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Open Educational Resources: Create

Plan

When planning to develop an open educational resource, here are some important considerations:

  1. Does the work you need already exist? Could you adapt an existing work?
  2. What type of OER would you like to develop? The process for developing a full textbook, for example, is considerably different than a simple handout.
  3. What resources will you need to create and publish your OER? Can you find collaborators to assist with the process if needed?
  4. What is your timeline for completing this project?

Design and Write

Designing an open educational resource is in many ways similar to designing an equivalent traditional resource. Consider:

  • What is the context for this work? Who is the intended audience?
  • What do you want students to learn?
  • What is the best way to communicate concepts and assess understanding?

Even if you have not found an existing OER that covers the specific content of interest, you can look to existing models for ideas about organization and sequencing. You can also incorporate smaller open works like CC-licensed images to support your text.

When writing your resource, keep the following in mind:

  • Make your work both accessible and inclusive
  • Tailor your language and examples to the context and audience for which you expect your OER to be used

For more information, check out the Open Education Self-Publishing Guide created by BCcampus.

Collaborate

You may not have the time or expertise necessary to develop a more complex OER on your own. In this case, collaborating with colleagues either within your department or around the world can be very helpful in accelerating the process. Community platforms like Rebus are available to facilitate collaboration. You can also use open pedagogy to get students involved in the process of creating OERs, for example through renewable assignments.

For more information, see the Learning Portal guide to Collaborating on OERs.

Publishing

Once you have completed development of your OER, the next step is to share it with learners. Because OERs are openly licensed, they can be shared:

  • via a course website
  • on a faculty webpage
  • via Google Drive
  • in one of the OER repositories listed on the Find page

Tools