The shape of the work
Making an open educational resource goes more smoothly in a set order. Many projects stall because the author drafts first and discovers rights problems, missing audience information or accessibility gaps at the end, when fixing them is costly. The order below tries to move the cheap decisions to the start and the expensive ones to the end. Other articles go deep on audiences, subjects and publishing; this one is the skeleton you can follow from beginning to end.
Treat the steps as a loop, not a straight line. Review will often send you back to drafting, and that is normal.
Stage 1: Plan
1. Name the audience and the need. Write one or two sentences: who is this for, and what should they be able to do afterwards? If you cannot say that clearly, you are not ready to write. Search for existing open materials first, because adapting a good existing resource is often better than building a new one.
2. Write the learning objectives. Three to six specific, observable statements (“explain…”, “calculate…”, “compare…”) are usually enough. They set the scope and make review much easier.
3. Decide scope and size. Choose a length and a time to complete. Smaller is easier to finish, easier to maintain and easier for others to reuse in parts.
4. Decide your license early. Knowing your intended license tells you which third-party material you can include. Material under restrictive terms may be incompatible.
Stage 2: Outline
5. Draft an outline. List the sections in order, with a line on what each covers and how it supports an objective. Put prerequisites first. Check that each objective has matching content and each section serves an objective.
6. Plan the practice and checks. Decide where learners will practice and where they can check their own understanding. Planning this now prevents a resource that explains a lot and asks nothing.
7. List the media you need. For each image, diagram, recording or dataset, decide whether you will make it, find an open one, or leave it out. Create a credits sheet that records source, author and license as you go.
Stage 3: Draft
8. Write a rough draft quickly. Get the full structure down before polishing. Use plain language, define terms when first used, and give examples. Mark gaps with a visible note and fill them later.
9. Use well-structured source files. Write headings with the heading styles, not by enlarging text by hand. Keep text separate from images. This makes the resource accessible and much easier for others to edit or translate.
10. Add examples, practice and answers. Include worked examples where the subject calls for them, then tasks with answers or marking notes.
Stage 4: Make it accessible
11. Check accessibility basics. Meaningful alternative text, captions and transcripts, adequate contrast, descriptive link text, sensible heading order. Doing this before review is cheaper than after.
Stage 5: Review
12. Self-review against your objectives. Read it cold, ideally after a few days. Does every objective have teaching and practice? Cut anything that does not serve one.
13. Check facts, numbers and code. Recalculate every example. Run every code sample. Verify names, dates and quotations. If you are not sure of a fact, say less or remove it.
14. Check rights. Go through the credits sheet. Is every item either yours, openly licensed with the conditions met, or removed? Check license compatibility between sources and your chosen license. This is general information, not legal advice; seek official guidance for unclear cases.
15. Get an outside reader. Ask one or two people from the target audience to try the resource and tell you where they got stuck. An outside subject expert can also check accuracy. Make a note of what you changed.
Stage 6: Release
16. Prepare the package. Provide an editable source and a ready-to-read version. Add the title, author, date, version, license statement and credits inside the resource itself.
17. Write the description. A short, accurate description in plain words, with subject, level, language, time to complete and prerequisites. Avoid promises about results.
18. Publish and announce. Upload to a suitable home, check that links and downloads work from a different device, and tell the people who might use it. Deciding where to publish and how to describe it is a topic in its own right.
Stage 7: After release
19. Collect feedback. Provide a clear way to report errors, and respond to what arrives.
20. Update and version. Correct mistakes, note changes with a date, and say what will no longer be maintained, if anything.
A quick sanity check
Before you call it finished, ask five questions:
- Is the audience and purpose stated in the first paragraph?
- Does each objective have teaching and practice?
- Is every third-party item credited and permitted?
- Can someone with a screen reader or a slow connection use it?
- Could another teacher change it without asking you?
If the answer to any is no, fix it first. A resource that is small, correct and openly licensed is more useful than a large one with unclear permissions, and shipping the small one gives you feedback you cannot get any other way.