The Educause Library offers a wealth of resources across most subjects and grade levels. OER Commons is a core site with resources from preschool through adult education. MERLOT is a search engine for finding curated OER resources, and CK-12 provides a range of student support resources. OpenED includes a wide range of assessment materials that covers all areas, particularly math.
Next up, curation
Once teachers understand the value of OER resources and know where to find them, curation is the next task. Several states provide curation support, such as Wisconsin’s WISELearn Educator Portal, which connects Wisconsin educators so they can share resources. Because most states use the Common Core Standards, it is easy to cross state lines digitally. Symbaloo, another curation tool, is available for teachers or as a school- or district-level resource. Diigo is a curating resource that allows for annotating web resources directly through your browser via either an applet or a Chrome extension. For those new to curating OER resources, Diigo is a good place to start.
As the move from print to digital continues at all levels of education, OER resources offer schools and individual educators a wide range of resources to differentiate and expend their curriculum beyond traditional print materials. OER resources are often much more budget friendly, but teachers must understand how to integrate OER resources into their instruction and then be able to access and curate materials that can enrich their instruction and help meet or exceed their instructional goals.
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