Open Educational Resources

You'll likely find it useful to evaluate OER based on the same standards you use to evaluate other course materials. Here are a few criteria to consider:

• Content: Does this OER cover what you'd like your students to learn in the course?
• Accessibility: Is the content and reading level at the right level for your students? Is it challenging enough? Is the level of technicality appropriate for your course?
• Use: Is the license open? Can you share, reuse, and remix the content freely? For more information on copyright and licensing, check out the Copyright Crash Course. 
• Quality: Is the OER peer reviewed? Can you read reviews from other instructors who teach courses like yours? Are errors corrected or noted?
• Format: Does the material come in a format your students can access easily? Is special software required? Can the material be printed or purchased in print at a low cost? 

Several rubrics exist for systematically evaluating OER. We recommend the Sample Rubric for Evaluating OER which we adapted from the DigiTex Checklist for Evaluating OER (CC BY 4.0). 

A few other general rubrics include:

• Achieve Rubrics for Evaluating OER Objects
• iRubric

You can also use these rubrics to evaluate accessibility in greater depth:

• Affordable Learning Georgia OER Accessibility Evaluation Rubric
• BCcampus Open Education Accessibility Toolkit Checklist