The Equity Through OER Rubric
7 A Rubric for Equity Through OER
The what, who, why and how of OER rubric
WHAT
The Equity Through OER Rubric is a comprehensive self-assessment tool, designed to guide students, faculty, administrators and other academic practitioners and leaders in not only better understanding, but also acting on the equity dimensions of OER. The rubric is organized by categories, aligned with roles and functions for higher education institutions, units and practitioners. Its overarching goal is to enable users to integrate OER in equitable ways across higher education leading to equitable student access, outcomes and success.
WHO
College, university and university system educators and students from across all spheres of influence and practice, as well as practitioners and policy-makers from a broad spectrum of adjacent organizations and associations, are invited to use the Equity Through OER Rubric. The rubric identifies three broad categories of institutional focus and engagement: Students, Practitioners, and Leadership & Accountability. The three broad categories are broken down further into additional dimensions. While focused on individual institutions, the rubric has broad applicability and relevance to university systems and other educational entities.
WHY
In recognition that equity does not happen without intentionality of purpose and action, the DOERS3 Equity Work Group was formed to develop a blueprint—the OER Equity Blueprint—to identify the equity dimensions of OER in higher education, and to foreground the role of OER in closing equity gaps. The blueprint reclaims, amplifies and elevates the origins of OER in equity and social justice. Over the course of its work, the Equity Work Group realized the extent to which quality and equity are intertwined: doing OER with an equity lens is doing OER well. Equity is embedded in quality OER programs, just as quality is embedded in equity-minded OER programs, reinforcing the extent to which quality and equity are constituent components of one another.
HOW
There are multiple ways to engage with the rubric. The rubric developers invite higher educators to use it as a means to both recognize and honor their commitment to equity, as well as evaluate progress and act on those areas identified as requiring additional focus and effort. The rubric can be used to assess the institution as a whole, and/or may also be used by units and offices, including but not limited to colleges, academic departments, student support services, libraries, bookstores, information and instructional technologies, and business affairs. There is a distinct section for leadership and administrators, including those responsible and accountable for making student-facing, academic, policy and budgetary decisions. At the same time, the rubric seeks to make clear that all stakeholders have leadership roles to play in advancing equity through OER.
The Equity Through OER Rubric was created by members of Driving OER Sustainability for Student Success (DOERS3). DOERS3 is a collaborative that works to position its members and other higher educators to realize the promise of high-quality, accessible, and sustainable OER implementation in order to achieve equity and student success at scale. In addition to the Equity Work Group, DOERS3 also has work groups focused on research and capacity-building.
The rubric is a tangible application of the theoretical framework proposed in the Equity Work Group’s OER Equity Blueprint. It brings the Blueprint into the practice and action realm by identifying roles and responsibilities of institutional players, and proposing levels of engagement, action, and assessment required to aid OER in fulfilling their promise. It is recommended that users read the Blueprint framework prior to engaging with the rubric.
The rubric will be under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC-BY). Users are encouraged to take advantage of the CC-BY license to adopt, adapt, and customize to best suit their needs.
