12 How Do I Keep My OER Current?

Your OER Is a Living Resource

Publishing your OER does not mean the resource is finished forever. One of the greatest advantages of OER is that you can continue to improve it as your teaching, students, and discipline change.

You do not have to wait for a publisher to release a new edition. If an explanation is not working, you can revise it. If research or statistics change, you can update them. If students need another example, you can add one. If you discover a better way to organize a chapter, you can change it.

And you do not have to identify every improvement on your own. Teaching with the resource gives you new information about how well it works. Your students can help you see the resource from the learner’s perspective. Colleagues and other educators can contribute their own expertise and experience.

Learn From Teaching With Your OER

You learned a great deal about your OER while developing and reviewing it. But some things only become visible when students actually use the resource.

As you teach, you may discover that:

• students consistently struggle with a particular explanation;
• a section is longer or more detailed than students need;
• students need another example or more practice;
• a concept would make more sense if it appeared earlier in the book;
• terminology is confusing or inconsistent;
• a link or embedded resource no longer works;
• research, data, policies, technologies, or examples have become outdated;
• an image, table, activity, or other element creates an accessibility barrier; or
• students respond particularly well to something that could be expanded or used elsewhere.

These discoveries do not mean there was something wrong with the OER you published. They are part of what happens when a resource moves from development into actual teaching.

Over time, the resource can become part of your ongoing teaching practice. Instead of teaching around a textbook that no longer fits, you can use what you learn each time you teach to make the resource work better for the students who come next.

Invite Your Students Into the Work

Your students experience the OER differently than you do. You know the discipline and already understand the concepts. Students can help you see where the experience of learning from the resource differs from what you intended.

But student involvement can go beyond providing feedback. One of the possibilities of open education is that students do not have to remain only consumers of educational materials. They can participate in reviewing, improving, and even creating resources that may help future students.

This is one way OER can support open pedagogy: students can become participants in the creation and improvement of knowledge rather than completing work that is seen only by the instructor and then discarded.

Students Can Review the OER

One of the easiest ways to involve students is to invite them to help identify opportunities for improvement.

Ask students to notice:

• explanations or instructions that are confusing;
• places where another example or more practice would help;
• errors, typos, outdated information, or broken links;
• images, tables, activities, or other content that are difficult to understand or access;
• examples or perspectives that may be missing; and
• features, examples, or explanations that are particularly helpful.

You might gather this information informally throughout the course, include a quick feedback question at the end of a module, create a shared method for reporting issues, or ask students to reflect on the resource near the end of the semester.

Students Can Contribute to the OER

Students can also help improve the resource itself. Depending on your course and learning objectives, students might:

• develop examples that illustrate a concept;
• write or revise glossary entries;
• research and update outdated information;
• develop case studies or scenarios;
• create practice or review questions;
• locate openly licensed images or other resources;
• create diagrams, illustrations, videos, or other media;
• identify perspectives or examples that could broaden the resource;
• revise an explanation for clarity;
• adapt material for a different audience or context; or
• develop a new section or chapter.

The work students are already doing in your course may provide opportunities for meaningful contributions. Instead of creating an assignment solely for the instructor to grade, students might create something that can be reviewed, improved, and potentially used by future students.

Students Can Help Build the Next Version

Student involvement can be as small as identifying a broken link or as substantial as helping develop the next version of the textbook.

For a larger open pedagogy project, students might work individually or collaboratively to research, review, revise, or create portions of the OER. Their work can go through feedback and revision just as other academic work does, with appropriate contributions considered for inclusion in a future version.

This can change the relationship students have with the textbook. Instead of seeing the resource as something fixed that was created somewhere else, students can see knowledge as something they can question, improve, contribute to, and share.

For an example of this approach, explore Student-Created Open “Textbooks” as Course Communities, which describes using student-created open textbooks as part of the learning experience.

Invite Colleagues and Other Educators Into the Work

Your students are not the only people who can help you see opportunities for improvement. Colleagues who teach the same or related courses can bring another disciplinary and teaching perspective to the resource.

They might:

• identify errors or outdated information;
• suggest clearer explanations or additional examples;
• review sections within their areas of expertise;
• identify perspectives or content that may be missing;
• contribute examples, case studies, activities, or ancillary materials;
• help review accessibility; or
• take responsibility for reviewing or maintaining particular sections.

If several faculty use the same OER, maintaining it can become a shared responsibility rather than the work of one person. Different faculty may notice different things when they teach with the resource, and those experiences can help improve it for everyone.

The collaboration can extend beyond Palomar. Another educator who adopts or adapts your OER may identify something you missed, develop a useful example, update a section, create an activity, or find a new way to use the resource.

Earlier in your OER journey, you searched for resources created by other educators and benefited from their willingness to share. Once you share your own OER, other educators may begin doing the same with your work. When possible, stay connected with educators who use or adapt your resource so you can learn from one another.

Capture What You Want to Improve

Ideas for improving your OER may now be coming from several places: your own teaching, your students, colleagues, or other educators using the resource. You need a simple way to capture those ideas without turning every teaching day into an editing session.

Keep a running OER improvement list as you move through the course.

For example:

• Chapter 2: add another example of [concept];
• Chapter 4: replace outdated statistic;
• Chapter 6: fix broken link;
• Chapter 8: students need clearer instructions for the activity;
• Chapter 9: colleague suggested adding [perspective]; and
• consider moving [topic] earlier in the book.

At the end of the term, return to the list and decide which changes are worth making.

Decide What Needs Your Attention

Once you have a list of possible improvements, decide what needs attention now and what can wait. Not every change has the same urgency.

Fix Important Problems

Some issues should be addressed as soon as practical, particularly when they affect students’ ability to use or trust the resource. These might include:

• significant factual errors;
• accessibility barriers;
• broken links or resources that students need to complete their work;
• incorrect or misleading instructions; or
• other problems that interfere with learning.

Regularly Review Content That Changes Quickly

Some foundational concepts may remain useful for years, while other information can change quickly. Depending on your discipline, periodically review:

• statistics and data;
• laws, regulations, and policies;
• research findings;
• technologies and software;
• professional standards or practices;
• terminology;
• current examples and case studies; and
• external websites and links.

Improve the Learning Experience Over Time

Other revisions may not be urgent but can make the resource better. You might improve an explanation, add another example, reorganize a section, add practice opportunities, incorporate student feedback, or make the resource easier to navigate.

Make and Review Your Changes

Once you decide what to revise, make the changes and review the parts of the resource affected by them.

Depending on what you changed, remember to:

• verify accuracy: confirm that revised information is accurate, current, and appropriate for your course;
• check course alignment: make sure substantial additions still support the learning objectives and purpose of the resource;
• recheck accessibility: review new or revised images, tables, links, documents, videos, interactive elements, headings, and other content;
• run the Pressbooks accessibility checker: if you are using Palomar Pressbooks, run the checker again and manually review the changes as well;
• verify permission: make sure you have permission to use and share newly added third-party content;
• update attribution: record the source and license information for newly added or adapted content; and
• check links and embedded resources: confirm that students can still access the resources you intend.

If you need to revisit these processes, return to How Do I Make My OER Accessible? or How Do I Know If I Can Use and Change an OER?

Track and Share Your Changes

Once you begin making updates, keep a simple record of significant changes. This helps you remember what changed, lets collaborators and adopters know what is different, and helps readers determine whether they are using the most current version.

For example:

Your revision log does not need to document every corrected typo. Focus on changes that would be useful for readers, collaborators, or faculty who have adopted the resource to know about.

Release the Next Version

After making revisions, take a moment to review what changed before treating the updated version as complete.

For routine updates:

• review the revised content for accuracy and alignment;
• check accessibility, links, attribution, and licensing for anything that changed;
• update your revision or version information; and
• let collaborators or other faculty using the resource know about significant changes.

You do not need to repeat the entire development process for every small revision. Match the level of review to the significance of the change.

If you made substantial changes, return to How Do I Know My OER Is Ready? and use the pre-publication review process before releasing the new version.

Where Would You Like to Go Next?

You have reached the end of this guide, but your OER work does not have to follow a straight line. What you learn from teaching, collaborating, and revising may bring you back to an earlier part of the process.