Adoption Principles 1: Review The Materials

You’re a postsecondary teacher designing a course for learners and found the perfect OER for your program. However, you’re not sure where to begin. “How do I adopt an OER?”

Good news – Librarians from the Open Library are here to help you get started! Read on to discover how to review OER.

What is an OER – and what are the benefits of adoption?

An OER is an open educational resource that centers around educational material that can come in many different formats. The range of subject and type of OER’s can be viewed in the open library catalogue.

Using an OER for your courses is a great way to provide resources for your students that saves them money, but also allows an educator the ability to adapt the content to fit a specific course structure. From this adoption impact dashboard, you can clearly see the amount of student savings that have been achieved over the years.

So, what you can do with an OER? It consists of the 5 R’s as defined by David Wiley.

The 5 R’s of OER:

Retain – make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep your own copy)

Revise – edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language)

Remix – combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)

Reuse – use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class)

Redistribute – share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend)

Knowing how you can use an OER is the first step in choosing an OER. The next step is assessing if a specific OER is right for your needs in your pedagogical endeavors. There are several checklists and evaluations available to help you select an OER. The one that is highlighted below is from BCOER, a group of librarians who focus on open education. Many postsecondary institutions have created their own frameworks as well. Your institution may already have a framework you can use to assess the quality of potential OER’s. A few examples have been added in the attribution list below.

BCOER Librarians’ “Faculty Guide for Evaluating Open Education Resources”:

Accuracy

Is the information accurate?

Are there major content errors or omissions?

Are there spelling errors or typos?

Relevance

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

Production Quality

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 media (i.e., sound or video) quality high?

Accessibility

Is the resource available in alternative formats?

For audio or video resources, is there a transcript or subtitles?

Interactivity

Does the resource encourage active learning and class participation?

Are there opportunities for students to test their understanding of the material?

Licensing

Does the license allow for educational reuse of the materials?

Does the license allow modifications or adaptations of the materials?

For more information and support on OER adoption, please contact The Open Library at open@ecampusontario.ca

Attributions

Defining the “Open” in Open Content and Open Educational Resources – improving learning By David Wiley licensed under CC BY 4.0

10.2 Open educational resources (OER) – Teaching in a Digital Age (opentextbc.ca) By Anthony William Bates licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

The Access Compromise and the 5th R – improving learning (opencontent.org) By David Wiley licensed under CC BY 4.0

Evaluate OERs – Open Educational Resources – Guides at Mount Saint Vincent University (msvu.ca) By Mount Saint Vincent University Library and Archives licensed under CC BY 4.0 the rubric is licensed under a CC BY 3.0 license. It is a derivative of the Peer Review criteria used by Saylor.org, which is a derivative of the College Open Textbooks rubric, available at http://collegeopentextbooks.ning.com/page/review-2.

Start Evaluating – Concordia University By Concordia University licensed under CC BY 4.0

Faculty Guide for Evaluating Open Education Resources By BCOER Librarians licensed under CC BY 4.0

Mastering Open Ed: Licensing, Accessibility, Creation, and Publishing OER Copyright © 2023 by eCampusOntario is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Impact – Open Library – eCampusOntario By eCampusOntario licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0