Approaches to OER Development

Abstract

OER development is becoming more sophisticated as instructors and course specialists become more familiar with the environment. Most OER development approaches for online courses have been developed from those that were appropriate in the face-to-face context. However, the OER online environment opens up new possibilities for learning as well as holding particular limitations. This paper presents some approaches that OER implementers should bear in mind when initiating and supporting OER course development projects.

1. Beg, borrow, or steal courseware. Don't reinvent the wheel. 2. Take what exists and build the course around it. 3. Mix and match. Assemble. Don't create. 4. Avoid the "not invented here" syndrome. 5. Know the content -garbage in and garbage out. 6. Establish deadlines. Work to deadlines, but don't be unrealistic. 7. Estimate your costs and then double them. Double them again. 8. Be realistic in scheduling and scoping. 9. The project plan must be flexible. Be prepared for major shifts. 10. Build flexibly for reuse and repurposing -generalizability reduces costs 11. Provide different routes to learning. 12. Build to international standards.

There are necessary features in every OER, including introduction, schedule etc. but it is most important to keep the course as simple as possible. Extreme Programming (XP) methodology can be adapted from software engineering to aid in the course development process.