OER (Open Educational Resources) Librarian/ Associate Professor
Maria Taylor
she/her
Contact:
Office: Hutchins Library 221
CPO LIB
Hutchins Library
Berea College
Berea, KY 40404
CPO LIB
Hutchins Library
Berea College
Berea, KY 40404
859.985.3276
Website
Attribution
This page was adapted from "Open Educational Resources (OER)" by Abbey Elder which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Evaluating OER Quality
You should assess OER like you would any other materials you might be considering for use in your course. For example:
- Does the material cover the subjects you teach?
- Is the content accurate and free of major errors and spelling mistakes?
- Is it clearly written and at a level appropriate for your students?
- Is the material accessible, with alternative text for all images and captions on videos?
In addition to these typical review processes, for OER you can also consider:
- How much effort would it take for me to take this content from an 8/10 to a 10/10? If the answer is "not much," it may be worthwhile to adopt the resource now and adapt it to meet your course's needs over time.
Examples of rubrics for evaluating OER are available below:
- OER Selection Criteria (Affordable Learning Georgia)This set of criteria are intended to assist faculty and departments in evaluating the instructional quality of existing and newly-created open textbooks and open ancillary materials.
- Open Textbook Network Review RubricThis is the review rubric that is used in the Open Textbook Network's Library, developed by BCcampus.
- Faculty Guide for Evaluating OER [pdf]Developed by BCCampus OpenEd Resources (BCOER), this document provides a checklist of traits to look out for in OER.
- Achieve's Rubrics for Evaluating OER [pdf]Achieve.org has developed a rubric with 8 core principles found in high quality OER.
Evaluating Accessibility
Besides their general quality, the accessibility of OER is also an important factor to consider, especially in light of the online nature of most OER. Information about creating and evaluating the accessibility of OER is listed below.
- OER Accessibility ToolkitThe goal of the Accessibility Toolkit is to provide the resources needed so that each content creator, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, teaching assistant, etc. has the opportunity to create a truly open and accessible textbook.
- The Web Accessibility InitiativeThis page from the Web Accessibility Initiative provides information about creating and hosting accessible content online.
- WebAim: WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation ToolThis tool provides accessibility information for specific webpages. Paste a URL to see how accessible the website is, based on WebAim's ratings.
