There is always something good going on at MERLOT and SkillsCommons.
Explore our latest efforts to "OPEN LEARNING FOR ALL" with free and open educational resources and practices in academic disciplines and workforce development.
MERLOT is partnering with the Job Skills Development Center in Tamil Nadu India where we are working both onsite and online to prepare Indian youth to be successful obtaining employment in sustainable income jobs. MERLOT is being used to provide the students their own free and open personal learning library to support the development of their skills, knowledge, and ambition.
SkillsCommons is partnering with New America to provide a free and open repository of instructional materials and program support materials for Public Information Technology. This area of critical social importance includes the public use AI, technologies supporting climate and environmental projects, social and criminal justice, and much more. Explore the initial Public Interest Technology Collection!
SkillsCommons has created a "showcase" of free and open educational resources focused on Generative AI and its applications in workforce development. The AI Showcase provides collections of free and open educational resources connecting Generative AI to workforce development organized for industry sectors by the North American Industry Classification Scheme (NAICS). These materials are downloadable from SkillsCommons for free and you can reuse, revise, remix, retain, and redistribute to suit your needs and goals. The AI Showcase also provides easy access to Gen AI materials from MERLOT on a variety of ICT (Information, Communication, and Technology) Literacy topics. Finally, the AI Showcase provides easy access to examples of how AI is applied in different industry sections (by NAICS) organized from resources outside of SkillsCommons and MERLOT.
MERLOT-SkillsCommons are partners of the National Collaborative for Digital Equity. We will be leveraging the MERLOT Information, Communication, & Technology (ICT) Literacy collection and MERLOT Content to provide free and easy access to free and open collections of resources that states across the U.S. can use to support their digital equity plans. We built prototype portals for English language learners and older adults to learn relevant digital literacy skills for living online in New Hampshire and a "benefits hub" for New Hampshire.
Fishbanks is a multiplayer web-based simulation in which participants play the role of fishers and seek to maximize their net worth as they compete against other players and deal with variations in fish stocks and their catch.
Go to MERLOTThe courses developed in this program use the PLC to train aspiring engineers and technicians. It gives motivation to those who show interest or potentially might show interest in a career in automation. The courses are outlined at the website: hybridplc.org. The courses' texts and videos are free.
Go to SkillsCommons
With nearly 25 years in service, MERLOT offers users a well-organized, extensive collection of complete academic courses, supplementals, content creation tools, as well as a full range of additional materials created by subject matter experts. Our curation processes and SmartSearch features help to ensure easy access to open and low-cost curricula and support.
Developed under a nearly $2 Billion investment, SkillsCommons is the world's largest repository of open and vetted workforce training and educational materials. Created by more than 700 colleges, universities, and industries, our materials span sectors such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare, IT, construction, hospitality. Offering full courses, certificate programming, simulations plus more, SkillsCommons assists organizations in affordably meeting workforce pipeline development needs.
Together, MERLOT and SkillsCommons provide users with a comprehensive approach to reducing educational and training costs and making, finding, organizing, and using open educational and workforce development training resources.