Open Educational Resources (OER)

With so many freely available resources online, selecting appropriate OERs for your course can be overwhelming.

The checklist below contains some suggestions for faculty when choosing resources for use in the classroom.

□ Does the information directly address one or more of the class objectives? 

□ Is the information clear and understandable?  

□ Is the layout and interface easy to navigate?

□ Do the design features enhance learning?

□ For multimedia resources, is the quality of the audio, video, and/or graphics high?

□ Is the resource available in alternative formats (e.g. .doc or .odf)?

□ For audio or video resources, is a transcript or subtitles made availabe? 

□ The BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit is a great resource for evaluating accessibility

□ Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation?

□ If not, are you able to add these components to the resource?

□ Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material (e.g. a video with embedded questions, H5P activities, etc.)? 

□ Does the license allow for educational reuse of the materials? 

□ Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the materials?

□ If so, can you modify the resource to better fit the class objectives or encourage active learning?

□ Is the information accurate?

□ Are there major content errors or omissions?

□ Are there spelling errors or typos?

□ Has the material been peer reviewed?  

For further information see:

JISC. (2016). Open Educational Resources infoKit [wiki]. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/open-educational-resources/oer-evaluation

Shank, J. D. (2014). Interactive open educational resources: A guide to finding, choosing, and using what's out there to transform college teaching. Jossey-Bass. Link to ebook (University of Calgary subscription).

This guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) unless otherwise noted. Content adapted from work done by BC Campus, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, George Washington University and more.