Free Digital Curriculum Alternatives
Academic Earth - http://academicearth.org/
Video lectures from elite universities, and it allows viewers to grade the professors. Academic
Earth also offers a “Playlists” feature based around themes such as “Laws of Nature,” “Wars
Throughout History,” or “You Are What You Eat.”
Achieve OER Online Evaluation Tool – http://achieve.org/oer-rubrics
Developing project to align products with Common Core State Standards
Bookworm – http://bookworm.oreilly.com http://m.bookworm.oreilly.com (mobile)
A free platform for reading ePub books online. Books can be loaded in, then accessed from the
web, even from mobile platforms.
Boundless – http://www.boundlessnow.com
Boundless Textbooks are free, digital and social alternatives to your expensive assigned
textbooks. Boundless Textbooks are digital and accessible from any computer or mobile device
at anytime. There are no massive files to download, no boring PDFs to worry about. Boundless
textbooks are interactive, searchable, and social.
Selection list is very limited. Texts available for Biology, Economics, Psychology, Philosophy
Brokers of Expertise - http://www.myboe.org/&subject=19&grade=11&grade=12
Connecting with Resources, Community and Training
Calibre - http://calibre-ebook.com/
Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of ebooks for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features.
California Free Digital Textbooks Initiative - http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/
Select available “Flexbooks”, Customize chapters to produce a book in PDF, Online Reader, or
HTML
Carnegie Mellon University - http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/
Carnegie Mellon University offers a number of free online courses and materials through a
program called the Open Learning Initiative. OLI courses are intended to allow anyone at an
introductory college level to learn about a particular subject without formal instruction. Course
options include such offerings as statistics, biology, chemistry, economics, French and physics.
China Open Resources for Education – http://www.core.org.cn/en
CORE Open Courseware is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and selflearners throughout the world. However, we do not grant credits or degrees, and does not provide
access to faculty, we give you open access to the materials used in a variety of courses.
To share Chinese Quality Courses worldwide, CORE has launched the project of writing
“Chinese Quality Open Courseware (CQOCW)” into English in 2006. Since 2006, CORE has
selected 27 from 1,500 CQOCW from CORE Member Universities and organized professors to
get involved in the translation. Until now, there are 10 English versions of CQOCW published
here. And there will be more CQOCW published in future.
Connexions - http://cnx.org/ - A place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge
chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or
contribute:
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authors create and collaborate
instructors rapidly build and share custom collections
learners find and explore content
Creative Commons - http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge and creativity with the world.
We're helping to realize the full potential of the Internet—universal access to research and
education, full participation in culture—to drive a new era of development growth, and
productivity. Allows licensing of created work.
Curriki – http://www.curriki.org/
Connects educators, parents, and students in the development of curriculum and other educational
materials. With its open-source curriculum format, Curriki allows anyone to post their teaching
ideas for others to view, download, use, reformat, and reshare.
DiscoverEd - http://wiki.creativecommons.org/DiscoverEd
DiscoverEd is a search prototype developed by Creative Commons to explore metadata enhanced
search, specifically for OER. While most search engines rely solely on algorithmic analyses of
resources, DiscoverEd can incorporate data provided by the resource publisher or curator.
DiscoverEd supports several common metadata formats, including OAI-PMH and RDFa. The use
of these formats allows otherwise unrelated educational projects, curators, and repositories to
express facts about their resources in the a way that tools (like DiscoverEd) can use for purposes
like search and discovery. DiscoverEd is a project that allows us to explore ways to improve
search for OER, and simultaneously demonstrate the utility of structured data. DiscoverEd is built
on Nutch.
Educause - http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/OpenEducationalResourcesOER/27863
Listing of articles, presentations, websites, publications, blogs on Open Educational Resources
Folksemantic – http://www.folksemantic.com
Sign up to meet people with whom you can find, discuss, remix, and develop learning resources.
Discover free educational resources from around the world.
FREE - http://free.ed.gov/
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence, is a U.S. Department of Education website that
compiles free teacher resources available from dozens of federal agencies. Educators can sign up
for the FREE RSS feed, which notifies users when new resources are added. Otherwise, they can
browse by topic, from music history to life sciences.
Freereading - http://www.freereading.net
FreeReading is a free, high-quality, open-source reading program addressing literacy
development for grades K-3. Leveraging the collective wisdom of researchers, teachers, reading
coaches, and other education and industry professionals, FreeReading provides a high-quality,
cost-effective alternative to static materials. By establishing a foundation of hundreds of researchbased lessons and materials that users can download and use for free, FreeReading has created the
framework for intervention programs supporting K-6 literacy.
Itunes U - http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/
a powerful distribution system for everything from lectures to language lessons, films to labs,
audiobooks to tours — is an innovative way to get educational content into the hands of students.
Illuminations - http://illuminations.nctm.org/
Illuminations is designed to:
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Provide Standards-based resources that improve the teaching and learning of mathematics for
all students.
Provide materials that illuminate the vision for school mathematics set forth in Principles and
Standards for School Mathematics, Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through
Grade 8 Mathematics, and Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making.
The Free Software Directory - http://directory.fsf.org/
A project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and United Nations Education, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This site catalogs useful free software that runs under free
operating systems — particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants.
Kutzown University of Pennsyvania - http://www.kutztownsbdc.org/course_listing.asp
Kutztown University's Small Business Development Center offers the largest collection of free
business courses available on the web. Course topics include entrepreneurship, accounting,
finance, government, business law, marketing and sales. Comprehensive text, interactive case
studies, slides, graphics and streaming audio help to demonstrate the concepts presented in each
course.
Learning Registry Browser - http://demolearningregistry.sri.com/browse/index.html
Links to organizations sharing metadata on educational projects and learning objects.
Library of Congress – http://www.loc.gov/teachers/
The Library of Congress’ “For Teachers” page highlights ready-to-use classroom materials that
are aligned with state standards and take advantage of the Library’s primary sources. It includes
access to primary source sets around topics such as U.S. presidents; short facts or activities for
class starters, such as “Today in History” and everyday science mysteries; themed lesson plans
for dozens of topics; and even professional development curriculum.
MERLOT - http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
Peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials. Share advice and expertise about education
with expert colleagues. Be recognized for your contributions to quality education. Over 30,000
materials.
MIT+K12 - http://k12videos.mit.edu/
MIT has launched an initiative encouraging its students to produce short videos teaching basic
concepts in science and engineering to K-12 students, the university reports. The videos will be
accessible through a dedicated MIT website and YouTube channel. A subset of the videos will
also be available on Khan Academy, a popular not-for-profit educational site founded by an MIT
alumnus
MIT Open Courseware - http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration required. MIT
OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is
open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.
NASA for Educators - http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html
The NASA for Educators page includes featured articles with information about NASA’s various
missions; image galleries on a wide variety of topics; information about NASA careers,
internships, fellowships, and scholarships; NASA-produced multimedia materials; and more. An
Education Materials Finder will help teachers locate NASA resources that can be used in the
classroom; users can search by keywords, grade level, product type, and subject. With hundreds
of publications and websites indexed, the finder is the best way to locate NASA educational
resources, the agency says.
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) is an NSF supported project that began
in 1999 to develop a library of uniquely interactive, web-based virtual manipulatives or concept
tutorials, mostly in the form of Java applets, for mathematics instruction (K-12 emphasis). The
project includes dissemination and extensive internal and external evaluation.
The National Science Digital Library - http://www.nsdl.org/
The nation’s online library for education and research in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics. It provides free math lessons and activities aligned with the Math Common Core
Standards, as well as STEM-related blogs and other free teacher resources and lesson plan ideas.
Targeted for K-12 teachers, higher-education professionals, and librarians, NSDL also provides
science literary maps and iTunes multimedia files.
OER Africa - http://www.oerafrica.org/
OER Africa provides you access to information you will need to learn about and benefit from
Open Educational Resources (OER). If you are just discovering OER, we provide an excellent
starting point for finding OER, learning about the benefits of sharing. We currently focus on the
supporting and developing OER in these thematic areas: agriculture, health education, foundation
courses and teacher education
OER Commons – http://www.oercommons.org/
OER Commons gathers relevant materials about teaching, technology, research, and more, and
encourages you to add links to materials, projects, or news related to the emerging field of Open
Education. Free-to-Use Teaching and Learning Content from Around the World. Over 31,000
resources listed.
OER Glue – http://www.oerglue.com/
Seamlessly integrate content with dozens of popular websites, apps, and social media services.
The Online Books Page - http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
Over 1,000,000 free books on the Web, viewable in html format
Open Courseware Consortium - http://www.ocwconsortium.org/courses/search
Search for free online courses from prestigious higher education institutions around the globe.
Our search index currently contains 5,936 courses from 64 sources and 15 languages, and
growing!
Open Culture – http://www.openculture.com/free_textbooks and
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
- 150 scholarly written textbooks and 54 0 free online courses from top universities.
The Open University - http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/
The Open University is the UK's largest academic institution and a world leader in distance
learning. OU's OpenLearn website gives everyone free access to both undergraduate and
graduate-level course materials from the University. Courses cover a wide range of topics,
including the arts, history, business, education, IT and computing, mathematics and statistics,
science, health and technology.
Open Yale Courses – http://oyc.yale.edu
provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished
teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational
materials for all who wish to learn.
PBS Teachers - http://www.pbs.org/teachers/
Online professional development, TV programming and multimedia web content, lesson plan
ideas, and ways to connect with other educators are all things featured on the PBS Teachers page.
The website also features news and and webinars for teachers to view.
Phet - http://phet.colorado.edu/
PhET provides fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena for free. We
believe that our research-based approach- incorporating findings from prior research and our own
testing- enables students to make connections between real-life phenomena and the underlying
science, deepening their understanding and appreciation of the physical world.
Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org/
Over 36,000 free ebooks to download to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device.
Choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats. We carry high quality ebooks:
All our ebooks were previously published by bona fide publishers. We digitized and diligently
proofed them with the help of thousands of volunteers.
Quizlet - http://quizlet.com/
Quizlet is the largest flash cards and study games website with over 11 million free sets of
flashcards covering every possible subject. It's the best place to play educational games,
memorize vocabulary and study online.
ScienceNetlinks - http://sciencenetlinks.com/
Science NetLinks is a premier K-12 science education resource produced by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. At Science NetLinks, you'll find teaching tools,
interactives, podcasts, and hands-on activities, and all of it is free!
Sourceforge - http://sourceforge.net/
Over 300,00 open source free software projects. Mostly utilities.
Stanford - http://itunes.stanford.edu/
Stanford University, one of the world's leading academic institutions, has joined forces with
iTunes U to provide access to Stanford courses, lectures and interviews. These courses can be
downloaded and played on iPods, PCs and Macs and can also be burned to CDs.
Teacher’s Domain - http://www.teachersdomain.org/
Free digital media from public TV broadcasters for educational use. Users can search for
materials via individual state standards, Common Core State Standards, or national standards
from different organizations. Website users can create online profiles in order to share the
resources they have learned for a particular lesson with others.
Teacher Education in sub-Saharan Africa - http://www.tessafrica.net/
TESSA brings together teachers and teacher educators from across Africa. It offers a range of
materials (Open Educational Resources) in four languages to support school based teacher
education and training.
Teachnology – http://www.teach-nology.com/
providing free and easy-to-use resources for teachers, including “Teacher Timesavers” to help
educators better organize. The site also features 42,000-plus lesson plans, 9,000 free printable
worksheets, rubrics, teaching tips, web quests, and other free teacher resources.
Textbook Central - http://www.textbookcentral.com/index.php/e-books/ebooks-resources
A variety of free e-books and associated educational material available for either download or
online use
Textbook Revolution - http://textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Main_Page
Bibliographic data and Abstract of books provided. Books are downloadable in pdf format.
Thinkfinity - http://www.thinkfinity.org/
Free digital learning platform from the Verizon Foundation that offers comprehensive teaching
and learning resources created by content partners such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics, the International Reading Association, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of
American History, the National Geographic Society, and more. Its content includes interactive
student games, lesson plans focused on various themes, education blogs and online discussions,
and much more.
Tufts University - http://ocw.tufts.edu/
Like MIT, Tufts has OpenCourseWare that is available free to everyone. Courses are sorted by
school (i.e. the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Medicine, etc.) and include
assignments, lecture notes and other supplementary materials.
University of California, Berkeley - http://webcast.berkeley.edu/
Hundreds of UC Berkeley classes, both current and archived, are now available as podcasts and
webcasts. Courses cover a range of subjects, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer
programming, engineering, psychology, legal studies and philosophy.
University of California, Irvine - http://ocw.uci.edu/Welcome.aspx
A member of the OCW Consortium. Their growing list of courses covers topics like financial
planning, human resources, capital markets and e-marketing. Course materials include syllabi,
lecture notes, assignments and exams.
University of Southern Queensland - http://ocw.usq.edu.au/
The University of Southern Queensland in Australia provides free online access to a number of
different courses through yet another OpenCourseWare initiative. Courses from each of the five
faculties are available covering a broad range of topics, including communication, science, career
planning, technology, teaching and multimedia creation.
Utah Education Network – http://www.uen.org
Apps for Education - http://www.uen.org/apps4edu/
App search by device, cost, category, grade level, or curriculum area.
Pioneer – http://pioneer.uen.org/k12/
Utah’s online library, including eMedia resources, SIRS database, World Book Encyclopedia,
several newspaper resources and services
K-12 Core Lesson Plans - http://www.uen.org/k12educator/corelessonplans.shtml
Catalog of lesson plans arranged by curricular area
Utah State University - http://ocw.usu.edu/
Utah State OpenCourseWare is a collection of educational material used in our formal campus
courses, and seeks to provide people around the world with an opportunity to access high quality
learning opportunities.
Webquest.org - http://webquest.org/index.php
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that
learners work with comes from the web. The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San
Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom
March, the Educational Technology staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of
participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium.
Wikibooks - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
Open books for an open world
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