With an overwhelming number of sites to search for teaching and learning resources online, it can be very time consuming and sometimes you can feel lost.
According to a an analysis from EdReports, teachers spend between 7-12 hours per week searching for and creating instructional materials (many unvetted) and found that 95% of teachers use Google Search to find resources, 75% use Pinterest, and 73% use Teachers Pay Teachers to find lessons and materials.
Clearly this is a problem for educators - especially when considering that high-quality instructional materials can significantly improve learning outcomes for students, deepen student engagement, improve instruction, and reduce achievement gaps, according to the same EdReports analysis.
So, we have an understanding of why finding high-quality instructional materials is important. Let's look at the what to look for and where.
In the lessons that follow, you'll learn more about how to find what is needed for your specific curriculum, the specific attributes to look for in quality materials, and how to put it all together. For now, here's a high-level summary of what to look for when searching for materials:
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Fit
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Quality
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For all things OER in Ohio, look no further than INFOhio! We offer two search platforms that will help you find, integrate, create, and share open educational resources. Let's take a look.
Educator Tools gives you access to no-cost instructional materials, guides, articles, best practices, reference material, and a selection of INFOhio’s premium licensed resources. You will get to learn more about Educator Tools in an upcoming lesson. You can also complete our Educator Tools class in INFOhio Campus. In the image below, see a sample search to find a learning module about rocks and save and share the results:
Open Space provides a space to build community through groups, access curated collections and a repository of open educational resources, and create and share new instructional materials. You will get to learn more about the features of Open Space in an upcoming lesson. In the image below, see a sample search for interactive learning content for 8th grade ELA:
With a worldwide network of educators focused on open educational resources, there is no shortage of websites and other repositories providing free and open instructional materials. Here are a select few:
Sometimes you aren't looking for an instructional material but maybe a great photograph, song, or video that you could use to compliment your classroom or online space. Here are a select few sites that host or search Creative Commons-licensed multimedia:
Fetch is avaiable to INFOhio automated schools. If you are an INFOhio school, please log in with your school username/password using the button at the top-left corner of this page.
For more information about Fetch, please visit the Fetch information page or contact INFOhio support at https://support.infohio.org.
