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OER Toolkit: Evaluate

Evaluating

Evaluation checklists and tools 

Accessibility 

Here are a few steps you might take in the evaluation process. If this process seems lengthy, think about the process you follow to review textbooks and other materials for your course. You can use a similar or modified evaluation process.

  1. That the content under consideration covers the subject area appropriately
  2. That the content of the OER is accurate and free of major errors and spelling mistakes
  3. That the license of the content can be used or altered for the course's needs
  4. That the OER is clearly written and appropriate for the students' level of understanding
  5. That the accessibility of the content is appropriate for all students

Examples of rubrics for evaluating OER are available below:

This set of criteria are intended to assist faculty and departments in evaluating the instructional quality of existing and newly-created open textbooks and open ancillary materials.

This is the review rubric that is used in the Open Textbook Network's Library, developed by BCcampus.

Developed by BCCampus OpenEd Resources (BCOER), this document provides a checklist of traits to look out for in OER.

Achieve.org has developed a rubric with 8 core principles found in high quality OER.

Accessibility

Besides their general quality, the accessibility of OER is also an important factor to consider, especially in light of the online nature of most OER. Information about creating and evaluating the accessibility of OER is listed below. 

The goal of the Accessibility Toolkit is to provide the resources needed so that each content creator, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, teaching assistant, etc. has the opportunity to create a truly open and accessible textbook.

This page from the Web Accessibility Initiative provides information about creating and hosting accessible content online.

This tool provides accessibility information for specific webpages. Paste a URL to see how accessible the website is, based on WebAim's ratings.

Evaluation Process

Here are a few steps you might take in the evaluation process. If this process seems lengthy, think about the process you follow to review textbooks and other materials for your course. You can use a similar or modified evaluation process.

  1. Does this OER cover the content you'd like your students to learn in this course or module?
  2. How accessible is this content? Will it be accessible for your students, or is it too technical? Or is it robust and challenging enough for your students?
  3. 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 isn't for commercial purposes? Who do you have to recognize if you use it? Will you be able to do so? For more help with this, please contact the library.
  4. Once you determine how you can use the OER, what would you like to do with it? Does only a portion of it apply to your class? Would you possibly want to combine this OER with another OER or resource? Does the library have access to articles that could act as supplemental readings? 
  5. As you collect more OER and other resources, save them in a central location. Take note of how you envision using them. Align these resources with the learning objectives and weekly lessons on your syllabus in order to identify gaps. 

Evaluation Rubrics, Checklist and Tool

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 11-page rubric is a synthesis version of the eight (8) separate rubrics for the evaluation of OERs created by ACHIEVE.org. It is meant as a ready reference for quick evaluation of an OER.
Credit: Created and shared by Rodney Birch of George Fox University

This handbook will guide a user through the process of evaluating an online resources using Achieve OER Evaluation Tool, which is hosted on OERCommons.org.

Questions to ask about the OER you are thinking of using. This rubric is developed by Sarah Morehouse with help from Mark McBride, Kathleen Stone, and Beth Burns is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.