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OER Commons Intros Authoring Tool

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 01/06/20
OER Commons authoring tool

OER Commons' Open Author

An organization focused on creating open educational resources for education has developed a new tool for authoring OER. OER Commons' Open Author, as it's named, consolidates the functions of three other utilities from OER Commons: the Resource Builder, Lesson Builder and Module Builder.

The program features:

  • A what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor with an accessibility checker, copy and paste from Word and Excel, and a straightforward math editor;
  • Tools for including images, with alt text and captions;
  • Download options for PDF, EPUB3, SCORM and Thin Common Cartridge files;
  • Import from Google and Microsoft OneDrive; and
  • The ability to include a co-author.

During content development, the author can view the material as either an instructor or learner would see it.

For members of the OER Commons' community, existing materials are still available (through the My Items or Groups spaces).

Once the material is ready for publication, others can remix the resource and use it with other materials.

The organization reported that it would be updating its published views in early 2020.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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