Open Educational Resources (OER)

The responsibility for assuring the quality of OER used in teaching and learning environments generally reside with the institution, course coordinators, and individual educators. 

Here are a few tips you may consider in the evaluation procedure. If it seems lengthy, you may consider the general procedure you follow to review textbooks and other materials for your course. 

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

Some open textbook providers, such as the Open Textbook Library and OpenStax, make their materials available for peer review, and publish those reviews together with the textbook itself. Faculty should look for the reviews when evaluating open textbooks, or make judgement after reading through the open textbook. 

Rubrics for Evaluating OER

While your criteria and subject expertise will be important in OER evaluation, below are links to rubrics that will help you evaluate OER: 

• Open Textbooks Review Criteria
• Faculty Guide for Evaluating OER