As we began ramping up our OER efforts at SUNY Geneseo, we were directing faculty to a multitude of different sources to find materials that might be relevant for their courses, which was time-consuming and difficult. Rather than continuing this cumbersome and inefficient practice, we began exploring the idea of creating a search tool to make the discovery of open content easier for faculty at Geneseo, as well as the broader OER community. The result was the development of Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS).
OASIS currently searches open content from 80 sources and contains more than 325,000 records, most of which are in the public domain or openly licensed. Users can search using single words, multiple words, and “quoted phrase” strings, or users can begin their search by material type from the homepage. Searchable material types include textbooks, courses, course materials, interactive simulations, public domain books, audiobooks, modules, open access books, videos, podcasts, and learning objects. On the search results page, users can filter by material type, subject, source, reviewed resource, and Creative Commons license. There is also the option to suggest a source to be added to OASIS. Since it’s launch on September 5, 2018, OASIS has had more than 18,000 users from 93 different countries, and there are currently 421 institutions from across the globe that have linked to or added the OASIS search widget to their website. This presentation will share the iterative processes that we went through in creating OASIS, including the website framework, source selection, resource integration, and end-user experience. We will also discuss the future direction of OASIS, how it can be utilized at other organizations, as well as gather feedback from the OER community on how we can improve this tool.
Watch a video about this session!
