There are a number of different repositories and websites where you can find open education resources.
Open Repositories
Open repositories allow anyone to upload and download learning resources in more than one format for reuse and remixing. The repositories provide a wide variety of types and levels of resources and provide guidance on the level of CC licences the resources are provided under.
Find an Open Repository
Specialised Content Sites
Additionally there are websites which offer only one format of content but specialise in that field. Some of these you may be familiar with include Flickr, Soundcloud, and YouTube. You can search within these sites to find resources under CC licences.
Find a Specialised Content Site
Search via Creative Commons
Creative Commons have also created a service that allows you to set the terms of your search, how you wish to use the item, and the search engine you would like to use. If there’s any doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content.
Go to Search Creative Commons
There are a number of search services that allow you quickly and easily find a wide range of open educational resources and open licensed content.
Google allows you to filter your search results in order to find Creative Commons licensed images.
To do this, go to Google Image search https://www.google.co.uk/imghp and enter your search term. Click the Tools option to bring up an additional menu bar that enables you to filter your search results by size, colour, usage rights, type and time.
Select ‘Usage rights’ to choose from a drop down menu with the following options:
Selecting “Labeled for reuse” will return all Creative Commons licensed images.
Note: Before reusing content, check the licence details on the source page and check the exact terms of reuse. For example, the licence might require that you give credit to the image creator when you use the image or have additional requests that Google is unable to pick up in a general search.
You can use the Google Chrome browser to search for the source of an image. Right click the image and select “Search Google for image”. This should help you to find the original source of an image and any associated licence information. There are a number of additional search services that will allow you to search for the source of an image, including Tin Eye Reverse Image Search.
Creative Commons have their own CC Search service that allows you to search for open licensed and public domain images from a wide range of sources including Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, Smithsonian, Europeana, NASA, Rijksmuseum and more.
The service provides attribution and licence information to copy and share in three different formats.
There is also a CC Search browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Opera which allows you to search for and filter CC licensed content.
Europeana allows you to cross search thousands of European archives, libraries and museums to find cultural heritage content of all kinds. Europeana’s advanced search facility has a number of filters including “Can I use this?” which enables you to find public domain and open licensed content.
Where to find OERs by University of Edinburgh licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License