Evaluating OER

There are no "official" measures of how to grade OER. This is a central problem with it, with no formal measure, it is hard to assess. Some measure the impact of OER resources, others the quality and accessibility and others consider the framework they are being used under.

Lumen Learning use a "report card" to measure success, based on pre-defined goals but they go for the "long term" measure over 2 or 3 years for some criteria.

They use sensible criteria for measuring success which include:

• Number of students enrolled in OER courses
• Number and percentage of OER sections
• Total textbook savings
• Single term textbook saving
• Faculty perceptions of quality
• Faculty challenges to overcome
• Reduction in drops relative to control group or historical patterns, with impact on completion and tuition revenue
• Earliest access to OER materials by students (when do students actually access the available OER)