NECC Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Massachusetts: A Public Higher Education Repository emerged from the  “Massachusetts Open Education: Achieving Access for All,” funded by a Higher Education Innovation Fund grant. Its goal is to serve as a collaborative space for Educators from all public Higher Education Institutions in the Commonwealth to create, collaborate, and share Open Educational Resources with their institutions, students, and the greater OER community. It is a Hub that is part of the greater OER Commons. In 2023, all four-year state universities joined the state community colleges as members of the Repository.  

How do I get started? 

1. Create a Free Account with OER Commons 
2. Request to join your institution's group page
3. Select "add OER" in the top right corner 
4. Begin creating open content! 

OER Commons is the platform where the Open Massachusetts Repository is located. OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Open texts and course materials from various Institutions can be found there.  

Start with a keyword search of the Open Massachusetts Repository for relevant resources. Options to filter by subject area, material type, educational use, language, education standards, and several other parameters. Collections are organized by discipline and by individual institutions by which they were created. Material types range from separate images, syllabi, and open textbooks to complete course materials.  

You can also browse resources by discipline collection, curated OER Commons collections, and by institution.  

If you have OER materials that you use for your courses, Open Massachusetts is the ideal space for them! The Open Massachusetts Repository can be a great place to host your materials – it’s an easy way to share them in your blackboard and canvas courses and with the broader OER Commons Community of educators.  

Create custom course content with existing Open textbooks in OER Commons. Once you have selected a resource to remix (please ensure the CC license allows for remixed content), select the green "remix" button and begin making edits/updates/changes.  A new record for your remixed item will be created upon saving. The new record can be "published" at any point throughout this process.