Open Educational Resources (OER)

After you have found an OER that matches your course objectives and student learning outcomes, you are now ready to adopt and implement it into your course! There are five major steps to adopting OER.

1. Review the materials
   • Many open textbooks are peer-reviewed by faculty or subject matter experts. Use these reviews to narrow down choices before examining them yourself. Consider using a rubric for OER evaluation such as the Faculty Guide for Evaluating OER created by BCOER or this Checklist For Evaluating OER created by Austin Community College. See more OER evaluation rubrics at the bottom of this page.
2. Modify the OER if necessary
   • After reviewing the material, decide if you plan to make any modifications to the OER. Consider the material format, the creative commons license, and where your new version will be hosted. View this Open Textbook Authoring Guide to learn more about adapting open textbooks.
   • When remixing OER with different licenses, it can be tricky to understand how they can be combined. Consult the Creative Commons Wiki for license compatibility information. If remixing OER with different licenses, make clear in your final product which sections have license restrictions different from the license of your remix. Learn more about licensing work from the Open Knowledge Foundation or the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. 
3. Attribution of OER
   • If you plan to use images, videos, or other CC-licensed works in your own instructional materials or documents then you must include the required attribution. Discover how to attribute a Creative Commons-licensed work and learn more about attributing CC-licensed materials.  
4. Curriculum Approval (if needed)
   • Determine if you need approval from others at NWACC such as the division or department chair, curriculum committee, disability services office, etc. Consider any institutional policies in advance to make the transition to OER easier.
5. Delivery of OER to students​​​​​​

   • You may need to work in partnership with the NWACC Bookstore, Digital Learning, The Library, and/or the IT help desk. Adhere to all NWACC policies regarding textbook choices and reporting.

     Consider downloading a copy of the OER and integrating it into the Learning Management System (LMS). The easiest method of delivering OER to students is to provide a link for students to view the materials online or download them. Some OER textbook providers offer low-cost printing services directly from their websites, in which case you may be able to work with the NWACC Bookstore to acquire printed copies.

These five steps of OER adoption are taken from Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources.

There are many OER evaluation rubrics and tools available online. Here are a few selected options faculty can use.