8 Key Factors to Consider When Assessing Open Educational Resources (OER) for Your Curriculum

Open Educational Resources (OER) have become a popular alternative to traditional educational materials due to their affordability, flexibility, and accessibility. However, it’s important to assess and evaluate the quality of OER before incorporating them into your curriculum. In this post, we’ll discuss eight key factors that should be considered when assessing OER.

1. Accuracy: The accuracy of information provided in an OER is crucial for effective learning outcomes. Check the source of information used in the material for reliability and credibility.

2. Currency: Ensure that the content is up-to-date and reflects current practices by checking when the resource was last updated.

3. Relevance: Consider how relevant the content is to your specific curriculum or lesson plan goals.

4. Appropriateness: Determine if the language tone, reading level or images used are suitable for your intended audience – whether they are young learners or adults.

5. Usability: Evaluate if there are any technical difficulties such as downloading issues or compatibility problems with different devices in accessing resources on various platforms like LMSs (Learning management systems).

6. Interactivity: Assess if there are interactive features like quizzes, simulations or games that can enhance engagement while providing instant feedback about student progress.

7. Accessibility & Diversity : Check if accessibility features such as closed captioning, audio descriptions, text-to-speech support are included which help students with disabilities learn better while accommodating diverse learning styles and preferences

8. Copyright compliance – Ensure that you’re not infringing on copyright laws by checking if permission has been granted where necessary from authors/creators who own intellectual property rights on some resources.

In conclusion, evaluating OER involves more than just reviewing its content; it requires careful consideration of instructional design principles including multimedia elements embedded within them ensuring they meet high-quality standards necessary to achieve desired learning outcomes effectively at all times!