Table 4 A revised version of OER selection criteria

Legal and Technical

1) The OER accords with copyright laws (Commons License) and is correctly cited/acknowledged.

2) The OER can be easily reused, revised, remixed and shared with other materials to meet particular teaching-learning needs of the course.

3) The user-interface components (buttons, menus, icons, scroll bars, etc.) are arranged consistently and allow the learners to navigate the site easily.

Content

4) The content is correct and up to date.

5) The content includes significant concepts, models and skills appropriate for the discipline.

6) The content is appropriate to the learners’ knowledge, skills and abilities.

7) The content is culturally appropriate and contains no racial or gender bias.

Pedagogy

8) The OER is used to present relevant real-life tasks or problems that progress from simple to complex.

9) The OER can be readily integrated into the current curriculum and pedagogy.

10) The OER can be easily integrated into and improve a variety of courses and teaching/learning environments.

11) The OER is used to gain students’ attention and to develop their interest in the new learning.

12) The OER is used to devise interactive ways of using OER to promote students’ engagement in the problem-solving process.

13) The OER is used to help students recall, relate or apply prior knowledge, skills or experience as a basis for the new learning.

14) The OER is used to present new content appropriate to the students’ needs and abilities.

15) The OER integrates multimedia that extend the amount and nature of the content.

16) The OER provides supplementary/enhancement materials that extend and enrich the teaching/learning.

17) The OER facilitates flexible learning by allowing the learners to control the rate, order and nature of their learning.

18) The OER enables transfer of the new learning to different tasks/problems/contexts.

19) The OER promotes students’ reflection on the new learning and their own learning.

20) The OER promotes students’ discussion and debate to construct their own learning.

21) The OER includes interactive instructional activities.