5 Should I Adopt, Adapt, Remix, or Create OER?

You Have Options

By now, you may have found one OER that looks promising, several resources with pieces you like, or a combination of OER and materials you have already created.

Now you need to decide what to do with them.

You have four basic options:

• Adopt: use an existing OER largely as it is;
• Adapt: change an existing OER to better fit your course;
• Remix: combine content from multiple sources; or
• Create: develop something new where a need remains.

These are not four separate paths. Your final resource may include all four.

Start With What You Already Have

Before you decide what to write or change, take stock of what you already have.

There are two important places to look:

• the OER you found: textbooks, chapters, sections, examples, case studies, images, activities, and other openly licensed resources; and
• the materials you have already created: lecture notes, Canvas pages, PowerPoint presentations, handouts, examples, explanations, activities, study guides, discussion prompts, practice questions, and other course materials.

Your existing course materials represent your disciplinary expertise and the ways you have learned to help students understand your subject. Some may need substantial revision before becoming part of a published OER. Others may already contain exactly what you need.

A Suggested Work Plan for Your OER Project

Good planning can make OER development much more manageable. Before you begin copying content, rewriting chapters, or creating something new, take time to determine what your course needs, what you already have, and what work actually needs to be done.

The following process can help you move from a collection of possible resources to a practical OER Development Plan.

Step 1: Compare What You Have to What Your Course Needs

Start with what students need to learn in your course. You might use your Course Outline of Record (COR), a course map, module objectives, or another course-planning document as your guide.

For each major topic or learning need, identify which of the resources you found address it. Include your own existing course materials in the comparison.

At this stage, you do not need to read every potential OER from beginning to end. Start with a quick review to determine whether the content you need is there.

This gives you a quick picture of how much of your course can already be supported by the materials you have found or created and where gaps remain.

Step 2: Compare the Strongest Options

Once you know which resources contain the content you need, look more closely at the strongest options.

You do not need to read several textbooks cover to cover before deciding which might work. Choose one or two important topics that appear in multiple resources and compare how each resource handles the same content.

Consider:

• accuracy: Is the information correct and current?
• clarity: Which resource explains the concept most clearly?
• depth: Does it provide the amount of detail your students need?
• voice: Does the writing style fit the way you want to communicate with students?
• examples: Are the examples useful and appropriate for your students?
• accessibility: Can students effectively access and use the content?
• organization: Does the content work with the learning journey you have planned? and
• fit: Which resource most closely supports the way you want to teach the course?

You may discover that one OER provides the strongest foundation for most of your course while another is particularly strong in a few areas. That is useful information. You do not have to choose only one.

Step 3: Decide What to Adopt, Adapt, Remix, or Create

Once you understand what you have and where the gaps are, decide what makes sense for each part of your resource.

Does Something Already Meet the Need? Adopt It.

Adopting

means using an existing OER largely as it is.

Adoption may make sense when the content aligns with what students need to learn, provides the appropriate level of depth, uses effective explanations and examples, is accurate and current, and requires little or no modification.

Adopting a resource does not mean that the resource determines how you teach your course. You might use only selected chapters, change the sequence, pair readings with your own activities, or organize your Canvas modules completely differently from the organization of the textbook.

The COR is still the course. The textbook is still a resource.

Does Something Almost Meet the Need? Adapt It.

Adapting

means starting with an existing OER and changing it to better meet the needs of your course and students.

You might:

• remove content your students do not need;
• reorganize content to match your course sequence;
• update outdated information;
• replace or add examples;
• clarify explanations;
• add missing content or scaffolding;
• make examples more relevant to your students; or
• improve accessibility.

You do not need to rewrite what already works. Change what will make the resource work better for your students.

Are the Strongest Pieces Spread Across Resources? Remix Them.

Remixing

means combining openly licensed content from different sources into a new resource.

For example, one OER might provide the foundation for most of the course, another might explain a difficult concept particularly well, a third might include a strong case study, and you may already have examples or explanations you want to include.

You can bring those pieces together rather than settling for one resource that does everything adequately but nothing particularly well.

Remember that the licenses on the resources you combine need to work together. If you are unsure whether licenses are compatible, review How Do I Know If I Can Use and Change an OER? before remixing them.

Is Something Still Missing? Create It.

After searching, adopting, adapting, and remixing, you may still discover that something your students need does not exist or does not work the way you want it to.

That is when creating something new makes sense. You might create a missing section, a clearer explanation, a relevant example, a case study, an instructional visual, or content for a topic where the available OER is outdated or inadequate.

Sometimes there truly is a need for an entirely new textbook. But creating OER does not have to mean starting with a blank page and writing a book from beginning to end.

Step 4: Focus Your Effort Where It Matters

Once you realize how much freedom OER gives you, it can be tempting to change everything. More customization does not necessarily mean a better resource.

Before making a change, ask:

How will this change improve the learning experience?

A change may be worthwhile because it:

• improves alignment with the COR;
• makes the content clearer for students;
• removes unnecessary material;
• provides better examples;
• updates outdated information;
• improves accessibility;
• adds needed practice or scaffolding; or
• better supports the way you have designed the course.

If the existing content already works well, you may not need to change it.

Also consider the work required to develop and maintain the resource. A small number of purposeful changes may have greater instructional value than extensively rewriting content that already works.

Consider how much content actually needs to change, how much time the project will require, how frequently the content will need to be updated, and whether colleagues could contribute to the work.

Your time is valuable. Focus it where your changes will make a meaningful difference.

Step 5: Create Your OER Development Plan

Now turn your decisions into a simple OER Development Plan. This becomes your blueprint for the work ahead.

For each major course need, identify:

1. What will I use?
2. Where will it come from?
3. What license does the source use?
4. What will I do with it?
5. What work still needs to be completed?

Your plan might look like this:

Instead of facing a blank page and thinking, I need to write a textbook, you now have a series of smaller, defined tasks.

Your Development Plan Will Help With Attribution Later

As you build your development plan, keep the title, source, author or creator, and license information for every OER you plan to use. Recording this information now will save you considerable time later.

As you develop your resource, this record can help you create the attribution information that will eventually appear in your book and document which resources you adopted, adapted, or remixed.

If you need help determining what attribution information to record or understanding what a license allows you to do, review How Do I Know If I Can Use and Change an OER?.  If you are curious how this plan can help you create your attribution page, view the section about Front and Back matter in “How Do I Develop My OER?”

You Have a Plan. Now Consider Who Can Help You Build It.

Your development plan can also help you see where you may want support. OER development does not have to be an individual project.

Where Would You Like to Go Next?

Use the guide based on what you are ready to do next.