This NSDL Services project is improving the discoverability of course materials that institutions are placing in "opencourseware" repositories. Three primary tasks are: to enable federated searching across distributed institutional sites, to develop a portal to these repositories, and to facilitate harvesting of metadata and course materials by the NSDL. The intellectual merit of the project lies in its provision not only of a source of new, high quality STEM educational materials for the NSDL, but more importantly the context to increase the usability of the materials that already exist in the NSDL. "Opencourseware" repositories offer a familiar structure and context for higher education; organized by discipline areas or departments and courses, and providing artifacts such as syllabi, lecture notes, etc. The broader impacts of the project extend to faculty and students at all colleges and universities in the United States, since the resources and structure found in existing repositories are comparable across the United States. Linking courses to existing digital learning resources in the NSDL and educational digital libraries further extends the reach of current "opencourseware" repositories (and vice versa).
