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Science & Technology Open Educational Resources

What is OER?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are instructional materials that anyone can use, create, and customize for learning and teaching. OER are either in the public domain, or have an intellectual property license that permits free use and repurposing. OER has the potential to significantly lower the cost of education, thus making academia more accessible to all. OER also enables teachers and students to customize their educational materials to fit their needs.

The OER featured in this guide includes:

  • Textbooks: OER textbooks are free electronic textbooks that are openly licensed. They often come with supplementary resources and are usually downloadable as pdfs.
  • Courseware: OER courseware can be computer programs or other electronic material designed to deliver educational content.
  • Journals: OER journals are open-access, and thus free for use. Like regular subscription journals, they have editorial boards and conduct peer-review, but unlike their subscription counterparts, they don't charge publication or access fees.
  • Videos and Images: These OER resources include lectures, presentations, films, illustrations, and photographs.

Use the tabs to the left to explore Science & Technology OER by subject.

OER Office at UHM

Visit the OER Office at UH Mānoa for more information about how to find, use, create, and adapt OER.

Multidisciplinary Resources

The DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) is a community-curated directory of over 11,000 open access peer-reviewed journals that provide vast coverage of science, technology, medicine, social science, and humanities.

PLOS (Public Library of Science) is an open access publisher dedicated to accelerating progress in science and medicine. Explore the collection of specialized journals or learn how to get involved with PLOS to contribute to an open ethos.

InTech is the world's largest science, technology, and medicine open access book publisher. Explore to read, publish, and share new research.

OER Commons Stem Literacy is a searchable database that enables the discovery of a multitude of OER resources, and allows users to refine searches by education level, education standard, material type, and more.