Once you determine what your content contribution will be and that you can make it general enough to be useful by others, you need to determine which platform you will use to create your content.

There are two main considerations when it comes to OER platforms: ease of use and openness. And keep top of mind: If no one can find or access your content, it may not be truly “open.”

Photo by Alexandre Godreau on Unsplash

You will likely want to use a platform that you are already familiar with and that is easy for you to use. Your campus LMS is an example of a familiar, common platform for OER creation that you might already be using for your courses. (Note that while it is possible—and acceptable—to create OER within an LMS, some people argue that it goes against the spirit of “open.”)

To go open, choose an open platform. But, that doesn’t mean you have to get there all at once.

For instance, if you’ve built an open course in an LMS like Canvas, you may be able to publish your content to share with other users of the same LMS. If you create a PDF document, which you might keep updating, you can include steps for users to receive by email or download the Word document used to create the PDF. This enables individuals to easily adapt the document.

The realities of teaching may sometimes require you to keep your course content (such as test banks) out of the open. Keep in mind that content can be still be taken out of your LMS and shared in a number of ways.

Platforms for Creating and Hosting OER

In order to create an easily shareable open resource, you need it to be easily accessible to everyone. Platforms are the ways to create a resource, and hosting is making a resource available to everyone on the Internet. Some platforms provide hosting, and some platforms and hosting options are exclusive from each other.

If you create OER on your own computer through platforms like word processors (Word, LibreOffice), presentation software (Keynote, PowerPoint), or art and layout platforms (InDesign, Illustrator, Blender, GIMP), these platforms do not make it possible to immediately share these files on a permanently-hosted and sustainable place easily. You will need an alternative option for hosting.

Hosting services for files created offline include:

• Institutional Repositories (check with your library and/or instructional design team to learn what is available at your institution)
• MERLOT Content Builder, a free and open site/course creator platform that allows uploading for up to 10 MB
• OER Commons OpenAuthor, a free and open site/course creator platform that allows uploading for up to 20 MB
• Google Drive allows you to share documents publicly
• Campus websites, which offer a quick way to upload files through a content management system (CMS)

There are some free and paid ways to create OER through an online platform and have them hosted using the same platform:

Free Platforms

Gooru
Gooru has a content database (much of it is OER), and offers myriad teacher-created lessons, which are searchable, as are the individual resources from which the lessons have been compiled. Lessons and resources can be copied and then adapted to suit new contexts. They can also be enhanced by the addition of tests or assignments.

OER Commons
The Commons offers various tools for creating OER from scratch or harnessing existing open content to encourage students to solve specific tasks. OER Commons’ authoring platform, Open Author, can be used either to design and create individual resources or to lay out the structure of an open textbook.

MERLOT Content Builder
MERLOT Content Builder offers a quick and easy way to deliver web-based open content, hosted through the California State University System and MERLOT. Content Builder resources can easily be incorporated into MERLOT’s vast OER search engine in addition. File uploads: 10MB maximum. Note that you will need a Merlot account to access the Content Builder.

Curriki
Curriki offers a way to publish materials for the public, and it includes options for expert reviews. While Curriki focuses on K-12 education, many higher education authors have used the site to publish educational resources.

WikiBooks
WikiBooks is a wiki-based platform that allows for the creation of simple, accessible open web content in textbook form. Try out the platform in their Sandbox, or create a free account to get started.

OERPUB
This experimental OER publishing platform uses GitHub to control different editions of an OER through “forking.” It’s in Alpha, so proceed at your own risk, but it’s a promising program. Google Chrome required.

OpenStax CNX
OpenStax CNX was one of the first web-based OER publishing platforms, and it is currently being upgraded to allow modifications to be made within your web browser.

Paid and For-Profit Platforms

PressBooks
PressBooks is a WordPress-based platform. It’s free to create an account, but publishing your content does cost the author a fee. PressBooks makes publishing in multiple file formats very simple.

SoftChalk Cloud
SoftChalk is a desktop-based publishing platform, and the paid SoftChalk Cloud version allows the user to upload materials to be made available to the public through the SoftChalk Cloud Repository.

Lulu
Lulu is a self-publishing service that offers a range of support for print and ebook creation. It offers a well-developed knowledge base for self-service, or subscribe to publishing services for more assistance with the steps towards publication.

A quick note about Amazon’s CreateSpace: this service used to be a reliable way to bring new print and electronic OER textbooks into creation. As of July 2019, CreateSpace folded into Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), and has been less supportive of inputting Creative Commons content during this transition. This is particularly true of OER texts that contain some remixed content that was previously published elsewhere with a CC License. For this reason, at this time, we do not recommend working with Amazon KDP for new OER publications.

Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.