Checklist for Evaluating Open Educational Resources (OER)
UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)
UNESCO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS REGARDING OPEN EDUCATION
What does Mason OER Metafinder search?
Open Educational Resources Starter Pack
Overview
This Open Educational Resource (OER) manual instructs educators on how to begin creating OERs. It includes an overview of OERs, their alignment with UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals, their definition, creation, discovery and evaluation, accessibility, licencing, hosting and production, metadata, and OER hosting and curation.
What are Open Educational Resources?
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are versatile materials that have open licenses enabling others to access, retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute freely. A video, an entire course, or an open textbook can be one of these. But they can be anything and everything! Besides their numerous educational and cost-saving advantages, OERs play a crucial role in promoting social justice, equity in learning, and advancing universal knowledge. The UNESCO recommendation on OERs is crucial to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the spread of global knowledge.
"OER is sharing" by Giulia Forsythe is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
"Open Educational Resources concept: What is an OER?" by UNESCO is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“UNESCO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS FOR OPEN EDUCATION” by Kirstine McDermid is licensed under CC BY 4.0. It is an adaptation of “Sustainable Development Goals Infographics" by UNESCO licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Develop your OER
Evaluate the content you already possess. Whether you want to start from scratch or have something already from your teaching that would be ideal for an OER, there are many options available to you. If your students are struggling with a topic that isn’t addressed in the other readings you’ve assigned or something new has come to light, it may be time to create some additional OERs. Consider expanding your focus beyond your current students. How could releasing high quality content reach and benefit others? Don't forget, you have the ability to remix and collaborate on existing OERs with educators worldwide!
"Creating Open Educational Resources: Tips for New Creators" by Abbey Elder is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Accessibility
Ensure your OER complies with international and institutional guidelines for accessibility and employs Universal Design for Learning. OERs should aim to reduce barriers, so that all learners can be included regardless of race, disability, health or geographic location. Likewise, content must be considered. Are there any visual or textual materials that reinforce prejudices or convey negative connotations? Do populations have equitable representation?
"The BCcampus Open Education Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition" by Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
Finding & Evaluating OERs
OERs can be found for use in your curriculum, as references in your reading lists, or to customise and create unique OERs.
You can search these well-known repositories:
A Google Advanced search can be conducted to refine results by "usage rights".
Mason OER Metafinder enables cross-searching of multiple OER platforms at once.
Assessing the quality of OERs is essential. Verify the content and accuracy of the OER, considering multiple perspectives. Remember to assess accessibility and production quality standards.
"Checklist for Evaluating Open Educational Resources (OER) by Kirstine McDermid is licensed under CC BY 4.0 It is an adaptation of "Checklist for Evaluating Open Educational Resources (OER)" by ACC Office of Instructional & Faculty Development licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Check Permissions, Attributions and Licencing
Ensure you have checked permissions and attributions for third-party content, including all creator attributions and license information. Select the appropriate Creative Commons licence so that the conditions under which users may utilise the OER are clearly displayed. It is imperative to ensure that the licence associated with the adapted content is compatible with the final OER. To enable maximum remixing and reuse, it is recommended to use CC BY for OERs.
"License Compatibility Chart" by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
"Creating OER and Combining Licenses" by TheOGRepository is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Find an OER Platform
Check out OER Commons, MERLOT, OERu, or GitHub as potential platforms for creating/hosting your OER.
Share your OER
Maximise the discoverability of your OER. The presence of specific metadata enables easier discovery of OERs. Tags and descriptions can be added to OER platforms (a collection of specific keywords). Describing your content correctly boosts its visibility in search results.
"OER" by Catherine Cronin is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.