It's a Process...
OER ranges from one-off materials that supplement commercial textbooks all the way to developing open-source textbooks and courses. Therefore, these development lines can become blurred. Many large OER projects are the cumulative result of a process that involves testing out and refining smaller-scale projects over the years. This eventually results in a systematic replacement of paid commercial materials.
Photo by Tabea Schimpf on Unsplash
No matter how an OER is accomplished, all materials development and adoption should follow a basic backward design process couched in the ADDIE model in order to ensure they are useful for course outcomes and student needs. While many people are eager to dive into content immediately, taking time to complete some preliminary steps will save time and frustration of having to redevelop or find alternative materials down the road while increasing the likelihood of a better product. The larger your OER project, the more important this process is.
The Faculty Support Center has a standard operating procedure for OER development that is based on the ADDIE model. It includes suggested and mandatory steps as well as decision trees and production milestones. Any college employee is welcome to engage in a non-binding OER discussion to find out more about the process and see the SOP document in detail.
ADDIE Analyze
Your initial step in the process is to analyze your need for an OER through discussions with your peers, department chair, and dean. What problem are you seeking to solve with an OER? Would a low-cost alternative solve the problem more quickly and with less work? Would it make more sense to adopt, adapt, and/or remix existing open license materials? The instructional designer and librarian can help facilitate these discussions and give you needed information for deciding.
ADDIE Design (Backwards)
Once you have decided on adopting, adapting and/or developing, our next step will be to engage in a backwards design process that starts with revisiting course objectives, learning outcomes, and assessments. This includes external licensing, final exams and projects and major tests. This design process also entails mapping the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to succeed with course assessment. The resulting product provides a map for targeted materials selection and/or development. The instructional designer and curriculum development manager can assist with this process. In cases of new OER courses, no further development can take place until this step is approved by the curriculum development manager.
ADDIE Develop
Once the design is fleshed out, content location, revision and/or development can begin as well as sourcing, modifying or writing supplementary materials such as study guides, graphic organizers, etc. The instructional designer can assist with approaches to this that keep materials within copyright compliance as well as templatization procedures should you want to involve multiple developers.
ADDIE Implement
The implementation process starts with a subject matter expert review identified by your division leadership. Once materials are vetted, they will need to be accounted for in a copyright/licensing compliance review. This consists of turning in an Excel sheet listing the sources and locations of all materials - along with any information required by their licensing convention - to the Director of Library Services. Once this document is deemed adequate, materials can be released to students via electronic or print needs and piloted for instruction. Both the library and the Moodle team can assist with hosting, distribution and licensing concerns.
ADDIE Evaluate
Ongoing quality assurance and revision should be conducted on a regular basis at least once every five years. Many cases will warrant shorter review cycle intervals - particularly in rapidly changing technology fields. The instructional designer can assist with identifying or developing quality control models per the norms and requirements of your discipline. It is also necessary to revisit the copyright compliance document periodically to ensure links to original materials are functional and that materials still fall within open source licensing conventions.