Open Educational Resources (OER)

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 our page on Creative Commons Licenses in this guide or our Copyright guide.
• 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. Check out the Sample Rubric for Evaluating OER, adapted by the University of Texas Austin Libraries 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

Content in this guide page is derived from Open Educational Resources by The University of Texas Austin Libraries under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 Generic License