Open & Affordable Educational Resources Guide

Evaluating OER has two steps: a cursory review (which librarians can do) to determine whether the OER is worth looking at in depth, and an in-depth review (done by a domain expert) to determine the accuracy and coverage of the OER's content. 

To determine whether the OER is worth reviewing in depth, here is a non-exhaustive list of cursory criteria to examine:

1. Relevance of content (determined by title, abstract, and chapter headings)
2. Expertise / reputation of author (determined by credentials, etc.)
3. Bibliography / References (How extensive)
4. Reviews (# and score); is it peer reviewed (esp. pre-publication)?; is it externally edited?
5. Format options (if it is digital, is it easily printed with no information loss? if it is physical, can it be easily copied and shared?)
6. Publisher / Sponsor credentials
7. Aesthetics (does the OER seem professional, free from errors, well organized, etc.)
8. Accessibility (is the OER accessible by students / learners with the widest possible range of abilities?)

Pre-Publication Peer Reviews

Whether an OER has been peer reviewed prior to publication often will be noted in the front matter of the OER or on the publisher's website.

Post-Publication Reviews

The OER libraries below enable reviews to be appended to their holdings. These reviews are extremely thorough and often by reputable faculty. To find reviews, select an OER and scroll down to the Reviews. 

Note that not all OER have received post-publication reviews.