Planning and Organizing Your OER: A Step-by-Step Guide

Planning and organizing your Open Educational Resource (OER) is essential to ensure its effectiveness, quality, and usability. This topic will provide a step-by-step guide to help you plan and organize your OER project successfully. We will also provide a template model that you can use as a starting point for structuring your OER content.

I. Defining the Scope and Objectives of Your OER:

• Clearly define the subject matter and target audience of your OER.

• Determine the specific learning objectives and outcomes you want to achieve.

• Identify the key topics and subtopics that will be covered in your OER.

II. Conducting a Needs Assessment:

• Conduct a needs assessment to understand the requirements and preferences of your target audience.

• Gather feedback and insights from potential users, learners, and subject matter experts.

• Identify the gaps or challenges that your OER aims to address.

III. Content Organization and Structure:

• Determine the overall structure and organization of your OER.

• Create a logical flow for the content, ensuring coherence and easy navigation.

• Divide the content into modules, units, or lessons based on the identified topics and subtopics.

IV. Developing Learning Objectives and Outcomes:

• Create clear and measurable learning objectives for each module or lesson.

• Align the learning objectives with the overall objectives of your OER.

• Define the desired outcomes and competencies that learners should acquire.

V. Designing the Content:

• Select appropriate instructional strategies, methods, and media to present the content effectively.

• Create engaging and interactive learning activities that reinforce the concepts.

• As appropriate, incorporate multimedia elements, such as videos, images, and interactive simulations.

VI. Assessing Learner Progress and Outcomes:

• Define assessment strategies and methods to measure learner progress and achievement.

• Develop formative and summative assessment activities aligned with the learning objectives.

• Provide clear guidelines and rubrics for assessing learner performance.

VII. Licensing and Copyright Considerations:

• Determine the licensing model for your OER, such as Creative Commons licenses, to communicate usage rights and permissions.

• Ensure compliance with copyright laws and obtain necessary permissions for copyrighted materials.

• Provide proper attribution for all sources used in your OER content.

VIII. User Feedback and Iterative Improvement:

• Encourage user feedback and engagement to improve your OER continuously.

• Establish user mechanisms to provide feedback, suggest improvements, and report issues.

• Regularly update and enhance your OER based on user feedback and emerging needs.

Template Model for Organizing Your OER:

Module/Unit Title:

• Learning Objectives:

  • Objective 1:

  • Objective 2:

  • Objective 3:

• Overview:

• Key Concepts:

• Target Audience:

• Content:

  • Subtopic 1:

    • Subtopic Overview:

    • Resources:

    • Learning Activities:

  • Subtopic 2:

    • Subtopic Overview:

    • Resources:

    • Learning Activities:

  • Subtopic 3:

    • Subtopic Overview:

    • Resources:

    • Learning Activities:

• Assessment:

  • Formative Assessment:

  • Summative Assessment:

• Additional Resources:

• License:

• Publishing Platform:

• References:

For a complete template model for an OERs, please check this spreadsheet:

Planning and organizing your OER systematically ensures that your content is well-structured, aligned with learning objectives, and user-friendly. The provided template model serves as a starting point to help you organize your OER content effectively. Remember to customize the template based on your specific needs and the requirements of your target audience. Following this guide and utilizing the template can create a high-quality OER that facilitates effective sharing, teaching replicating and learning.