Introduction
Like other resources used in your teaching, OER will need to be evaluated to ensure they are suitable to use. Aspects you may need to consider could include:
- Suitability: Does it align with course or program learning outcomes?
- Licensing: Is the OER licensed for educational reuse, revision, remix or redistribution?
- Quality: Who is the creator? Are they reputable? Is the content accurate and up-to-date?
- Ease of use: Is the OER easy to use, accessible and available in alternative formats to assist a wide variety of learning preferences?
Evaluating OER
You will need to use the same criteria you use to evaluate all your course materials to ensure the suitability of OER for use in your courses. There are also a few additional criteria to think about when selecting OER. 3 things you may want to consider are:
- Quality
- Accessibility
- Copyright
Click on each of the criteria in the image below for more information.
Adapted from "Open Education Resources - Evaluate OERs" from NSU Florida.
Evaluate OER for equity
The following resources will help you evaluate OER for inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility.
- BranchED Equity Rubric for OER EvaluationUse the BranchEd Equity Rubric for OER Evaluation to evaluate the OER you are using for equity. This rubric will help you evaluate across 4 dimensions of equity: Learner-Centred, Critical, Culturally Sustaining, and Universally Designed for Learning (UDL).
- EmpoweredOERA site created to help open education practitioners understand the various aspects of inclusive OER and how to apply these principles in practice. EmpoweredOER uses the BranchED Equity Rubric as a framework to provide a set of resources, concrete examples, and guides curated to the Australian context.
Do I need to attribute OER?
You should acknowledge all third-party material you use, even if it is openly licensed.
Often sources will provide a suggested attribution you can use. If not, the links below contain all the information you need.
- How to attribute Creative Commons licensed materials
Detailed instructions from the Creative Commons website. This site also contains information on how to acknowledge work you have remixed or built upon - Copyright: Creative Commons and Attribution
This short video (5 min 23 sec) provides an overview of Creative Commons licences and why you need to attribute all third-party content you use
OER checklist
Use this simple checklist, produced by The University of Queensland Library, to quickly decide whether the OER is appropriate for your purposes. OERs will need to be referenced like any other source of information.
| Checklist | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed for open use | ||
| CC license that allows for educational reuse | ||
| CC license allows for modification and adaption | ||
| Public domain | ||
| Suitability | ||
| Aligned with course objectives | ||
| Appropriately current | ||
| Suitable for your students' level | ||
| Quality | ||
| Creator is identified | ||
| Creator is reputable | ||
| Accurate content | ||
| Audio, video, images are of high quality | ||
| Ease of use | ||
| Clear and easy to understand | ||
| Interface easy to navigate | ||
| Accessibility | ||
| Audio and video resources have a transcript or subtitles | ||
| Alternative formats are available if required (as Word document or PDF) |
- OER evaluation checklist (docx,15KB) - Downloadable version of the checklist
The Open educational resources (OER) guide by the University of Queensland Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.