7 Mapping OER to Course Learning Objectives

Step 2: Mapping OER to Course Learning Objectives

Mapping OER to your course learning objectives ensures that your selected materials align with your educational goals and enhance the learning experience. Here’s a structured approach to this process:

Define and Refine Your Learning Objectives: Start by defining clear learning objectives using tools like the Objective Builder Tool from the University of Central Florida’s Center for Distributed Learning. Break down each objective into specific skills or knowledge areas to identify suitable OER.

Align OER with Objectives: Find OER that supports each objective by examining the type of content that best meets your goals. Evaluate whether the OER directly supports the learning objectives and fits seamlessly into your course structure.

Evaluate Quality and Relevance: Critically assess the quality and relevance of the OER. Ensure the content is accurate, up-to-date, peer-reviewed, and created by reputable sources. Check if the OER can be modified to better fit your course needs.

Integrate OER into Course Structure: Determine how each OER fits within the course timeline and complements other materials and activities. Ensure a logical flow and interaction that supports learning outcomes.

Gather Feedback and Revise: Collect feedback from students on the effectiveness of the OER in achieving learning objectives. Use surveys or discussion boards to gather insights and make necessary adjustments to the resources and course materials.

For example, let’s say you’re teaching an online college composition course, and you feel that your course is lacking instructional materials.

• You see students struggling to meet a learning outcome, so you want to provide more support. A main learning objective of the course is that students are able to produce writing that demonstrates their ability to navigate choices and constraints when writing for specific audiences, genres, and purposes. However, you see many students struggling to produce writing for an academic audience with an argumentative purpose.
• To better guide students, you look for an OER item to add to your online course. You want students to be able to craft a thesis statement to better form a specific argument geared toward an academic audience.
• The OER item you decide to look for is an explanation of writing a clear, narrow thesis statement. A resource explaining this learning objective will better help students reach the outcome of producing writing for a specific audience, genre, and purpose.
• You can use the chapter in Guide 3: Locating OER to further help you find the material you’re looking for.

After you’ve found the perfect OER material to suit your need, you’ll consider how to integrate into your course plan and into the actual Webcourse and how helpful your students found the material to be.