10 Best Practices for Curating Open Educational Resources

Best Practices in Curating Open Educational Resources

In today’s digital age, open educational resources (OER) have become increasingly popular among educators and learners alike. OER refers to freely accessible materials that can be used for teaching, learning, and research purposes. With the vast amount of information available online, it is crucial to curate these resources effectively to ensure their quality and relevance. In this article, we will explore ten best practices in curating open educational resources.

1. Define Your Learning Objectives:
Before embarking on your search for OER, it is essential to clearly define your learning objectives. What specific topics or skills are you trying to address? By having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve through the use of OER, you can narrow down your search and focus on finding resources that align with your goals.

2. Evaluate Relevance and Quality:
When curating OER, it is crucial to assess the relevance and quality of the materials you find. Look for reputable sources such as universities or established organizations known for producing reliable content. Check if the resource aligns with current standards or frameworks in education. Evaluate its accuracy by cross-referencing with other credible sources.

3. Consider Licensing:
One significant advantage of using OER is their open licenses that allow users to modify and redistribute them legally. However, not all OER have the same licensing terms – some may require attribution while others may impose restrictions on commercial use or derivative works creation. Understand the licensing terms associated with each resource you wish to include in your curated collection.

4. Organize Resources Effectively:
To make navigation easier for both educators and learners accessing your curated collection of OER, organize them effectively into categories or themes based on subject areas or grade levels. Use clear labels and tags so that users can quickly locate relevant resources within your collection.

5. Provide Contextual Information:
While curating OER, remember that learners may need additional context to fully understand and utilize the resources. Provide brief descriptions or annotations that explain how each resource fits into a larger learning framework, its intended audience, and any prerequisites for effective use.

6. Promote Diversity and Inclusivity:
When curating OER, ensure that you are promoting diversity and inclusivity by selecting resources from a variety of cultural perspectives, languages, and formats. This will help create a more inclusive learning environment that caters to the needs of diverse learners.

7. Regularly Update Your Collection:
OER are continually being created and updated; therefore, it is essential to regularly review your curated collection for outdated or irrelevant resources. Remove any resources that are no longer accurate or useful while adding new ones that align with current educational trends.

8. Encourage User Feedback:
Invite users of your curated OER collection to provide feedback on the resources they find helpful or areas where improvements could be made. This feedback can help you refine your curation process and enhance the overall quality of your collection.

9. Foster Collaboration:
Encourage collaboration among educators by providing opportunities for them to contribute their own curated collections or suggest additional resources for inclusion in yours. Collaborative curation allows for a broader range of perspectives and expertise to be shared within the educational community.

10. Share Best Practices With Others:
Finally, share your experiences and best practices in curating OER with other educators through conferences, workshops, blogs, or social media platforms dedicated to alternative schooling and education. By sharing insights gained from your curation process, you contribute to the collective knowledge base surrounding effective OER usage.

In conclusion, curating open educational resources requires careful consideration of relevance, quality evaluation methods, licensing terms awareness, organization strategies, contextual information provision, diversity promotion efforts along with regular updates based on user feedback fostered through collaboration among educators who can share best practices with others interested in alternative schooling approaches across different contexts worldwide. By following these ten best practices, educators can create curated collections of OER that enhance teaching and learning experiences for all.