Open Educational Resources

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                                                                                  Evaluation Process

You've found an OER for your course.  Congrats!  Here are a few steps you might take in the evaluation process.  If this process seems lengthy, think about the process you follow to review textbooks and other materials for your course.  You can use a similar or modified evaluation process.

1.  Does the OER cover the content you'd like your students to learn in this course or module?

2.  How accessible is the content?  Will it be accessible for your students, or is it too technical?  Or is it robust and challenging enough?

3.  How can you use the content?  Verify the license that the resource is under.  Can you remix or revise the OER as long as it isn't for commercial purposes?  What do you have to recognize if you use it?  Will you be able to do so?  For more help with this, please contact the Copyright Specialist.

4.  Once you determine how you can use the OER, what would you like to do with it?  Does only a portion of it apply to your class?  Would you possibly want to combine this OER with another OER resource?  Does the library have access to articles that could act as supplemental readings?

5.  As you collect more OER and other resources, save them in a central location.  Take note of how you envision using them.  Align these resources with the learning objectives and weekly lessons on your syllabus to identify gaps.

Source: Illinois Library

Other Quick Evaluation Criteria to Keep in Mind

Currency

• Is the resource up-to-date?
• Is it current enough for your topic?

Reliability

• Is the content of the resource primarily opinion?  Is it balanced?
• Does the creator provide references for sources of data?

Authority

• Who is the creator or author?
• What are the author's credentials?  Can you find any information about their background?

Purpose/Point of View

• Is the material fact or opinion?  Is it biased in any way?
• Does the author seem to be trying to push an agenda or particular side?

Licensing

• Does the license allow for educational reuse of the material?
• Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the resource?
• If so, can you modify the material to better fit the class objective?

Accessibility

• Is the resource available in alternative formats (printable pdf, etc)?
• For audio or video files, is there a transcript or subtitles?
• Is the layout and interface easy to navigate?

Adapted with gratitude from Molly Beestrum and University of Calgary

Evaluating Open Learning (The Open University)

Part of the "Creating Open Educational Resources" online module created by The Open University.

iRubric: Evaluating OER Rubric (Rcampus)

An online checklist of questions to ask about the OER you are considering.

OER Accessibility Toolkit (University of British Columbia)

"The goal of the OER Toolkit is to provide the resources needed to each creator, instructor, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, and teaching assistant to create a truly open and accessible educational resource."

Unless otherwise noted, MHC's OER website is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.