Faculty members who are exploring the idea of open educational resources or who are already commited to switching to OER should take the time needed to properly evaluate any materials they are considering adopting for a course. When assessing OER, consider the resource's content, accessibility, accuracy, and its appropriateness for your course in addition to the Creative Commons license and the adaptability of the material.
Library staff highly recommend the following evaluation and quality guides:
- University of Maryland Global Campus OER Quality Guide
- Separates evaluation into three categories
- Compliance (Digital Rights Compliance and ADA Compliance)
- Content (Currency & Relevance, Credibility, Inclusivity, Engagement, and Contextualization)
- Technical Factors (User Experience)
- BC Open Education Librarians OER Repository Rubric
- Evaluates open educational resource repositories based on authority, audience, access & diversity, user-friendliness, subject coverage, search functionality & browsing, media type, and licensing & permissions.
- BC Campus Faculty Guide for Evaluating Open Education Resources
- Focuses on the following areas of evaluation: relevance, accuracy, production quality, accessibility, interactivity, and licensing.
- Achieve.org Rubrics for Evaluating Open Education Resource (OER) Objects
- Separates evaluation into the following rubrics, each focused on a different category
- Degree of Alignment to Standards
- Quality of Explanation of the Subject Matter
- Utility of Materials Designed to Support Teaching
- Quality of Assessment
- Quality of Technological Interactivity
- Quality of Instructional and Practice Exercises
- Opportunities for Deeper Learning
- Assurance of Accessibility
