Licensing is a critical consideration when developing OER. Selecting an open license, such as Creative Commons, allows others to legally reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute the content. This enables sharing and collaboration on the material. The license also needs to ensure proper attribution is always given to the original creator(s). Picking the right Creative Commons license, whether CC BY, CC BY-SA, or another option, depends on how much control and flexibility is desired over subsequent uses and adaptations of the content.
Quality assurance is also crucial for OER. With many potential contributors participating in open collaboration on teaching materials, there needs to be processes to review and approve changes to safeguard academic integrity and accuracy. This includes peer reviews of content by subject matter experts. Comprehensive version control systems are important to trace edits made over time as work evolves. Quality OER projects typically involve instructional designers to help with scope, organization, learning objectives alignment, and overall educational approach.
Accessibility must be taken into account from the start. OER should be designed and authored to be usable by people with varying abilities, including those using assistive technologies like screen readers. This involves following web accessibility standards and guidelines like WCAG. Visual elements must have textual descriptions, content is organized logically for navigation, and multimedia includes captions. The open licensing also enables the content to be made available in different formats to reach more learners.
Discovering existing relevant OER through open registries and metadata tagging is essential. While new content may need to be created at times, existing open materials should be identified and potentially reused or remixed first to avoid duplicating work already done. Applying educational metadata standards allows OER to be more easily searched and located. Cross-linking related OER fosters open communities of shared knowledge. Interoperability ensures content is structured to interact seamlessly across platforms and systems.
Addressing technical specifications ensures the educational materials remain accessible, current, and sustainable over time. Open file formats prevent vendor lock-in to any single proprietary system. This includes easily editable formats like Markdown for text, open multimedia formats with royalty-free codecs, and structured formats like XML for storing educational metadata. Considering future proofing involves developing in an agile, modular way so content stays up-to-date as technologies and standards evolve. Version control enables ongoing iterative improvements.
Stakeholder involvement is vital during development. Understanding instructor, student, administrator and other user needs guides effective OER design. Piloting draft materials and incorporating feedback improves quality. Building partnerships with educational institutions enables scalable sharing and localized reuse in various contexts and locations. Raising awareness about open licensing and empowering communities to remix or extend resources sustains ongoing efforts. Assessing impact through quantitative metrics and qualitative reports reveals areas for enhancement.
Access and inclusion are key factors. OER help reduce costs as a public good, especially important for reaching demographics that may not otherwise access education. Offering content in multiple languages enhances equity. Consider cultural appropriateness and avoid bias in examples, images, or viewpoints presented. Peer production approaches allow customized local customizations. Sustainability relies on incentivizing continued contributions, whether through credit, compensation, or community affiliation. Technologies should not pose undue barriers in various regions.
These strategies promote developing high-quality, sustainable open educational resources through collaborative open design principles. Attending to licensing, quality, accessibility, discoverability, technical standards, stakeholder engagement, inclusion, and sustainability enables maximizing sharing and impact of openly licensed teaching and learning materials globally. OER have the potential to advance equitable access to knowledge worldwide when developed following these important guidelines.