Open Educational Resources (OER): Evaluate and Adopt OER

As faculty, you assess textbooks against a set of criteria that reflects your long experience and knowledge of student needs. The same process applies with Open Textbooks with a few additional considerations.

  Content

• Accuracy of material
• Richness
• Depth and breadth
• Timeliness
• Cultural context

Presentation

• Writing quality and tone
• Reading level
• Organization
• Visual presentation
• Hierarchy of information
• Collateral materials

Additional Criteria 

• Accessibility online  -  are the textbook web pages accessible (font, contrast, size)?
• Production options - is the book available in more than one format (printed, bound, PDF)?
• Platform compatibility - is the textbook viewable and usable on MAC and PC?
• Delivery options - is a bound copy available at a very low price and is the campus bookstore be able and willing to carry the printed version?
• Interactivity - if the online version includes interactive software or multi-media files, are they accessible and cross platform?
• Consistency - are the online and printed versions comparable in organization and general appearance?
• Collateral material - if there are test banks, interactives, or other enrichment materials, are they in an accessible, usable format? Are these free/inexpensive for instructors and students?

Provide your students with an alternative to expensive textbooks by following these steps:

1. Find the right OER for your subject by going to the OER by Discipline tab in this Guide. You can also take a look at the list of Open Textbook Collections to search for OER. 
2. Review and evaluate the textbooks based on the content and whether it suits your teaching style and appropriate for your learners. Below are two tools to help you evaluate your selected OER(s).
   1. LCC adoption worksheet  
   2.  UMGC OER Quality Guide
3. Decide if you want to use the textbook as is or modify the contents. One of the benefits of open textbooks is the flexibility to customize them for specific course designs as much or as little as you desire. If you want to edit or append content, ensure the licensing allows that. Different repositories will have different options for editing and publishing revised copies.
4. Distribute to your students by uploading course material onto Canvas. You can choose the best format to distribute to your class such as online, or downloadable PDF.