Quality and tests for open educational resources: A Systematization based on software engineering principles

This article discusses the aspects of quality and tests, whose definitions came from Software Engineering, and its application in OER (Open Educational Resources) design and repurposing. This proposal is intended to support people, playing different roles, interested in using, creating or adapting OER. It is hoped that through the test descriptions, producing teams or individual creators would be able to design new OER based on quality standards, as well as to modify existing OER that had previously passed through quality assurance tests. Institutions that use OER or create them may also adopt these references for their internal purposes in order to ensure the quality and testability of their OER. The same way, final users as teachers and students would be able to assess OER quality before using or modifying them. Thus, the purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual framework for OER testing based on the concept of Software Quality, taking into account the different types of OER and the adherence of pre-existing tests to each kind of OER.