Consider the following factors when evaluating Open Education Resources for adoption or adaptation:
Adapted from Open Educational Resources: Selection Criteria & Evaluation of OER, Austin Community College.
Findings from the report demonstrated that quality assurance of OER and Open Educational Practices (OEP) requires a complex mix of quality tools. These tools enable many more users to be involved in quality processes, and for a greater variety of learning scenarios to be taken into account.
Achieve.org has developed eight OER rubrics as well as an evaluation tool to help users determine the degree of alignment of OER to the Common Core State Standards, and aspects of quality of OER.
This discussion gives an overview of the types of challenges encountered in reusing OER, and provides recommendations for institutions intending to participate more fully in reusing and repurposing these resources.
Accessible under a Creative Commons license.
This checklist from BC Campus contains some suggestions for faculty when choosing resources for use in the classroom.
Questions to ask about the OER you are thinking of using.
Think about the process you follow when reviewing textbooks and other materials for your course. You can then adopt a similar or a modified evaluation process. You may wish to consider the following questions and suggestions when evaluating OER:
Does this OER cover the content you'd like your students to learn in this module?
How accessible is this content? Is it too technical / robust and challenging enough for your students?
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 is for non-commercial purposes? Who do you have to acknowledge if you use it? Will you be able to do so?
Once you determine how you can use the OER, what would you like to do with it? Do you need only a portion of it for your class? You might want combine this OER with another OER or resource. Does the NUS library have access to materials that could act as supplemental materials?
As you collect more OER and other resources, save them in a central location. Take note of how you plan on using them based on the learning objectives and weekly lessons on your syllabus in order to identify gaps.
Adapted from: Open Educational Resources (OER): Evaluate OER, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.