenIntro - CC BY-SA - Math and statistics textbooks and ancillary materials. To get the textbook, you need to "buy" it for $0, and to get access to most of the ancillary materials, you first need to get verified as a teacher, which makes using these resources a little difficult
Mathispower4u tutorials - CC BY-SA - Thousands of Youtube videos explaining math and statistics. Permissive license, but due to them being hosted on Youtube, downloading the materials is difficult
ChemCollective - CC BY-NC-ND - Chemistry tests, virtual labs, and simulations. Website lacks clear download option, and the license is restrictive
iBiology - CC BY-NC-ND - Talks and courses on biology and being a scientist. Interesting content, but due to hosting on Youtube and the restrictive license, use outside of the platform is difficult
Grasple - CC licenses - Math and statistics exercises with CC licenses. Not all of them are CC licensed yet, and there is no easy download function
Quantative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES) - CC licenses - Teaching resources for Biology. The website is quite detailed, which can be a little overwhelming, and some the resources are quite focused on specific subjects, making adaptation sometimes a bit challenging
Surgery 101 - CC licenses for podcasts, Youtube license for videos- Podcasts and videos on surgery. No easy download option for the podcasts or videos, and English/US contexts may make it slightly more difficult to adapt to Dutch educational context
Northwest Association for Biomedical Research (NWABR) - CC BY - Open lessons for biomedical research and education. License information is bit unclear, as the materials do not have a clear CC license, and the materials may be a bit dated (circa 2010)
OSGeo - Open Source licenses - Geography tools and software. Requires building a course around the software, so perhaps easier to use for research or in-depth assignments
Functional Neuroanatomy - CC BY-NC-SA - High quality videos and lessons, but very much branded and no clear download options, making reuse outside of the website quite difficult.
Appropedia - CC BY-SA - Wikistyle collection of materials on sustainability. Formatting and language is not always consistent across the pages, and there are also copyright protected pages
HHMI's Biointeractive - Free but not open - High quality resources for STEM and medicine teaching. Easy downloading, but copyright protected, so further sharing and adaptation is not possible
Medpix - Open Access - Free, but not necessarily open collection of medical images/cases. You can activate quiz mode, which hides information which can help with training and learning. Copyright status of many cases makes it difficult to reuse cases outside of the platform
nanoHUB - Depends on resource - Courses, simulations, and other resources for nanotechnology and materials sciences. Open licenses are not enforced, which makes finding OER a hassle, and metadata is not always complete
myOpenMath - unclear - Partner website to OpenTextBookStore that provides math courses. Generally sold as a service, which makes it difficult to use by itself. Registration is required to use the materials
All You Can Learn - CC BY-ND - Dutch platform aimed at healthcare professionals as well as HBO and MBO students. Has different course modules on many topics related to health, medicine, and nursing. Requires sign-up to access, and the license is restrictive to reuse

Open courses, courseware, and MOOCs: Arts, Humanities & Law

Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL) - CC BY - Comprehensive, and permissively licensed resource for academic writing and reading
musictheory.net - CC BY (for lessons) - Music theory lessons and exercises (not open). Simple website with clear function, but no clear way to get materials off the platform
Center for OER and Language Learning (COERLL) - CC licenses - Link-through page for open textbooks and courses for different languages. Most of the materials are aimed at introductory level language learning, and no clear download of the materials available
dariahTeach - CC licenses - Digital Arts & Humanities OER, mostly in the form of courses. License information is a little difficult to find, so what is allowed is unclear at first. You can login as guest to see the courses
Documenting the American South - Free, but not necessarily open - Digitized primary sources from the US south. License information is bit diffiicult, as it is protected, but educational use is allowed. Pretty niche topic, but an interesting collection
Quillbot courses - CC licenses - Collection of writing courses from other platforms. Useful for grouping, but does not provide much incremental value
Edsitement - CC BY - Humanities materials from the US government. Lesson plans are open, but other materials such as images and videos are not necessarily. Very US-focused, making its usefulness in Dutch academia less obvious
Writing Commons - Free but not open - Large website full of information on writing. Not openly licensed, and website is visually quite busy, making working with it a little difficult
Circular Designs - CC BY-NC-SA - Website compiling information on circular economies and design. Not very evident if this is made with education in mind, and requires login to save materials

Open courses, courseware, and MOOCs: Social Sciences & Business

SDG academy - CC BY-NC-SA - Videos on the Sustainable Development Goals. Good license, interesting topic, and easy options to download
QuantEcon - CC BY-SA for the lectures - Coding lectures and code for economic analysis and modeling. Comprehensive and easy to use
TeachPsychScience - Unclear, free for educational use - Lectures, class activities, and exercises for research methods, statistics, and communication psychology. License information is a bit unclear, and website lay-out can be a little user-unfriendly
MIT Management & Business - CC BY-NC-ND - Business case studies for use in class. To get rid of the watermark you first need to verify that you are an educator, and the license is not very permissive
IRIS center - CC BY-NC-ND - Interactive modules, case studies, and activities on pedagogy and education. License is not permissive, website is a bit confusing to navigate, the modules are difficult to modify, and target audience seem to be professional staff, rather than students

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Subjects: Information Literacy, SmartCat, Systematic Review, OER