Geography Research Guide

1. Open Educational Resources (OER)

• OER Commons: A comprehensive digital library of open educational resources, including textbooks and course materials.
• OpenStax: Offers free, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks, including ones on geography.

2. Online Courses and Lectures

• Coursera: Offers free access to many courses on geography and related subjects. While full access might require payment, auditing courses is often free.
• edX: Similar to Coursera, with free access to lectures from universities worldwide.
• Khan Academy: Offers a variety of geography topics in a simple, easy-to-understand format.

3. Maps and Spatial Data

• Google Earth: Provides detailed satellite imagery and geographic data.
• OpenStreetMap: A collaborative project to create a free, editable map of the world.
• USGS Earth Explorer: Offers access to a vast amount of satellite imagery and aerial photography.

4. Geography Journals and Articles

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): Contains free, full-text, quality-controlled scientific and scholarly journals, including those focused on geography.
• Google Scholar: A freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across various formats.

5. Interactive Learning Tools

• National Geographic Education: Offers educational resources, including maps, articles, and multimedia content.
• ArcGIS Online: Provides free access to geographic information system (GIS) tools for creating and analyzing maps.

6. Geography Blogs and Websites

• Geography Education: A blog by Seth Dixon that provides resources, lesson plans, and current events in geography.
• Geographical Association: Offers a range of resources, including lesson ideas and professional development materials.

7. Virtual Field Trips and Simulations

• Google Arts & Culture: Offers virtual tours of museums and world heritage sites.
• National Parks Virtual Tours: Explore U.S. national parks through interactive tours.

8. Geospatial Data and Analysis Tools

• QGIS: A free and open-source geographic information system that allows users to create, edit, visualize, and analyze geospatial data.
• Earthdata by NASA: Provides access to NASA's Earth science data and tools for data analysis.

9. Government and Institutional Resources

• CIA World Factbook: Offers comprehensive data and maps of every country.
• United Nations Geospatial Information Section: Provides maps and geospatial information from the UN.