LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: Fostering Belonging and Purpose through OER

OER and Equity Resources

OER can be used to make education more equitable, not just in terms of access and cost, but in terms of representation. Below are some resources that discuss using OER to achieve a greater degree of equity in education.

Examples of OER Equity

7.1: Case Study- Your Support System
Biology Textbook with Inclusive language
CC BY- NC
Every Day Social Justice
Courses in Women's and Gender Studies
CC BY-SA
Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies
Interdisciplinary survey of people of African descent that draws on the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing.
CC BY-NC-SA

Conducting an Open Textbook Survey for Equity and Inclusion

One place you can start to assess a textbook is to answer some directed questions about the text. Having several people look at the text can help find more areas that may need improvement.

Below are some initial questions to ask yourself:

How inclusive are your photos and illustrations?
What terminology and references are you using? How can you improve on these (and other elements) to make your text more representative of the ACC student population?

To see a list of more questions to ask yourself, see the link below.

ACC Open Textbook Survey for Equity and Inclusion

Revising an OER Textbook

If you choose to revise (also called adapt or remix) an OER textbook, there are certain things to consider.

Make sure that the license allows revision. A CC license with an ND (No Derivatives) does not allow revision.
Determine if the format of the textbook is editable. For example, a PDF is hard and cumbersome to edit where as a work in LibreText would be more feasible.
How much revision is needed? You won't know this until you look more closely at the text. You may find that some simple updates are needed or that the text is missing content and requires a larger revision. Determine if you have the time and energy required.
Make a plan. Consider putting together a team so no one person is overly burdened.
Lastly, once you are done, make sure to share your efforts with the open community.

6 Steps to modifying an Open Textbook

Using a Framework for Reviewing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in OER

To expand on the ACC Open Textbook Survey for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, you can take a look at the resources below.

The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has created a detailed in-depth framework to provide context and criteria for evaluating OER for EDI.

They state, "The audit process or framework outlined here is intended to be applicable to all disciplines and accessible to all faculty. While the ultimate goal is to facilitate an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of resources, elements that are more superficial in nature have been included to provide explicit approaches to improving resources. The ASCCC OERI hopes that this tool will encourage faculty to not only address issues of inequity in academia but also promote a transformative reconsideration of how we know what we know and how education has been shaped by those who have been historically recognized as the experts" (ASCC, para 3.).

Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. 2021, November 09. ASCCC OERI Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism (IDEA) Framework. Open Educational Resources Initiative. tinyurl.com/OERI-IDEA.