Professional recognition for OER work

Here are a few resources that discuss how faculty may advocate for the recognition of their work in developing, adapting, and implementing OER as a part of their tenure and promotion.

DOERS3 OER Contributions Matrix
A matrix that maps specific aspects of OER work to categories of research, teaching, and service, to help faculty advocate for consideration of their OER work in tenure and promotion decisions.
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The primary authors of this document are Amanda Coolidge, Andrew McKinney, and
Deepak Shenoy. This document is licensed by DOERS3 under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International Public License.
Open Education in Promotion, Tenure, and Faculty Development
An expansion of the DOERS3 matrix that includes links to tenure and promotion policies around OER and talking points for a range of stakeholders.
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"Open Education in Promotion, Tenure, and Faculty Development" by Iowa Open Education Action Team (Iowa OER) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work

OER and Liberal Arts Colleges

OER Initiatives at Liberal Arts Colleges: Building Support at Three Small, Private Institutions
A description of programs and development of OER promotion at three liberal arts colleges.
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Schleicher, C. A. & Barnes, C. A. & Joslin, R. A., (2020) “OER Initiatives at Liberal Arts Colleges: Building Support at Three Small, Private Institutions”, Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 8(1), p.eP2301. doi: https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2301 This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

Evaluating OER

Some potential users worry that because OER are freely available and revisable and have not been published by a traditional commercial publisher they are not "high quality." However, as with Open Access scholarship, the quality of OER is independent of its method of distribution. Subject experts (such as faculty in a given discipline) are the best judges of whether the content of a given OER meet their criteria for use in the classroom. A number of rubrics and similar materials are available to help standardize those evaluations, and various OER platforms (such as Open Textbook Library) include reviews of materials. As David Wiley points out, the most important criteria for the quality of OER is how well students learn by using them.

On Quality and OER by David Wiley is licensed under a a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Evaluating OER -- The OER Starter Kit by Abbey Elder
This chapter identifies several categories of consideration for evaluating OER, including clarity, content and technical accuracy, adaptability, appropriateness for your class, and accessibility.
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"Evaluating OER" by Abbey Elder, in The OER Starter Kit, is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work
Achieve.org Rubrics for Evaluating Open Education Resource (OER) Objects
The Achieve rubrics were designed to evaluate classroom materials with respect to particular standards (such as Common Core), as well as other aspects such as supporting materials, technical interface, and assessment measures.
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"Rubrics for Evaluating Open Education Resource (OER) Objects" by Achieve is licensed under CC BY 3.0
OER Accessibility Evaluation Rubric from the University System of Georgia
This rubric helps potential users evaluate OER materials for their accessibility, in areas including format convertibility, document structure, transcription/closed captioning, universal design principles, and barriers to access.
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"OER Accessibility Evaluation Rubric" by Tiffani Tijerina, University System of Georgia is licensed under CC BY 4.0

DEI and OER

Improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Course Materials
A framework for developing or evaluating various aspects of equity and inclusion in educational materials.
Equity in Open webinars
A series of 3 downloadable webinars from OpenStax and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) on prioritizing DEI in creating and sharing open resources.
The Equity Through OER Rubric
This tool helps institutions self-assess their integration of OER in equitable ways.
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"The Equity Through OER Rubric" by DOERS3 is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Accessibility Toolkit 2nd ed (BCcampus)
Information about Universal Design and how to create digital learning materials for greater accessibility.

Studies on student success and OER impact

Open Education Group: The Review Project
A summary of all known empirical research on the impacts of OER adoption, compiled and maintained by John Hilton III, Stacie Mason and Virginia Clinton-Lisell. Includes links to published studies.

Open Educational Resources: Evaluate & Assess OER