FREDURES is a new project, still in its developmental stages. The idea
behind FREDURES is very simple. It is a search engine - or, more
accurately, a series of search engines - geared towards finding
open-access educational resources (OER) on the internet. It is aimed at
learners and based on the principle that anyone can learn anything. It
focuses on the middle ground between information and research, enabling
searchers to find freely-available online lessons and courses.
What FREDURES isn't
Fredures does not cover general sources of information, discussion
groups, educational resources for teachers, primary sources or research
sources. Where appropriate, these are listed separately.
Searching at different levels of the hierarchy
The Quickstart search
at the bottom
of the home page collects data in two ways. The first is by trawling
the major websites offering Open Educational Resources (OER). The
second is by extracting links dynamically from websites that contain
lists of sites offering OER.
The Subject search
boxes also collect data in two ways. The first is by trawling the
relevant sections of the major OER websites. The second is by trawling
smaller, more specialized websites.
The Category search
boxes work through a combination of all of these different approaches.
As a result, searches at different layers of the hierarchy will give
some overlapping results, along with some results that are unique to
that particular level of search. If something doesn't show up in a Subject searchit is may
show up in a Category search or Quickstart search. If you don't find what you are looking for at one level, it may show up at another level,
Combining FREDURES with Google
If you find search results that help you towards what you are looking
for but do not quite give you the exact material, try searching at https://google.com. There may be material that has not yet been incorporated into FREDURES.
Help FREDURES to grow
Please help FREDURES to run smoothly by sending feedback if you find a
significant discrepancy between the results at different levels of
the hierarchy.
Please also send feedback if unexpected or inappropriate search results
come up, if you cannot find something you are searching for, if you
wish to recommend a website, or if you have any other suggestions or
comments.
Join FREDURES
Join FREDURES and help to build this search engine! Even a small contribution of your time is welcome.
