2 Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in OER
This page includes a collection of resources designed to support creating OER that have content and approaches that include and respect the diversity and complexity of our world. They include:
- Guideline Questions for Creating OER with Intention: This resource is intended to be used during the planning stages of a new OER project to help a project team be intentional about centering equity in their approach to OER development and identifying where they may need support.
- Diverse and Inclusive Representation in OER: This provides examples for different ways diversity and inclusion can show up in an OER, including through examples, images, names, etc.
- OER Equity Rubric: This resource can be used to evaluate an existing OER to identify how equitable the content is and identify areas for improvement.
Guiding Questions for Creating Equitable OER with Intention
By Josie Gray and Clint Lalonde
About the Guiding Questions and How to Use Them
These guiding questions are intended to support OER authors and contributors in thinking through various aspects of equity as it relates to educational resources and making a plan for how they will ensure the OER they create is equitable from the beginning. The questions can be used to:
- Document their vision, intentions, and commitments for the OER from the beginning of the project.
- Identify areas where more learning, research, and/or support may be needed.
- Communicate the work and consideration that went into the creation and design of the resource to future users of the OER.
The guiding questions are grouped into six areas of consideration: openness, pedagogy, accessibility, positionality, Indigenous perspectives, and knowledge equity and social justice. These areas of consideration are not comprehensive, but they are things BCcampus has identified as being important to improve equity, access, and quality of learning for students.
These guiding questions are meant to be used at two points:
- At the beginning of an OER project, everyone involved with the project can use these questions to think through different aspects of the project and make a plan for what they want the resource to be and how they are going to do it. Note that many of these guiding questions are complex and don’t have straight forward answers. It is also unlikely that one person will be able to answer them all. Use the questions as a jumping off point for discussion and reflection and to identify where you need more support/resources.
- At the end of an OER project, the questions can be used again to reflect on the work and considerations that went into the OER and communicate those things explicitly to future users, including instructors who want to adopt or adapt the resource, students, and the general public. For example, this could take the form of a preface or author statement that is included with the resource.
Areas of Consideration
Openness
- Why do you want this resource to be “open”?
-