Week 1: Digital Media Checklist

Here you can access two resources aligned to evaluating Open Education Resources (or any other resources that an instructional designer may want to use in building a training or course).

The first button will take you to a template of a checklist to evaluate resources. I created this checklist in order to better analyze the strengths and usability of materials that learners may access in a training or course that I create. This checklist focuses on the following categories: Accuracy and Reliability, Accessibility and Equity, Relevance, Learner-Centered, Design Quality, and Licensing. In creating this checklist, I wanted to be intentional about what diverse adult learners value in a learning resource. I considered how useful learners might find the resource to not only the course content, but also to their specific roles and problems that they might come across in their roles. I also wanted to ensure in my checklist that the resources were free from bias. For example, if a company were creating the resource in order to sell a product, this resource might contain a bias that could prevent it from being a reliable resource. As I created this checklist, I learned that it was helpful to be metacognitive and reflect on my own experiences as a learner. I asked myself, “What do I find useful in resources? What barriers have I faced with resources in courses before?” For example, I realized how much I value the design of the resource and how the clear organization of a resource is important to me. Due to this, I wanted to be sure that I included design elements of the resource into the checklist.

The second button will bring up the application of this checklist. I took a resource that I found pertaining to the course that I am building and used the checklist to analyze this resource. My biggest takeaway during this process was that my checklist was effective in analyzing material. As I evaluated the resource, I felt as though my checklist was comprehensive and there was nothing missing from it. I really enjoyed being able to apply this checklist because it gave me a clear framework of analyzing materials in the future. I realized how valuable this tool is and how it saves time as a content creator because it gives a consistent and fast way to determine if a resource is worth using.