Freedom251 › Open Educational Resource Platforms

OERSI

Free plan APISelf-hostedWeb

What OERSI is

OERSI is a search service for open educational resources related to higher education, jointly provided by hbz and TIB since 2020. It gathers and standardizes metadata from national and international providers, then makes those records searchable through a central interface with filters. OERSI does not store the learning materials themselves; users find metadata that points to resources hosted by providers. Resources considered for inclusion must be relevant to higher education teaching or learning, accessible on the web, at least partly openly licensed and accompanied by acceptable basic metadata. Developers can query a JSON-based Elasticsearch API and use point-in-time searches for bulk access; regular metadata downloads are also available. Search requests should target the oer_data index, since the generic endpoint can return records from multiple indexes and create duplicates. The project accepts collection metadata through formats including schema.org markup with a sitemap, JSON over HTTP, OAI-PMH XML, structured HTML and metadata dumps. Its code is MIT-licensed, and the reusable software is called SIDRE. OERSI reported indexing over 90,000 resources from 45 collections in its fifth-anniversary post.

Who it suits

OERSI suits students, educators and others searching for openly licensed learning materials in higher education. Its API and metadata downloads are also relevant to developers and platforms that want to reuse or integrate the records.

What it does well

Central search across national and international collections
Filters help narrow educational resource results
JSON Elasticsearch API supports bulk access
Metadata downloads are available
Code is MIT-licensed

What to know first

Does not host learning materials
Listed resources must meet higher education criteria
API searches should target the oer_data index

Limits

OERSI stores metadata rather than educational content, so users cannot upload learning materials to the service. API requests must target the oer_data index; the generic endpoint can combine indexes and produce duplicates.

Getting started

Open the OERSI website
Search the central index and apply filters
Use the JSON Elasticsearch API for programmatic queries
Target the oer_data index in search requests
Use point-in-time searches or prepared downloads for bulk metadata
Connect a provider through the listed metadata formats or contact form

Verdict

OERSI provides a centralized way to find higher-education learning resources while leaving the content with its original providers. Its API, downloads and MIT-licensed software also support reuse beyond the search interface.

Questions

Does OERSI cost anything?

OERSI is free and open source. Its code is available under the MIT licence.

Does OERSI host courses or other learning files?

No. OERSI collects and harmonizes metadata, while the educational resources remain with their providers.

What can the API do?

The JSON-based Elasticsearch API supports metadata queries, point-in-time bulk access and integrations. Prepared metadata is also available as downloads.

Which resources can be included?

Resources must be relevant to higher-education teaching or learning, web-accessible, at least partly openly licensed and accompanied by acceptable basic metadata.

How can providers submit metadata?

Accepted methods include schema.org markup with a sitemap, JSON over HTTP, OAI-PMH XML, structured HTML with a sitemap and JSON or CSV metadata dumps.

Which platforms integrate OERSI?

The project names twillo and ORCA.nrw as integrations, and lists reuse in BASE, finc and library search interfaces.

Facts from OERSI's own pages

API and downloads: An open API supports integrations, and prepared metadata is also available as regular downloads. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
API format: The search API returns JSON and is based on Elasticsearch. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
API usage: API users are asked to send a meaningful, recurring User-Agent string with contact information where applicable. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
API usage guidance: API users are asked to send a meaningful, recurring User-Agent string with client and contact information where applicable. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Bulk access: The API documentation describes querying metadata directly and downloading it in bulk using point-in-time searches. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Collection requirements: Resources considered for inclusion must be relevant to higher education, accessible on the web, at least partly openly licensed, and have acceptable basic metadata. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Deployment: The OERSI team says it uses Ansible scripts to install the service, and the SIDRE software is available for reuse. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Does not host learning materials: OERSI does not store educational content; it harvests metadata from OER providers. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Founded: 2020 · oersi.org, 28 Sept 2026
Integrations: The about page names twillo and ORCA.nrw as platforms integrating OERSI search; it also lists reuse in BASE, finc, and library search interfaces. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Limits: Users cannot upload educational content to OERSI because it does not store the content itself. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Metadata formats accepted: OERSI accepts collection metadata as schema.org markup with a sitemap, JSON over HTTP, XML via OAI-PMH, structured HTML with a sitemap, or metadata dumps such as JSON and CSV. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Metadata only: OERSI does not host educational resources; it collects and harmonizes their metadata for unified search. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Metadata search: OERSI collects and standardizes metadata from distributed national and international providers to offer a central search with filters. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Metadata sources: OERSI accepts collection metadata through schema.org markup and sitemap, JSON HTTP APIs, OAI-PMH, structured HTML, and metadata dumps, among other methods. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Metadata standard: OERSI's internal metadata profile largely matches the General Metadata Profile for Educational Resources (AMB). · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Notable API limit: Search requests must target the oer_data index; the FAQ warns that querying the generic search endpoint can return results from multiple indexes and cause duplicates. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Open API: OERSI provides a JSON-based Elasticsearch API for querying metadata and supports bulk access using point-in-time searches. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Open development: OERSI says its planning and development are documented on GitLab and invites feedback, bug reports, and feature requests. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Open source: The OERSI code is available under the MIT licence, and the underlying reusable software is called SIDRE. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Purpose: OERSI is a search engine for open educational resources in higher education, provided jointly by hbz and TIB since 2020. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Scale: In its fifth-anniversary post, OERSI reported indexing over 90,000 educational resources from 45 collections. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Search: It provides a central search across educational resources from national and international providers, with filter options. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026
Single-resource submission: OER can be listed automatically from GitLab, GitHub, or Codeberg repositories when metadata is provided and the open-educational-resources topic is set. · oersi.org, 7 Oct 2026

Where OERSI stands on Freedom251

Open Educational Resource Platforms#14 of 27