Quality assurance of OER

Evaluating OER

Having sourced a pool of OER using the repositories and tools above, the next step in the process of using OER to support teaching and learning is to evaluate this selection. According to Achieve.org, a good OER will:

• Be aligned to the curriculum or standards;
• Describe the subject matter;
• Support the teaching process;
• Offer assessment opportunities;
• Offer technology interaction;
• Provide exercise and practice activities;
• Provide extension opportunities;
• Be accessible to all learners.

The chances of finding such resources are negligible. Nearly all would require some level of customization to suit the new context in which they will be used. One way to determine the level of adaptation required is to use an evaluation checklist or rubric. Example rubrics are available from Achieve.org.

An evaluation of sourced OER will allow you to weed out resources that either require too much adaptation or are not closely enough aligned with your intentions in terms of design and teaching methodology, not to mention subject matter.

Quality assurance of OER

Quality assurance of materials developed as OER is recommended before releasing them to the public. This is particularly true if OER have been assembled into a course or programme. Courses constructed using OER are not necessarily different, in educational substance, from those constructed using other resources such as proprietary content. A good course, no matter from what it is constructed, needs to assure quality in terms of:

• Content – Knowledge and skills;
• Pedagogy – Sound teaching and learning methods;
• Motivational strategies – Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for students;
• Degree of student autonomy;
• Access to the learning environment (including issues of cost, technology, culture)
• Management strategies – (including administration)

However, courses constructed using OER require further attention.

TIPS Framework: Quality assurance criteria for OER

The TIPS framework for quality assurance is a handy tool to use to ascertain the quality of a course developed from OER. Besides providing criteria for the above issues such as pedagogy and access, it also includes specific criteria to determine how the OER have been used. Version 2 of the TIPS framework consists of 39 criteria under four headings:

• Teaching and learning processes (16 criteria)
• Information and material content (7 criteria)
• Presentation, product and format (8 criteria)
• System, technical and technology (7 criteria)

The TIPS framework is not prescriptive, and users in different contexts may be looking for OER from different perspective. For example, a student view may be different from a teacher view of an OER. Therefore, the list of criteria can be used in your own context to develop specific criteria that meet the need of different users in different contexts. We urge you to explore the TIPS framework and develop your own quality assurance criteria.

Thomas (2022) also shares some thoughts on evaluating OER. It can be read here.