Curating OER

Steps to Curating OER

• Step 1: Learn about OER Fundamentals
  • Complete the ASCCC OERI’s OER Basics self–paced Canvas course (about 20 hours), plus any other PD that you find interesting from the Professional Development tab on the OER Faculty Resource page.
  • Connect with community:
    • The Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges (ASCCC) OER Initiative (OERI) has tons of resources (OERI Resources), including an archive and current webinars (OERI Webinars and Events.
    • Self-enroll in this Canvas shell to be kept up-to-date on events and notifications through: tinyurl.com/ASCCC-OpenEd.  The shell’s resources are no longer kept updated (in favor of the OERI Resources website), but they still Announcements of OERI events and important information from the Chancellor’s Office or legislature. 
    • The Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER) is also a great resource (note that this CCC is not “California community colleges”), also with webinars.
    • Work with the OER Coordinator and find local faculty working on OER, even if they aren’t in your discipline. 
    • Find faculty outside of your school in your discipline who are doing OER, and connect with them.  This is supported for some disciplines by the OERI through their Discipline Leads.
    • Connect with our librarian(s) to see what resources they have.  You might also want to check out the TC OER Library Guide.
    • Sign up for listservs and groups. 
    • Network with faculty.
    • Once you choose platform(s) for your textbook and/or homework, you can join their groups and forums, too. 
  • Learn more about Copyright & Licensing through any of these options:
    • TC OER Library Guide
    • Creative Commons
    • OERI Resources
    • Something from the Professional Development tab on the OER Faculty Resource page.
    • CCCOER
• Step 2: Outline Your Content
  • Create a simple outline based on the Course Outline of Record (and C-ID, if there is one).
    • Add what you think is missing!
    • Make sure that the textbooks that you’re looking at have licenses that you can use.
  • Create a detailed outline with units, chapters, and pages/sections (LibreTexts calls this Remix Mapping). 
    • See Example Template: (from Canvas Course)
  • Send your detailed outline out for colleagues to review before getting too far into it.
    • If you are doing this project with grant funds, there may be funds to your colleagues to review. Contact the Associate Dean of Instruction to check!
  • Review other OER:
    • Make a short list of other OER textbooks to review in more detail.
    • Make sure that the textbooks that you choose have the same licensing (or less restrictive) than the one that you’d like to use.  Choose your favorite textbooks.
    • Review each section of each textbooks already on LibreTexts to fit in outline, and which pages I like better.  Add to Remix Map.
• Step 3: Learn about Learning & Representation
  • Learn about pedagogy and best-practices:
    • ASK066: How can metacognition improve student learning? (Published: Tue, 04 May 2021) 
    • Educational Best Practices
    • Learning Scientists blogs for teachers
    • Canvas Commons has course shells that utilize techniques suggested by instructional designers, so check those out, too.
  • Before and during your writing, continue to check for representation and bias. There are tools to help!
    • Toolkit for Creating Culturally Relevant OER.
    • IDEA Framework
    • Use this Wikipedia page of popular names by region/nationality to include names that are representative of our students' family's nation of origin.  
• Step 4: Choose Platforms
  • Textbook and Slides:  You can develop the whole OER in Microsoft Office software or Google docs, but there are platforms designed to help you curate and publish OER textbooks.  Below on some suggestions, although you are encouraged to also look on your own for more recent options.
    • LibreTexts Libraries, which has a good intro video or you can review the  LibreTexts 101 Canvas course
      • If you choose to use LibreTexts as your platform, there is a bi-weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays) Office Hours (link that directly opens Zoom) at 9am for new LibreTexts editors and contributors.
    • OER Commons Open Author
    • Pressbook 
    • Merlot content-builder 
    • Rebus, which has a supportive community (some of their services are fee-based)
    • CUNY Manifold is also fee-based

  Whatever you choose, your material must be openly-licensed and publicly available. 

  • Homework:     Some options to consider are:
    • Quizzes posted on Canvas Commons
    • STEM: MyOpenMath (MOM) is an openly-licensed platform that is similar to MyMathLab.  MOM has thousands of questions, as well as fully-developed course templates. 
    • LibreTexts’ ADAPT is a collection of quiz banks that can be incorporated into a LibreText textbook.  The quiz structure adapts to students, providing more questions on topics that they struggle with and fewer questions on topics that they correctly answer questions about.
• Step 5: Update by Chapter
  • Combine others’ OER then update each chapter:  Next chapter:  __________
    • LibreTexts YouTube Playlist:   
    • ASCCC OERI archived webinars:
    • Link to all archived webinars
    • Link to OERI video on LibreTexts and remixing from April 2020
    • Toolkit for Creating Culturally Relevant OER.
    • IDEA Framework
  • Read others’ OER chapter(s) FIRST. 
  • Remix, then update Remix Map (your detailed outline)
  • Update each page.  Here are some basic resources for the first few times that you do this:
  • Check for representation and bias. There are tools to help!
  • Update Remix maps and chapter outline
  • Add information to Glossary (and other Back Matter pages) 
  • Learn about accessibility after writing a few pages (or chapters).  Resources can be found on the Faculty Accessible OER page
  • Create homework and key for each chapter:  Next chapter:  __________
• Step 6: Finalize Your OER
  • When you have finished with your content, you have a few more things to do!
    • Update the textbook’s Front Matter
      • Acknowledgments
      • Page for faculty on how to use the textbook 
  • Check licenses, attributions, and references on all:
    • Pages
    • Pictures
    • Videos
  • Check accessibility on all pages:
    • Accessibility checker for webpages (including LibreTexts):  https://wave.webaim.org/
    • Images:           Have alt text description
    • Tables:           
    • Math symbol accessibility:      Make sure + and - are in an equation, not just typed because screen readers might not read them.  Or don’t add space between the numbers and symbols.
• Step 7: Share Your OER!
  • Publish your textbook!
  • If your textbook publisher converts to PDF, review the converted PDF for formatting issues.
  • Publish your homework!  I shared the Canvas worksheet shell to Canvas Commons.
  • After published, link your OER textbook on:.
    • Cool4Ed:         Contribute by posting on Merlot
    • ASCCC OERI webinar on OER Commons  
  • Merlot (Merlot log-in)
  • BCcampus (BCcampus contributions), if your OER fulfills all of their requirements
  • OER Commons (OER Commons login)
  • OpenUMN (OpenUMN Submit):       
  • Share with the networks and communities you joined in Step 1!
  • You might want to check out this ASCCC OERI webinar on sharing OER (October 2019) for other options.