Shining the Light: Building Equity into OER Creation

Abstract

Open educational resources (OER) gained traction in education with a focus on affordability and access to ensure students avoid undue hardship due to the high cost of textbooks. Now we must push beyond affordability and access to include equity. Equity ensures that content does not include unintentionally biased content, a lack of culturally relevant content, underrepresentation, exaggerated negative associations, and limited positive associations. Open Oregon Educational Resources centers equity in the Targeted Pathways project by including grant-funded equity consultants as a part of the leadership team. The DEI-focused roles of the equity consultants ensure inclusive and accurate content design to promote the value of differences between people. This article includes background on the Targeted Pathways project and explains how equity consultants challenge authors and leadership team members to engage differently by reflecting on personal agency and positionality, including equity strategies used to ensure the content developed will provide a student experience that it is inclusive and respectful of all individuals.