OER Standards Criteria for Evaluation_pdf
Open Textbooks OER Standards
Open Textbooks OER Standards PDF Version
Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona - OER Standards
Overview
The purpose of these standards is to guide faculty who are designing OER for the Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona Project, and they can be used for both a formal and/or informal review. The document includes 7 sections:
Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona Grant Requirements
Quality
Appropriateness & Alignment
Technical
OER Review
Supplemental or Ancillary Materials
Criteria for Evaluation (for any standard using a 1-5 rating scale)
Overview
The purpose of these standards is to guide faculty who are designing OER for the Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona Project, and they can be used for both a formal and/or informal review. The document includes 7 sections:
Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona Grant Requirements
Quality
Appropriateness & Alignment
Technical
OER Review
Supplemental or Ancillary Materials
Criteria for Evaluation (for any standard using a 1-5 rating scale)
This checklist of OER textbook standards is a remix of:
- B.C. Open Textbooks Review Rubric [Word file] (CC BY 4.0 International License.) Accessed https://open.bccampus.ca/use-open-textbooks/review-an-open-textbook/
- Checklist for Evaluating Open Educational Resources (OER) by Texas State University Libraries is licensed under CC BY 4.0. accessed https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/12236
- The Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG) Quality Standards for Open Educational Resources (OER) by University System of Georgian (USG) under an attribution of 4.0 International License CC BY. Accessed https://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/find_textbooks/selecting_textbooks
Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona Grant Requirements
Licensing
OER content is CC-BY or CC-BY NC or Public Domain Licensing. | Y N |
|---|
Accessibility
Content meets general accessibility standards Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Level AA. The consoritum has prepared guidelines and a checklist to support this process. | Y N |
Shareability
The content can meaningfully and efficiently be combined or assembled with other materials. | Y N |
|---|---|
The learning object does not require specialized skills or software to read/remix. | Y N |
Quality
Currency & Logevity
The OER content is up to date but does not present information that will become obsolete quickly. | 1 2 3 4 5 |
The OER content reflects significant, topical, and recent scholarship in terms of the subject matter. | 1 2 3 4 5 |
Clarity & Accuracy
The OER content is well-written and contains no grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors. | 1 2 3 4 5 |
The OER content information is factual and verifiable via other external sources. | 1 2 3 4 5 |
The OER content is understandable and does not need to be augmented with additional explanation or material. | 1 2 3 4 5 |
Comprehensiveness
The OER content scope covers all areas necessary for a particular college course or set of courses or specific course learning outcomes or module/unit learning objectives. | Y N |
Readability
The OER content is understandable for the target higher education students. | Y N |
The OER provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology. | Y N |
The OER content contains clear instructions explaining how students and instructors are expected to use the content. | Y N |
Source Transparency & Attributions & Copyrighted Materials
OER content cites references and sources appropriately. | Y N |
OER content contains appropriate attributions for openly licensed content that you share or adapt. | Y N |
OER content links out to all copyrighted content. | Y N |
Refer to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare for all other copyright content that falls under Educational Fair Use. | Y N |
Pedagogical Methods
The OER content includes multiple modalities (e.g., graphics, tables, and information other than text) to support student learning. | Y N |
The OER content promotes active learning, class participation, and/or collaboration. | Y N |
Organization & Format
The OER content provides an effective index or glossary, table of contents, or content outline when appropriate. | Y N |
OER content reflects a sound organizational structure and approach. | Y N |
Appropriatness & Alignment
Alignment
The OER content is appropriate for the course level. | Y N |
The OER content clearly states student learning outcomes or unit/module learning objectives and demonstrates alignment. | Y N |
Any relationships between the use of the OER course, textbook, and/or ancillary OER is clearly explained. | Y N |
The OER content can be applied in some way that aids a learner’s understanding. | Y N |
The OER content facilitates the use of a mix of instructional approaches, if it is a larger object, like a unit. | Y N |
OER assessments clearly describe how the assessment is scored using either a grading rubric or other scoring system. | Y N |
Cultural Relevance & Sensitivity
The OER content is free of insensitivity or cultural stereotypes within the context of the subject matter. | Y N |
The OER reflects diversity and inclusion regarding culture, gender, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability sexual orientation, education, and religion whenever possible, considering the context of the subject. | Y N N/A |
Technical
Modularity & Adaptability
The text is easily and readily divisible into meaningful, smaller sections that can be reorganized. | Y N |
The text is free of significant self-reference or interface issues, including navigation, that may disrupt if content sequence is modified. | Y N |
Technical Quality
The image resolution and sound quality are up to current standards for target viewing devices (e.g., mobile devices). | Y N |
The interface and design are easy to navigate. | Y N |
OER Review
OER content has been reviewed by Instructional Designers, Librarians, and/or Subject Matter experts through an OER review process. | Y N |
Supplemental or Ancillary Materials
OER content that includes supporting resources such as study guides, labs, simulations, self-practice or assessment activities also meet these OER standards. | 1 2 3 4 5 |
Criteria for Evaluation
Note: The consortium recognizes that these are all guidelines, and there will be exceptions to each item depending on the content.
The OER content is up to date but does not present information that will become obsolete quickly.
The OER content is up to date but does not present information that will become obsolete quickly.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
OER content >10 years old OER information is out-of-date for the topic | OER content is about 7-10 years old OER information is somewhat up-to-date for the topic | OER content is between 5-7 years old OER information is up-to-date for the topic | OER content between 2-5 years old OER information is up-to-date for the topic If appropriate, the OER content has been revised | OER content <2 years old OER information is up-to-date for the topic If appropriate, the OER content has also been recently revised |
The OER content reflects significant, topical, and recent scholarship in terms of the subject matter.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
OER content is not significant, topical, or representative of recent scholarship in terms of the subject matter. | Most OER content does not reflect significant, topical, or recent scholarship in terms of the subject matter. | OER content more or less reflects significant, topical, and representative of recent scholarship in terms of the subject matter. | OER content is likely to reflect significant, topical, and representative of recent scholarship in terms of the subject matter. | OER content reflects highly significant, topical, and recent scholarship in terms of the subject matter. |
The OER content is well-written and contains no grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
OER content is riddled with >10 grammar, spelling, and typographical errors that distract the audience. | OER content has 5-10 grammar, spelling, or typographical errors that are distracting to the audience. | OER content has 3-5 grammar, spelling, or typographical errors that are somewhat distracting to the audience. | OER content has between 1-3 grammar, spelling, or typographical errors that are not distracting to the audience. | OER content has no grammar, spelling, or typographical errors. |
The OER content information is factual and verifiable via other external sources.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
OER content is neither factual nor verifiable via other external reputable sources. | OER content is not likely to be factual and verifiable via other external reputable sources. | OER content is more or less factual and verifiable via other external reputable sources. | OER content is mostly factual and verifiable via other external reputable sources. | OER content is highly factual and verifiable via other external reputable sources. It has also been peer reviewed or refereed. |
The OER content is presented with clarity and requires little to no additional explanation.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
OER content is unclear and requires significant additional explanation. | OER content is not presented with clarity and requires additional explanation or material. | OER content is somewhat presented with clarity and requires little to no additional explanation. | OER content is mostly presented with clarity and requires little to no additional explanation. | OER content is presented with clarity and requires little to no additional explanation. |
OER content that includes supporting resources such as study guides, labs, simulations, self-practice or assessment activities also meet these OER standards.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
OER content does not include supporting resources such as study guides, labs, simulations, self-practice or assessment activities. | OER content includes <2 supporting resources such as guides, labs, simulations, self-practice, or assessment activities, but not all of them meet these OER standards. | OER content includes 2-3 supporting resources such as guides, labs, simulations, self-practice, or assessment activities, and a majority of them meet these OER standards. | OER content includes several 4-5 supporting resources such as study guides, labs, simulations, self-practice or assessment activities that also meet these OER standards. | OER content includes numerous >5 supporting resources such as study guides, labs, simulations, self-practice or assessment activities that also meet these OER standards. |