Factors To Consider When Selecting An OER
QUALITY OF OER IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE ADOPTION BARRIERS
As with critically evaluating other scholarly resources, you need to consider the 5W + 1H (who, what, when, where, why, how ) and relevance of an OER. In addition, you can:
- Use a reputable platform to search for OER that have been (peer) reviewed
For example, OER Review Criteria (by Open Textbook Library): Comprehensiveness, Content accuracy, Relevance Longevity, Clarity, Consistency, Modularity, Organization Structure Flow, Interface, Grammatical errors, Cultural relevance. - When available, read other instructors' comments and/or recommendations for an OER
- Pinpoint the requirements of you specific teaching and learning contexts and preferences
For example: How flexible do you need to modify the content? Do you need assignments, quizzes, and/or interactive assessment modules? Which platform is most convenient to incorporate into your learning management systems.
READ MORE
- OER Evaluation Checklist by Sarah Crissigner
- [Summarized] Rubrics for Evaluating Open Education Resources Objects
- Summarized version of Achieve's OER Rubrics by Rodney Birch of George Fox University
Resources For Finding OER
GENERAL SEARCH
- OER CommonsFind a wide variety of open resources, mostly in bite-size chunks for easy collection and remixing. Created by Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, supported in part by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
- OASIS - OER search engine by SUNY GeneseoGathered more than 155,000+ records from 52 different sources that have been carefully selected in collaboration with SUNY OER Services. Some of the features of OASIS include the ability to limit search results by license, type, subject, source, and reviews available. Through OASIS, you can also suggest new sources to be added to the catalog and/or share items of interest through email.
OPEN textbook search
- Open Textbook Library This link opens in a new window
These textbooks have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality and cover a myriad of topics. - OpenStax This link opens in a new window
OpenStax is a textbook platform that has been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. Textbooks cover subject areas such as STEM, social sciences, and humanities.
- College Open TextbooksOrganized by subject and with faculty reviews. A collection of colleges, governmental agencies, education non-profits, and other education-related organizations that are focused on the mission of driving awareness, adoptions, and affordability of open textbooks. Hosted by a consortia of twenty-nine educational non-profit and for-profit organizations
- Open SUNY TextbooksState University of New York's open textbook publishing initiative repository. supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants.
- BCcampus OpenEdA repository of open textbooks, peer reviewed and adapted by faculty in British Columbia, Canada. Can be browsed by subjects.
- Textbook RevolutionA student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials by teachers and professors. Pay attention to the license status of the book found here. Many of them may not be openly licensed.
- ASEE Listing of Open TextbooksThe American Society of Engineering Educators has created this guide to help you find open textbooks in engineering disciplines.
COMPLETE COURSES
Modular course components
- MERLOT This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
A curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.
- LiveCartaRemix OER and commercial publications to create a custom course pack that includes only the items students need.
- OpenStax CNX (Originally Connexions)"a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc." Can also host your original content.
MOOCS (MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES) PLATFORMS
PLATFORM WITH COURSES FOR FREE
- Khan AcademyThousand of videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history. Also, includes skills to practice.
Platform with options for learning for free or paid credits/certificates
Open Textbook Highlights
- Samizdat PressIncludes books and lecture notes on seismology, inverse theory, programming, etc.
Search the Library's eBook Collection
Although not necessarily an OER solution, one option is to use eBooks the Library subscribes to lower the textbook cost.
Discipline-specific OER
- Discipline-specific OER tab of Univ of Oklahoma Guide pageDetailed list and recommendation for science, engineering and other disciplines, including open textbooks.
Search Engines for OER and Open Courseware
- Open Education Consortium Searchyields results from the integrated database of the Open Education Consortium and MERLOT.
- Semantic Course Search (Serendipity)Scope not clearly defined and results are mixed types of OER. May take time to sort through.
- Creative Commons Search - OERHow to use search engines to search for creative commons licensed material.
Open Text Resources
The open text resources and open access journal publications can be used as teaching materials but will require instructors' guidance and designing to be introduced into classrooms.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
The HathiTrust Digital Library brings together the immense collections of partner institutions in digital form, preserving them for future generations. You can search and access fully viewable materials in HathiTrust and download materials where there are no third-party restrictions or are in the public domain. - National Science Digital Library (NSDL) This link opens in a new window
The National Science Digital Library provides online educational resources for teaching and learning. Most resources in the library adhere to principles of Open Educational Resource (OER) access, although some resources are restricted to provider site membership, or may have a cost associated with them (indicated in the full record of the resource).
This page reused content from UIUC Library's Guide on OER.