The following steps illustrates a typical development process for adapting an existing OER or creating a new OER (adapted from the OER Handbook for Educators):
- Find: Search and find OERs, including an existing open textbook or an individual resource. Locate OERs using search engines, repositories and individual websites.
- Either:
- Adopt: adopt an existing OER as-is, without making any changes, or
- Adapt: adapt the resource to make it more useful to a particular situation. For example: adding contextual information specifically for the Canadian context etc. Or take two or more OER materials and remix them to form a new OER.
- Create: create your own open textbook or individual OER
- License: License the work using an open content licenses such as Creative Commons to enable re-use by others
- Publish and distribute: publish the OER once it is finished and make it available to others to begin the life cycle again
- Re-Use: the actual use of the new OER for your own teaching purposes.
