Adapting OER
On this page:
Why adapt an existing open educational resource?
Tools for adapting OER
Measuring the use and impact of your OER
Many OER (including open textbooks) are published with Creative Commons licences, which means that users have the right to retain, reuse, redistribute (share), and build upon a work (remix and revise) with few restrictions, subject to giving appropriate attribution.
Why adapt an existing open educational resource?
There are many reasons for adapting an existing open textbook or other OER. For example:
You may want to remove sections that aren’t appropriate for your curriculum
You may want to incorporate material you’ve written yourself to update the resource or to make it more inclusive, diverse and relevant to your context
You may want to add local images, examples or case studies
You may want to add exercises or other activities to make it more interactive
You may want to replace commercially published textbooks that have expensive, unsustainable digital access models, thus ensuring that all your students have equitable digital access to course texts.
The adaptations may be minor, but could make the material completely relevant to your curriculum.
Points to consider
Can you find suitable OER that have appropriate licences to allow you to adapt? The Finding section of this toolkit will direct you to suitable sources.
If you intend to add third party material to your adaptation, are there any copyright or licensing implications?
Which licence will you apply to your adaptation? This may be informed by the licence applied to the material you are adapting. There's more information in the Licensing section of this toolkit.
Tools for adapting OER
The Pressbooks Authoring and Editing Platform can be used to adapt existing OER and to create new material. To use Pressbooks you will need a Faculty Author Account unless your University has an institutional network such as the Sheffield Pressbooks Network.
LibreTexts - The OER Remixer tool enables customised remixes from existing sources in LibreTexts. The Construction Guide has more details.
OER Commons Open Author can be used to customise and create.
Acknowledgements:
Lauri M. Aesoph. Adaption guide
BCcampus. Adapt (modify) an open texbook
Open Education Network. Modifying an open texbook: what you need to know
Measuring the use and impact of OER
When you are deciding where to host your OER it is important to bear in mind what metrics and usage data you will be able to collect from the host site. Data can be valuable in demonstrating the value of your OER and can contribute to evidence for your career development and grant applications.
Visit the Creating section of the toolkit to find guidance on how to track usage and impact of your OER.