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SPECIFICTION
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OER Commons

oercommons.org

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Spec score 7.6 #14 of 27 in Open Educational Resource Platforms

What it is

OER Commons is a free web-based digital library for finding open educational resources and collaborating on their use, evaluation and improvement. It serves K–12 and higher education educators, librarians and homeschooling parents. A free account, priced at free, provides library access, Open Author for creating or publishing resources, groups, collaboration to curate or remix content, and a personal profile for saved resources. Organizations can use Hubs to develop collections, manage content and facilitate conversations. Custom microsites can have their own libraries and domains, tailored metadata and content creation, and analytics dashboards. Open Author includes an accessibility checker, requires alt text for embedded images and automatically captions videos uploaded to a resource. ISKME offers data and API integration services for learning management systems; its tools can receive and provide harvestable content feeds in Dublin Core, IEEE Learning Object Metadata and RSS. ISKME reports completed accessibility audits and another review underway, but authors and users remain responsible for resource accessibility, and many indexed materials are hosted externally. Resources created in legacy Open Author 1 are scheduled for removal on December 31, 2026; Open Author 2 resources are unaffected.

Spec sheet

Purpose
OER Commons is an openly accessible digital library for educators to find high-quality open educational resources and collaborate around their use, evaluation, and improvement.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Audience
The library serves K–12 and higher education educators, librarians, and homeschooling parents.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Support
ISKME provides content curation by digital librarians and directs organizations to contact [email protected] about product and service offerings.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Founded
2007Read 23 Sep 2026 · oercommons.org
Maker
OER Commons was created by ISKME, which describes itself as a global nonprofit.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Accessibility
Open Author includes an accessibility checker, requires alt text for embedded images, and automatically captions videos uploaded to an Open Author resource.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Accessibility responsibility
ISKME states that authors and users are responsible for ensuring resources meet accessibility requirements, and that many indexed resources are hosted by external providers.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Accessibility review
ISKME says it has completed two full platform accessibility audits meeting WCAG 2.1 AA standards and is conducting another review.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Hubs
Hubs let organizations develop collections, manage content, facilitate conversations, and share information about their work.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Legacy content limit
OER Commons says it will remove resources created in the legacy Open Author 1 editor on December 31, 2026; Open Author 2 resources are not affected.Read 30 Sep 2026 · help.oercommons.org
LMS integration
ISKME offers data integration and API integration services to connect OER Commons with learning management systems.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Metadata formats
ISKME says its tools can receive OER feeds in Dublin Core, IEEE Learning Object Metadata, and RSS, and provide targets for harvesting content in those formats.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Microsites
Custom microsites can have independent libraries and domains, tailored metadata and content creation, and analytics dashboards.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org
Open Author
A free account enables users to create or publish open educational resources using tools such as Open Author.Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org

Plans and prices

OER Commons free account Free Access the digital library · Open Author · Create groups · Collaborate to curate or remix content · Save resources to a personal profile Read 30 Sep 2026 · iskme.org

Every OER Commons plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Free account includes Open Author and groups
  • Hubs support organizational collections and conversations
  • Microsites can have independent libraries and domains
  • Open Author includes an accessibility checker
  • Supports Dublin Core, IEEE Learning Object Metadata and RSS feeds

Limits

  • Legacy Open Author 1 resources are scheduled for removal December 31, 2026
  • Authors and users are responsible for resource accessibility
  • Many indexed resources are hosted by external providers

Who it suits

OER Commons suits educators, librarians and homeschooling parents looking for open resources or tools to create and curate them. Organizations can use Hubs and custom microsites to manage and share collections.

Verdict

OER Commons combines an open-resource library with authoring and organizational tools. Users should consider accessibility responsibilities and the scheduled removal of legacy Open Author 1 resources.

Where Specifiction places it

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