What are the most effective open educational resources for teaching in higher education?

1 Define your objectives

Before you search for OER, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with them. What are the learning outcomes and competencies that you want your students to develop? What are the topics and skills that you want to cover and assess? How do you align your OER with your curriculum and pedagogy? Having specific and measurable objectives will help you narrow down your options and evaluate the quality and relevance of the OER you find.

2 Explore reputable sources

There are many websites and platforms that offer OER for higher education, but not all of them are equally reliable and useful. You want to look for sources that have high standards of quality, accuracy, and currency, as well as clear licenses and attribution policies. Some examples of reputable sources are OER Commons, MERLOT, OpenStax, MIT OpenCourseWare, and Khan Academy. You can also use search engines like OASIS or Google Advanced Search to filter your results by license, format, and subject.

3 Adapt and remix OER

One of the main benefits of OER is that you can modify and combine them to suit your context and preferences. You can customize the content, language, and design of the OER to fit your audience, level, and style. You can also mix and match different OER to create a comprehensive and coherent learning experience. For example, you can use a textbook from OpenStax, a video from Khan Academy, a simulation from PhET, and a quiz from OER Commons to teach a physics concept. Just make sure that you follow the license terms and give proper credit to the original authors.

4 Share your OER

Another way to contribute to the OER movement and community is to share your own OER with others. You can create your own OER from scratch or based on existing materials, and publish them on platforms like OER Commons or MERLOT. You can also share your OER on social media, blogs, or podcasts to reach a wider audience and get feedback. Sharing your OER can help you showcase your expertise, collaborate with other educators, and improve your teaching practice.

5 Evaluate your OER

Finally, you need to assess the effectiveness and impact of your OER on your students' learning and engagement. You can use various methods and tools to collect and analyze data on your OER, such as surveys, interviews, tests, analytics, and rubrics. You can also ask for peer reviews or student feedback to get different perspectives and suggestions. Evaluating your OER can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your OER, measure your learning outcomes, and make adjustments as needed.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?