Research Guides: OER and Creative Commons: OER Checklists

1. What are your course objectives?

After exploring the introductory information on Open Educational Resources (OERs), you may want to know if OERs are right for you and your courses!

Luckily, there are a lot of great databases and search engines for finding Open Access content! But, before you start your search, it's important to establish some basic criteria and reflect on what your needs are. You can use the checklist below to get started!

Attribution:
This work, “Establishing your Baseline: What needs are you trying to address with OERs?” is a derivative of “Task 1 - what are my needs” by OERup! project, used under CC BY. “Establishing your Baseline: What needs are you trying to address with OERs?” is licensed under CC BY by C. Elliott.

2. Finding and evaluating specific OERs for your course.

Above, you were asked to reflect on the types of OERs you may be looking for:

online course modules
textbooks
primary sources
quizzes and course activities
etc.

Now it's time to find what's out there! Below, you will find a list of databases that have content available across a multitude of disciplines. This is a great opportunity to find and explore on your own before reaching out to a librarian for additional support.

As you identify and gather OER materials, use the following Google Document to evaluate and reflect on each source.

[Important: make sure to note the permissions of the source you choose to use or choose to evaluate for future use. Not all materials in these databases have the same permissions.]

MERLOT
MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community. The MERLOT Collection is made up of over 40,000 materials in 19 different material type categories.
MIT Open Courseware
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. Through OCW, educators improve courses and curricula, making their schools more effective; students find additional resources to help them succeed; and independent learners enrich their lives and use the content to tackle some of our world’s most difficult challenges, including sustainable development, climate change, and cancer eradication.
OpenStax
Open source textbooks that are written by professional content developers who are experts in their fields and undergo a rigorous peer review process. All textbooks meet standard scope and sequence requirements.
Open Textbook Network (OTN)
The Open Textbook Library provides a growing catalog of free, peer-reviewed, and openly-licensed textbooks. The Open Textbook Library is supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network.

3. Adapting and Remixing OER

Once you have found relevant OER materials for your class(es), it's time to consider adapting/remixing the materials so they are perfectly tailored to your needs!

This Google Doc checklist -- for you to consult as you consider adapting/remixing an OER -- is an adaptation of an OER text: Adaptation Guide, a support guide published by Lauri M. Aesoph and BCcampus Open Education, which is a supplemental text for their main support guide: the Self-Publishing Guide. I have condensed their recommendations into list form so as to give you an overview of the steps you can take to adapt an OER text.

Creative Commons License for this Guide

Unless otherwise specified, the OER & Creative Commons Guide by C. Elliott, Lucas Hall, and Lauren Movlai is licensed under CC BY.