06: Open Educational Resources (OER)

How to Search for Open Content: A Practical Guide for Tanzanian Teachers

Open content—especially Open Educational Resources (OER)—offers free, adaptable, high-quality materials that can transform teaching and learning. Whether you work in a well-resourced school or a rural community with limited textbooks, openly licensed materials can help you prepare richer lessons, save time, and support learners more effectively.

This guide shows you four practical ways to look for open content and includes mini-activities so you can practise immediately.

1) Start With AI to Speed Up Your Search

How AI helps: suggests open-content websites and repositories, summarises licensing (e.g., CC BY, CC BY-SA), finds curriculum-aligned materials faster, and helps refine your search terms.

Try this AI prompt:

Find openly licensed teaching resources for Form Two Biology – Nutrition in Plants. Include links and only list materials with Creative Commons licences.

Mini-Activity (5 minutes)

1. Open your preferred AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot).
2. Paste the prompt above.
3. Check each result is free, openly licensed, and relevant to Tanzanian curriculum.
4. Save one resource you might use in class.

Tip: Always verify results on the official site—AI can make errors.

2) Use Google Advanced Search to Find Openly Licensed Materials

Steps:

1. Go to https://www.google.com/advanced_search.
2. Enter your topic (e.g., photosynthesis diagram).
3. Scroll to Usage rights and select Free to use, share, or modify.
4. Click Search.

Mini-Activity (5 minutes)
Search for openly licensed images of the digestive system. Open one image and note the licence (e.g., CC BY 4.0).

Video tutorial: 

3) Use YouTube’s Filters to Find Creative Commons Videos

Steps:

1. Search YouTube for your topic (e.g., heat transfer science).
2. Click Filters → under Features, choose Creative Commons.
3. Review the videos and check the reuse permissions in the description.

Mini-Activity (3 minutes)
Search for Civics Form Two democracy, filter by Creative Commons, and save one video you could adapt for class discussion.

Video tutorial: 

4) Use Creative Commons Search (CC Search)

Steps:

1. Visit https://search.creativecommons.org.
2. Enter your topic (e.g., water cycle illustration).
3. Choose a licence type (CC BY, CC BY-SA, etc.).
4. Download and record the correct attribution.

Mini-Activity (3 minutes)
Search for African ecosystems map, filter for CC BY or CC BY-SA, then record the source and attribution.

Video tutorial: 

5) Recommended OER Repositories for Tanzanian Teachers

• OER Africa: https://www.oerafrica.org
• TIE Open Library (mixed licences): https://ol.tie.go.tz
• MIT OpenCourseWare: https://ocw.mit.edu
• OpenStax textbooks: https://openstax.org
• OER Commons: https://www.oercommons.org
• CK-12 Foundation (STEM): https://www.ck12.org
• WikiEducator: https://wikieducator.org

Tip: Always check the licence—“free” does not always mean “open.”

Putting It All Together: Quick Practice Challenge (5 minutes)

Using any method above (AI, Google Advanced Search, YouTube CC filter, or CC Search), find one openly licensed resource for your subject. Examples:

• Physics: Open diagram of electric circuits
• English: CC BY reading passage
• Civics: Open infographic on the constitution
• Biology: Open diagram of mitosis

For the resource you found, write down:

1. The link
2. The licence (e.g., CC BY-SA 4.0)
3. How you will use or adapt it in class