Gathering feedback on your OER is a fantastic opportunity to enhance the quality and effectiveness of your work. By actively seeking input from your readers – whether they are students, other educators, colleagues, or even the general public – you can identify areas for improvement and ensure the content is relevant, up-to-date, and engaging. This process not only helps in creating more inclusive and accessible resources but also opens up opportunities for innovation and creativity in teaching methods, as well as potential relationships for future collaboration. Plus, it empowers everyone involved to contribute to a shared goal of improving education for all!

Measuring impact involves assessing improvements in learning outcomes, cost savings for students, and enhanced educational equity. To further this process, having simple feedback mechanisms like an email or survey for users to provide feedback on your OER can be invaluable.

Tracking analytics and measuring the impact of your OER is crucial for understanding its effectiveness and reach. While measuring the reach of open resources can be challenging, any analytics you do capture are valuable. 

By utilising various tools, educators and institutions can gather data on how OER materials are accessed, used, and shared, including metrics like downloads, user engagement, and geographic distribution. 

To enhance transparency, foster user trust and also ensure that educators and learners know which version of your OER they are accessing, consider following best practice recommendations in relation to updating your OER:

Minor Updates:

• Add a Version Statement or Update Section: Include a visible section at the start or end of the OER summarising updates (e.g., “Version 2.0”). Provide a brief "What’s New" summary or a detailed change log.Example: “Updated October 2024: Added new AI tools in Chapter 3, revised statistics in Chapter 5".
• See an example: Versioning history – Using AI Tools at University.

• Ensure Transparency: Clearly state what has been updated within the text so users understand the revisions.
  Example: “Last updated October 2024 to include the latest developments in AI tools for education".

Versioning and Identifiers - DOI/ISBN Retention:

• Retain the original DOI/ISBN for minor updates (e.g., corrections, small additions).
• For major updates (e.g., new chapters, significant reorganisations), assign a new version number while keeping the same DOI for continuity.

Continuous Access:

• Maintain a single, updated version of the OER to ensure users access the latest content, while clearly communicating when updates occur.

This section of the guide draws heavily from the Evaluate section of the CAUL OER Publishing Workflow.

Open Educational Resources Collective Publishing Workflow by Council of Australasian University Librarians is licensed under CC BY 4.0