 | Watch the video “Open Educational Resources: How to Find & Evaluate Resources Online? by Elder, A. [6:04]. “How to Find and Evaluate OER” by Abbey Elder is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/… |
Criteria for tool selection
OER production usually does not require any additional or exclusive digital tools, so you can use the tools you use most often to create learning materials in your courses. However, you can also choose tools specifically designed for OER development. While selecting an ICT Tool for OER creation, some aspects related to the quality issues should be reconsidered, like functionality, editability, usability and accountability of the tool.
Before choosing a tool, it is advisable to consider several aspects:
- Does this tool allow the production of multimedia and textual resources or courses that may contain both types?
- What are the financial aspects of using this tool? Will it be available for free? Will the same conditions apply to you, students, and collaborators?
- Will learners/collaborators need to create an account to access the created OER? If so, what are the terms of use of the tool and how will data protection be ensured?
- Are there any restrictions on the number of users/collaborators working on one OER?
- Does this tool allow you to download and export the content in a format that can be reused and shared by others?
- Does this tool support the production of the accessible OER? (Adapted from Žvinienė, Šadauskas and Volungevičienė, 2014).
When it comes to the editability aspect, you should reconsider the following options:
- Will this tool allow you to download OER in an editable version?
- Will this tool allow you to edit OER online?
- Will this tool allow editing OER for registered users only?
- Will this tool allow you to edit OER without registration?
- Will this tool allow editing OER collaboratively? (Adapted from Žvinienė, Šadauskas and Volungevičienė, 2014).
As well, before choosing the tool for OER creation or modifications, you should think about the usability and accessibility aspects. This refers to the fact, that while your tool might perfectly meet the requirements for functionality, it might also be rather expensive or complicated to use. Some of the questions that you are recommended to reconsider:
- Is the ICT tool free of charge?
- Is it intuitive to use?
- Can you add a Creative Commons license to your work?
- What operating systems does the tool support?
- Are there any other requirements for usability and accessibility? (Adapted from Žvinienė, Šadauskas and Volungevičienė, 2014).
 | Explore the Unit 1 “Requirements for ICT tools for OER development/adaptation” of an open-access course “ICT tools to develop and adapt OER” by Žvinienė, V., Šadauskas, M., and Volungevičienė, A., where more recommendations are provided, including the templates and guidelines for you to choose an ICT tool for your OER development/adaptation.This work by Vida Žvinienė, Marius Šadauskas, and Airina Volungevičienė, was developed during OpenProf Project, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. |
 | Share and discuss in a discussion forum what tools you find to be most useful or user-friendly. What are the main criteria for you to use the tool? |
We share a list of tools that can be used for both – individual and collaborative OER development. Following the recommendations provided in the topic above, you may select a tool that is free or requires no registration.
Please not that the list of tools is not structured by their type of use, since many of them may be used for different activities based on teachers’ decision.
Table 1. List of tools suitable for OER development, communication, and collaboration, teaching and learning design, and organisation
| Tools | Description | Free access | Registration required | Link | |
| Communication and collaboration, teaching and learning design development, and organisation | |||||
| Slide Wiki | The portal enables teachers/lecturers/lecturers to create their presentations or to adapt other authors’ works in collaboration with peers and co-authors. |  | | https://slidewiki.eu/ | |
| Google Slides | Google Slides is a free tool for creating slides. It is part of the overall suite of tools that Google offers for free to its users. | | | https://www.google.com/slides/about/ | |
| Google Docs | Drafting joint documents (texts), and presentations. | | | https://www.google.com/docs/about/ | |
| Padlet | Free digital board. Allows users to publish their ideas by attaching videos, photos, text files, links, and so on. | | | https://padlet.com/ | |
| Blackboard | A virtual classroom that’s ready for individual discussions, big lectures, and everything in between. Blackboard also comes with an Anti-plagiarism tool embedded in the system. The feature allows instructors to determine the originality of submitted assignments without turning to third-party software for help. Additionally, the tool has software that helps track students’ progress throughout the course. | 30-day free trial | | https://www.blackboard.com/ | |
| Miro | It is an online tool that allows you to combine a wide range of learning materials: slides, videos, web links, documents, and more. | 3 boards are free | | https://miro.com/ | |
| Nearpod | It is an online tool that allows you to combine a wide range of learning materials: slides, videos, web links, documents, and more. It is a tool to create and share charts, surveys, and presentations. The tool is designed to increase learner engagement in the learning process. | | | https://nearpod.com/ | |
| Pear Deck | Login to Pear Deck with a Google or Microsoft account. Can be created lessons with interactive questions, polls, quizzes, and formative assessments that also allows students to draw and write on the teachers’ notes in real-time. | The basic bundle is free | | https://www.peardeck.com/ | |
| Trello | An online free tool for listing and planning. Boards, lists and cards allow teams to organise and prioritise projects in a fun, flexible, and useful way. | | | https://trello.com/ | |
| Slack | A communication platform that makes it quick and easy to correspond, share files, and video call with colleagues. The tool offers many communication-style features, including persistent chat rooms organised by topic, private groups, and instant messaging. | | | https://slack.com/ | |
| Canvas | Canva has everything from social media images and web banners to marketing brochures, flyers, business cards, and presentations. Canvas Studio makes video learning enjoyable and effective, whereas the Canvas catalogue modernizes the registration and enrolment of students in a particular course. The system allows parents to view students’ assignments and formulates the best data metrics instructors can use to improve students’ performance. | The basic account is free | | https://www.canva.com/ | |
| Prezi | Presentation, video tool. Free version (5 visual projects that anyone can see). | | | https://prezi.com/ | |
| Genially | A tool for creating interactive presentations. The tool works in a browser. Registration required. The basic tool account is free. | | | https://genial.ly/ | |
| Quizlet | The tool allows you to create online learning cards (one side question, one side answer). The tool works in a browser. | | | https://quizlet.com/ | |
| Gimp | Editing and creating photos, images, logos, or other illustrations. | |  | https://www.gimp.org/ | |
| Getcrosswords | Crossword and puzzle tool. | | | http://www.getcrossword.com/ | |
| Makebeliefscomix | Comics creation tool. | | | https://makebeliefscomix.com/ | |
| Powtoon | An online video communication tool that can be used to create animations or explanatory videos on a variety of topics. | Partially free of charge | | https://www.powtoon.com/ | |
| Flinga | An online tool that makes it very easy to create online collaborative environments, including mind maps with pre-designed forms. | | | https://flinga.fi/ | |
| MindMup | A tool for creating mind maps. | | | https://www.mindmup.com/ | |
| MindMeister | A tool for creating mind maps. | | | https://www.mindmeister.com/ | |
| Mindomo | A tool for creating mind maps. | | | https://www.mindomo.com/ | |
| DesignEvo | An easy-to-use online logo creation tool to create original and colourful logos or images on a variety of themes | Partially free of charge | | https://www.designevo.com/ | |
It is up to a teacher to decide what type of open educational resource is the best to be used in a specific course or lesson.
More practical information on how to choose an ICT tool and develop/adapt OER can also be found in the training material “ICT tools to develop and adapt OER” under the topic “Choosing ICT tool and developing/adapting OER”.
| Explore the training material (OER) on the topic of “Choosing ICT tool and developing/adapting OER” where suggestions on how to choose the tool according to functionality and develop OER using the selected tool are presented.This work by Vida Žvinienė, Marius Šadauskas, and Airina Volungevičienė, during OpenProf Project, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. |
| Share and discuss with your peer colleague, what tool are you going to use to develop a collaborative open educational resource. If you have any questions or doubts, please feel free to ask them in a discussion forum. |