Quality assurance in the open: an evaluation of OER repositories

Atenas, Javiera and Havemann, Leo (2013). Quality assurance in the open: an evaluation of OER repositories. INNOQUAL: The International Journal for Innovation and Quality in Learning, 1(2) pp. 22–34.

Abstract

The World OER Declaration 2012 recommends that States join efforts to facilitate finding, retrieving and sharing OER. The OER movement has thus far spurred the creation of numerous repository initiatives worldwide with the aim of aiding the development of Open Educational Practice. This paper is based on the analysis on a set of 80 repositories of OER. In order to evaluate the quality of repositories, a set of ten quality indicators was obtained from an analysis of key literature. These indicators represent good practices in repository design, as they enable repositories to promote openness, sharing, reuse of resources and collaboration amongst academic communities. The incidence of the indicators within the actual repositories of OER is discussed, with the aim of understanding the extent to which these good practices are commonplace across repositories when considered by type, region, and overall. Although there are numerous references in the OER literature to the importance of these features in repository design, the actual initiatives demonstrate quite heterogeneous approaches, and some indicators achieve very low incidence considering the crucial role they play in supporting the aims of the OER movement. The significance of the various indicators is considered in relation to questions of overlap, practicality and sustainability, in order to suggest directions for further investigation and ultimately the improvement of these important repositories.

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