Here are some standards with which to evaluate open source materials:
Clarity, Comprehensibility & Readability
- Text covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately and provides an effective index and/or glossary.
- Text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology used.
- Content, including any instructions, exercises, or supplemental material, is clear and comprehensible to students.
- Content is well-categorized in terms of logic, sequencing, and flow.
- Content is consistent with its language and key terms.
Content Accuracy & Technical Accuracy
- Content, including diagrams and other supplementary material, is accurate, error-free and unbiased.
- Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time.
- The text is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.
- Content is accurate based on both your expert knowledge and through external sources.
- There are no factual, grammatical, or typographical errors.
- Interface is easy to navigate, and there are no broken links or obsolete formats.
Adaptability & Modularity
- The resource is in a file format that allows for adaptations, modifications, rearrangements, and updates.
- The resource is easily divided into modules, or sections, which can then be used or rearranged out of their original order.
- The content is licensed in a way that allows for adaptations and modifications.
Appropriateness
- Content is presented at a reading level appropriate for higher education students.
- Content is useful for instructors or students.
- The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It should make use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
Accessibility
- Content is accessible to students with disabilities through the compatibility of third-party reading applications.
- If you are using Web resources, does each image have alternate text that can be read?
- Videos have accurate closed-captioning.
- Students are able to access the materials in a quick, non-restrictive manner.
Supplementary Resources
- The OER contain supplementary materials such as homework resources, study guides, tutorials or assessments.
- Have you reviewed these materials in the same manner as the original OER?
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This OER Evaluation Criteria is by Regina Gong. It is adapted from Affordable Learning Georgia Selecting Textbooks Criteria, and BC Campus, Open Textbook Evaluation Criteria, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.