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.
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:
To see a list of more questions to ask yourself, see the link below.
If you choose to revise (also called adapt or remix) an OER textbook, there are certain things to consider.
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.
This page is adapted from "OER and ZTC for Faculty: Equity and Inclusion" by Rachel Arteaga and is licensed under CC BY 4.0