{"id":2862,"date":"2026-03-04T11:34:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationalventures.oregonstate.edu\/news\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:47:21","slug":"oer-essentials-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationalventures.oregonstate.edu\/news\/oer-essentials-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes a high-quality OER? Oregon State University launches a guide for faculty"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>OER essentials guide offers a blueprint to provide students with open textbooks that are pedagogically sound, accessible and engaging<\/h2>\n<p>Open educational resources are transforming higher education \u2014 free textbooks and course materials that remove cost barriers and increase student access to learning while giving faculty more flexibility in how they teach.<\/p>\n<p>But as OER adoption grows, so does an important question: How do we define quality in open textbooks?<\/p>\n<p>Oregon State University\u2019s Open Educational Resources Unit is leading the charge to answer that question through the development of <a href=\"https:\/\/open.oregonstate.edu\/textbooks\/OER-essentials.htm\"><strong>A Guide to Open Textbook Essential and Exemplary Features<\/strong><\/a>. It is a\u00a0resource created in collaboration with the <a href=\"https:\/\/open.umn.edu\/oen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Open Education Network<\/a> and many other OER leaders from higher education institutions that publish open textbooks.<\/p>\n<p>The OER essentials guide provides a clear, practical framework for faculty and others to evaluate open textbooks they are considering adopting and for those who want to create open textbooks that are pedagogically sound, accessible, inclusive and engaging for students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis guide gives faculty and institutions a shared language for what \u2018quality\u2019 means in open education. It contains examples of features that are considered essential to a quality open textbook and those that are considered exemplary,\u201d said Stefanie Buck, the director of Oregon State\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/open.oregonstate.edu\/\">Open Educational Resources Unit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether you are reviewing or selecting an open textbook for your course, adapting an existing resource or authoring something new, the guide offers concrete criteria and best practices to support your work. Published under a CC BY 4.0 license, it is free to use, adapt and share.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Explore how to identify and create high-quality OER on our new webpage and start using the guide in your own teaching and decision-making.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"rfi-button\" class=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/open.oregonstate.edu\/textbooks\/OER-essentials.htm\">Explore the OER essentials guide<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span>Oregon State University led the development of A Guide to Open Textbook Essential and Exemplary Features. It is a\u00a0resource created in collaboration with the Open Education Network and many other OER leaders from higher education institutions that publish open textbooks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[10,9,8],"class_list":["post-2862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affordable-learning","category-latest","tag-oer","tag-open-educational-resources","tag-open-textbooks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Oregon State University launches OER essentials guide for faculty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The OER essentials guide provides a clear framework for faculty to evaluate open textbooks that are high-quality and improve affordability.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/educationalventures.oregonstate.edu\/news\/oer-essentials-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What makes a high-quality OER? 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