Create OERs | The Teaching & Learning Centre | Seneca Polytechnic

You may choose to create your own OER if you cannot find one to adapt, or you may already have content created but would now like to share it.

Keep in mind creating an OER from scratch is a lot of work that can take hundreds of hours to complete. Make sure you have consulted with the Teaching & Learning Centre to see if there is an OER you can adapt to use with your students.

If you are sure an OER doesn’t already exist that you can adapt, here are some steps to get you started creating your own OER:

1. Contact the Teaching & Learning Centre – chat with the Teaching & Learning Centre to discuss options before starting from scratch.
2. Discuss your ideas with your Chair. Ask if there are any resources available to assist with development (course release, etc.)
3. Contact your librarian. Your Librarian can show you how to search for resources that may be appropriate to use in your OER.
4. Visit the Copyright information for faculty website to get advice on licensing, fair dealing and other concerns involved in creating and publishing content.
5. Consult development frameworks (the Teaching & Learning Centre is also a great resource for this step):
   • Universal Design for Learning Framework
   • UBC OER Accessibility Toolkit
6. Choose your platform, for example:
   • SCALAR
   • OER Commons Create
   • GitBook
   • Google Docs
   • or even an MS Word or PDF document
7. Gather and create materials. Cherry Picking is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED! Feel free to grab part of this chapter, part of that chapter, and then add some content of your own. Just make sure you are working within copyright and licensing terms; visit the Copyright information for faculty website if you have any questions.
8. Evaluate:
   • Pilot with a small number of students
   • Conduct user and accessibility testing
   • Test on multiple devices and platforms (phones, tablets, laptops, Mac, Windows, etc.)
9. Edit and modify
10. Publish
11. Develop maintenance schedule

For more information about creating OERs, visit the Creating page on the Learning Portal.