Locating the highest-quality Open Educational Resources (OER) materials can be a challenge! In this special Featured Session for the OLC Innovate 2026 conference, select MERLOT Editors will showcase exemplary OER materials housed within the MERLOT OER system, along with demonstrating use-cases for these OER materials across the disciplines.

In this special Featured Session for the OLC Innovate 2026 conference, MERLOT Editors from selected academic disciplines will highlight Exemplary Course Materials within their academic disciplines. MERLOT, well-known in the Open Education space now with over 20 years providing free, high-quality open education materials, has 24 unique academic discipline communities, ranging from Biology, to English, to Mathematics, to Professional Coaching, to Psychology, to Teacher Education, and many others. Unlike many OER tools, MERLOT was founded upon the principles of high quality peer review of learning materials, with the goal of making these exemplary materials as widely available to the world as possible.

In this hands-on Featured Session, MERLOT Editors from various academic disciplines will walk participants through demonstrations on location, bookmarking, and best-use scenarios of high quality, exemplary OER materials within their disciplines. Further, each MERLOT Editor presenting will share best practices unique to their academic discipline regarding adoption and/or creation of OERs within their disciplines, as well as additional discipline-specific OER recommendations.

Participants in this unique, hands-on Featured Session will be invited to follow along on their devices to view, bookmark, and assess content demonstrated during our session. Our Featured Session Agenda includes:

1. Brief review of OER landscape and MERLOT’s scope
2. Using MERLOT within the pedagogical disciplinary framework
3. Showcasing of Exemplary MERLOT materials by academic discipline
4. Final Take-aways and Questions and Answers with Attendees


All attendees will receive a helpful MERLOT take-away with additional recommendations on content location, bookmarking, and more.

Dr. Sherri Restauri

Faculty, Department of Psychology at Coastal Carolina University

Dr. Sherri Restauri is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Coastal Carolina University, where she teaches upper-level courses in Developmental Psychology, including special focus on Child Psychology, Adolescent Development, and Gerontology. In her role as a developmental psychologist, she advocates for enhanced understanding of short- and long-term impacts of trauma, as well as provides training and support to faculty, staff, and other professionals regarding a trauma-informed perspective in best supporting others. In addition to her role as a faculty member, Sherri previously served in Digital Learning administration in Higher Education for over 20 years, aiding universities in successfully launching and supporting successful digital learning as well as digital access and inclusion programs. Dr. Restauri received the 2021 OLC Gomory-Mayadas Leadership Award in Higher Education for her contributions and in recognition of her leadership in the online education community, including her work on digital equity, accessibility, and online best practices in teaching and learning. Serving now as a full-time educational consultant as well as a part-time faculty member, she is actively involved in assisting campuses and organizations across the globe with enhancing digital access, inclusion, and equity opportunities for learners of all ages, backgrounds, and neurotypes.

Gerry Hanley Ph.D.

Exec. Dir., MERLOT & SkillsCommons; Dir.: CUDA Lab at California State University-Long Beach

Gerry Hanley Ph.D. is the Executive Director of MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, www.merlot.org) and SkillsCommons (www.skillscommons.org) at California State University Long Beach.  At CSULB, Gerry is also the Director of the Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility and Professor Emeritus of Psychology. Gerry’s previous positions included Assistant Vice Chancellor & Senior Director for Academic Technology Services at the CSU Office of the Chancellor. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in Experimental/Cognitive Psychology.