Creating Open Educational Resources

Some authors will find it useful to gather feedback on their OER. This feedback could help shape what content is included, the organization of the work, the style of authoring, or the images or figures in the work, and/or ensure the work is accurate and impactful. Feedback can be gathered from students, colleagues, or others in the field, and can occur during or post-authoring. Feedback can be formal (e.g. peer review) or more informal (e.g. queries to students in class). While it's often useful to get some feedback on the work as a whole to help ensure it functions as a complete text, others find it useful to ask for feedback on shorter chunks of text, such as a chapter or two. This more focused feedback can often be more nuanced. Those offering feedback are sometimes thanked for their labor with a small honorarium, with the amount reflecting the amount of content they review. 

Gathering feedback from students can ensure that students will easily understand the content and find it a beneficial learning experience. Some authors chose to share chapters with their students as they are authored, to help guide the creation of subsequent chapters. Others chose to share content after it is completely authored to help with final tweaks before sharing more widely. Feedback is sometimes requested from students using the text in class, while other times outside students--perhaps those previously enrolled in the course--are contacted for feedback.

When getting feedback from students, consider assessing: 

• Whether the chapter meets stated learning objectives
• Clarity/level of understanding of the text and writing style
• Inclusion and diversity in the text
• Aesthetics and design of the text (if you are sharing the final product)
• The usefulness of pedagogical aids (e.g. glossary, problem sets)
• Whether the examples help with the understanding of content and are relevant and current
• Whether images or figures help with the understanding of content and are relevant and current
• Whether any additional images, figures, or data would be helpful to the understanding of the content

Gathering feedback from experts in the field ensures that the OER presents an accurate and complete overview of the topic. Some authors ask for feedback from colleagues in their department or at other institutions for an informal review. Others may look for a more formal peer review process. Peer review can be both open or anonymous but, if the latter, someone other than the authors should consider conducting the review process.

When getting feedback from colleagues or experts in the field, consider assessing those items for consideration by students. In addition, consider assessing: 

• Whether the content is accurate
• Whether there are any gaps in materials covered, including topics or references

After your OER is published and shared widely, there still might be some opportunities for improvement. While the OER license will enable others to adapt your work to fit their needs, if you're interested in maintaining your original resource, consider including an avenue for users to provide feedback. This could be a note inviting sending comments via email or embedding a form in the resource where users can submit suggestions. Sometimes these informal pieces of feedback from downstream users can be extremely beneficial to ensuring your OER is the best it can be.