13 Evaluating OER

Quality Assessment

As you search for OER, you will likely be evaluating each item you come across. You may be able to immediately disregard materials because they have irrelevant content, are inappropriate for your audience’s knowledge/skill level, do not provide thorough enough explanation of the concept you’re targeting, etc. Some features stand out as obviously high quality, while others obviously fall short. This chapter gives some insight about specific features to evaluate to determine if the OER material is right for the purpose and audience you need to address. As you’re searching, you can keep in mind at least these criteria: clarity, accuracy, adaptability, intended audience, accessibility, and additional included materials.

Here are some other strategies to focus on quality:

• Use established OER repositories with peer-review processes (e.g., OER Commons, MERLOT).
• Apply quality rubrics such as Achieve OER Rubrics, BCcampus’ Open Textbook Review Criteria, or Affordable Learning Georgia’s Open Textbook and Ancillary Materials Selection Criteria.

Evaluation Criteria

Let’s explore our evaluation criteria in detail. You can download the Evaluating OER Checklist in Google Docs, which is a modified version of the list below.

Diving Deeper into Accessibility

Accessibility is a key feature of open educational resources, and evaluating for accessibility and making accessible content is time well spent. If students can’t access a course material, it’s not serving the purpose you intend. Additionally, offering accessible resources is useful for everyone, including those who prefer to read captions instead of listen to a video or who prefer to use a screen reader on a text rather than read it. While this may be a need for some, it is also a preference for others. Delivering accessible content means more student engagement with your course materials. For a deeper dive into resources geared toward helping educators meet the needs of their diverse students, check out these helpful sites:

• Accessibility at UCF explores how you can create more equitable experiences as an instructor, a student, a content creator, a developer, a planner, and a technology adopter. There are resources to learn more about supporting accessibility, so this is a great first place to start as it’s focused on our own UCF community.
• OER Accessibility Toolkit, which provides key concepts and best practices for making content, links, images, tables, videos, font, color, formulas, and files accessible. It also include a great Checklist for OER Accessibility.

Considering Diverse Learners and Perspectives in OER

OER has the benefit of allowing students to see themselves in the educational content. If students feel excluded or don’t see themselves as part of the learning community, they’re less likely to engage with it. Thus, OER strives to reflect the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of all learners.

By considering these, and certainly other, factors, you’re positioning your students to be part of the learning community. They are more likely to engage with the materials and others when they feel a sense of belonging. The concept of openness requires all students, regardless of their backgrounds or abilities, have the opportunity to be present, to be heard, and to succeed.