FOSS & CC License 

OER and FOSS

Open Educational Resources (OER) and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) play an important role in promoting accessible, affordable, and inclusive education.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are freely available for anyone to access, use, adapt, and share. These resources include textbooks, lecture notes, videos, courses, simulations, and other educational content. OER helps reduce the cost of education while encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing among learners and educators.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) refers to software that is freely available to use, modify, and distribute. The source code of FOSS is openly accessible, allowing users and developers to study, improve, and customize the software according to their needs. Examples include LibreOffice, Moodle, GIMP, OBS Studio, and Moodle.

Together, OER and FOSS support digital learning, innovation, and lifelong education by providing high-quality resources and tools without licensing barriers. They empower educational institutions, teachers, students, and researchers to create, share, and use knowledge more effectively.

Video Editing Software

OpenShot Video Editor
A beginner-friendly video editor featuring drag-and-drop editing, video effects, transitions, animations, and title creation.
URL: https://www.openshot.org/

Kdenlive
A powerful open-source non-linear video editor with multi-track editing, effects, transitions, color correction, and support for numerous media formats.
URL: https://kdenlive.org/en/

Shotcut
Cross-platform video editor offering timeline-based editing, filters, transitions, and extensive format support through FFmpeg.
URL: https://shotcut.org/

Olive Video Editor
A modern, lightweight, and fast non-linear video editor aimed at providing professional-level editing capabilities.
URL: https://olivevideoeditor.org/

Blender (Video Sequence Editor)
A complete 3D creation suite that also includes a capable video editor for cutting, compositing, color grading, and motion graphics.
URL: https://www.blender.org/

Image Editing Software

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
A powerful open-source image editor used for photo retouching, image composition, graphic design, and digital artwork. Often considered the leading FOSS alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
URL: https://www.gimp.org/

Krita
A professional open-source digital painting and illustration application designed for artists, illustrators, comic creators, and concept designers.
URL: https://krita.org/

Inkscape
A feature-rich open-source vector graphics editor used for creating logos, icons, illustrations, diagrams, and scalable artwork.
URL: https://inkscape.org/

Darktable
An open-source photography workflow application and RAW image editor for photographers.
URL: https://www.darktable.org/

Penpot
Open-source UI/UX design and prototyping platform.
URL: https://penpot.app/

diagrams.net (Draw.io)
Diagramming and flowchart creation tool. Open-source and web-based.
URL: https://www.diagrams.net/

Statistical / Data Analysis Softwares

Jamovi
A free and open-source statistical analysis platform built on R. It provides an intuitive spreadsheet-style interface for conducting descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, regression analysis, ANOVA, and more without requiring programming knowledge.
URL: https://www.jamovi.org/

JASP (Jeffreys's Amazing Statistics Program)
An open-source statistical software package offering both frequentist and Bayesian analysis through an easy-to-use graphical interface. Widely used in academic research and education.
URL: https://jasp-stats.org/

R Project for Statistical Computing
A powerful open-source programming language and software environment for statistical computing, data analysis, machine learning, data visualization, and research. It is one of the most widely used tools in academia and data science.
URL: https://www.r-project.org/

PSPP
A free software alternative to SPSS for statistical analysis of sampled data. Supports descriptive statistics, t-tests, linear regression, ANOVA, and other common statistical procedures.
URL: https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/

Free Music & Audio Resources

Pixabay Music
Provides thousands of free music tracks and sound effects for videos, podcasts, presentations, and creative projects. Most content can be used without attribution.
URL: https://pixabay.com/music/

Openverse
An open-source search engine for openly licensed and public domain media, including music, audio clips, images, and other creative assets from multiple repositories.
URL: https://wordpress.org/openverse/

Chosic
A curated collection of royalty-free and copyright-free music tracks that can be filtered by genre, mood, and usage type. Popular among YouTubers and content creators.
URL: https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/

Mixkit Music
Offers free stock music tracks for videos, presentations, social media content, and commercial projects. No attribution is required for most downloads.
URL: https://mixkit.co/free-stock-music/

Bensound
Provides royalty-free music for videos, podcasts, educational content, and commercial projects. Offers both free and premium licensing options.
URL: https://www.bensound.com/

SoundCloud (Free Background Music Collection)
Hosts a large collection of music from independent artists. Many creators share royalty-free and Creative Commons licensed tracks suitable for content creation.
URL: https://soundcloud.com/freebmusic

Musopen
A non-profit project providing free recordings, sheet music, and educational music resources, with a strong focus on classical music and public domain works.
URL: https://musopen.org/

Highly Recommended FOSS for Educational Institutions

• Moodle – Learning Management System

• Open edX – MOOC Platform

• BigBlueButton – Virtual Classroom

• LibreOffice – Office Suite

• OBS Studio – Recording & Streaming

• GIMP + Inkscape + Krita – Content Creation

• Zotero – Research & Citation Management

• Jupyter Notebook – Data Science & Programming

• GeoGebra – Mathematics Education

• OpenBoard – Digital Teaching Board

• Penpot – UI/UX and Educational Design

• OpenRefine – Data Cleaning & Research

These are among the most mature, globally adopted, and education-friendly FOSS tools currently available.

Indian OER Resources

National Digital Library of India (NDLI)
A national digital repository providing access to millions of educational resources, including books, articles, videos, theses, and learning materials across disciplines.
URL: https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/

SWAYAM
India's national MOOC platform offering free online courses from school to postgraduate level, developed by leading educational institutions.
URL: https://swayam.gov.in/

NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning)
Provides free online courses, video lectures, and certification programs in engineering, science, management, and humanities.
URL: https://nptel.ac.in/

National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER)
A repository of open educational content including e-books, videos, images, audio, documents, and interactive resources for school education.
URL: https://nroer.gov.in/

FOSSEE (Free/Libre and Open Source Software for Education)
Promotes the use of FOSS tools in education through training materials, projects, textbooks, and software resources.
URL: https://fossee.in/

Virtual Labs
Provides online laboratory simulations and remote experiments for engineering, science, and technology education.
URL: https://www.vlab.co.in/

Spoken Tutorial
Offers self-paced video tutorials on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in multiple Indian languages.
URL: https://spoken-tutorial.org/

e-PG Pathshala
A national initiative providing high-quality postgraduate learning materials in various academic disciplines.
URL: https://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/

International OER Resources

MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW)
Free access to course materials from thousands of MIT courses, including lecture notes, assignments, exams, and videos.
URL: https://ocw.mit.edu/

Open Michigan
Provides open educational resources, course materials, publications, and learning content from the University of Michigan.
URL: https://open.umich.edu/

Khan Academy
A global learning platform offering free courses, lessons, exercises, and instructional videos across multiple subjects.
URL: https://www.khanacademy.org/

Purdue University OER
A collection of open educational resources, open textbooks, and teaching materials developed by Purdue University.
URL: https://www.purdue.edu/innovativelearning/open-education/

Open Learning Initiative (OLI) – Carnegie Mellon University
Provides research-based online courses and learning resources designed to improve student learning outcomes.
URL: https://oli.cmu.edu/

Open Yale Courses
Offers free access to introductory courses taught by distinguished Yale University faculty.
URL: https://oyc.yale.edu/

UCI Open
Provides free educational materials and selected open courses from the University of California, Irvine.
URL: https://open.uci.edu/

Lumen Learning
Supports affordable education through open courseware, open textbooks, and OER-based learning solutions.
URL: https://www.lumenlearning.com/

The Open University – OpenLearn
Provides free courses, articles, videos, and educational resources across a wide range of subjects.
URL: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/

University of New Hampshire OER Program
Supports the adoption and creation of open educational resources and open textbooks.
URL: https://www.unh.edu/library/open-education

Virginia Tech OER Program
Promotes open educational resources, open pedagogy, and affordable learning initiatives.
URL: https://guides.lib.vt.edu/oer

University of Houston-Victoria OER Resources
Provides access to open textbooks and educational resources for teaching and learning.
URL: https://library.uhv.edu/oer

NOBA Project
A collection of high-quality, peer-reviewed open educational resources for psychology and related fields.
URL: https://nobaproject.com/

Open Textbook Resources

OpenStax
A leading provider of peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks for higher education.
URL: https://openstax.org/

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)
A curated collection of open learning materials, online courses, and teaching resources.
URL: https://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
A discovery service for peer-reviewed open-access academic books from reputable publishers.
URL: https://www.doabooks.org/

Open SUNY / Milne Open Textbooks
A collection of openly licensed textbooks developed through the State University of New York system.
URL: https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/

BCcampus Open Textbooks
Offers a large collection of open textbooks covering a variety of disciplines.
URL: https://opentextbc.ca/

OER Attribution & Licensing Tools

Open Attribution Builder (Open Washington)
Helps educators and content creators generate proper Creative Commons attributions for OER materials.
URL: https://www.openwa.org/attribution-builder/

OER Commons – Open Author & Attribution Tools
Provides tools for creating, remixing, sharing, and properly attributing open educational resources.
URL: https://oercommons.org/authoring

Most Popular Resources

Indian OER: SWAYAM, NPTEL, NDLI, Virtual Labs, Spoken Tutorial
University Courses: MIT OCW, Open Yale Courses, OpenLearn, OLI
School & Lifelong Learning: Khan Academy
Open Textbooks: OpenStax, BCcampus, MERLOT, DOAB
OER Discovery: OER Commons, NDLI, Open Michigan, NOBA Project