4. Adapting, Remixing, and Localising OER

🎯 Learning Outcomes	📍 Guiding Questions
Adapt OER to align with your learning outcomes, learners, and context Identify and address assumptions embedded in existing resources Distinguish between surface-level, structural, and contextual adaptation Apply correct attribution when building on others' work Document adaptations to support transparency and future reuse	What needs to change for this resource to work in your context? What assumptions does the original material make about its audience? How do you decide what to keep, change, or remove? How do you credit the original creators when you adapt their work? How do you make your changes visible so others can build on them?

You have found resources, evaluated their fit, and checked their licenses. Some of what you found is close to what you need — but not quite right. That is normal. Adaptation is the most common way people work with OER, and it is exactly what open licenses are designed to enable.

This lesson is about making existing resources work in your context. Not wholesale redesign — targeted, purposeful changes that close the gap between what a resource assumes and what your learners actually need.

Why this matters¶

Most open resources were created for a different audience, a different setting, or a different set of constraints than yours. An activity designed for postgraduate students in London may assume stable internet, familiarity with certain software, and fluency in academic English. A workshop originally delivered to NGO staff may assume organisational structures and workflows your learners do not share.

These mismatches do not make the resource bad. They make it a starting point. Adaptation is how you transform someone else's good design into something that works in your context — preserving what is valuable while changing what does not fit.

The risk of skipping this step is real. Resources used without adaptation can confuse learners, undermine your outcomes, or create barriers you did not intend. But over-adaptation has costs too: if you change so much that the original structure no longer holds together, you may have been better off creating from scratch.

The goal is targeted change — enough to make the resource work, documented well enough that others (including your future self) can understand what you changed and why.

How adaptation works¶

Surfacing assumptions and mismatches¶

The first move in any adaptation is understanding what the original resource assumes and where those assumptions diverge from your reality. You began this work in Lessons 1 and 2 — identifying hidden assumptions and evaluating context fit. Now you apply that analysis to specific changes.

Take the resource you are adapting and work through it section by section. For each part, ask two questions:

What does this assume? — about learners' prior knowledge, available tools, cultural context, language level, institutional setting, or time available
Where does that assumption not hold for my learners? — where your context differs in ways that would cause confusion, exclusion, or failure

Write these down. You are building a map of what needs to change, and being specific about the mismatch helps you make targeted decisions rather than vague improvements.

Surfacing assumptions

A facilitator in Nairobi is adapting an OER data literacy module originally designed for a European university. Working through the material, she identifies several assumptions: the exercises use a specific proprietary statistics package her learners do not have; the case studies reference EU regulatory frameworks; the instructions are written in dense academic prose; and the module assumes 90-minute sessions when her workshops run in 45-minute blocks. Each of these is a specific, addressable mismatch — not a reason to abandon the resource.

Levels of adaptation¶

Not all changes are equal. Understanding the level of adaptation you are making helps you gauge the effort required and the risks involved.

Surface adaptation changes the presentation without altering the underlying structure or learning design. This includes updating terminology to match your context, replacing images or formatting, translating text, or adjusting tone and reading level. Surface changes are low-risk and often the first thing to tackle.

Structural adaptation changes how the material is organised or how learners engage with it. This includes reordering sections to match your outcomes, splitting a long activity into shorter ones, changing the mode of engagement (from individual to group work, from online to face-to-face), or removing sections that do not serve your design. Structural changes require more thought because they can affect coherence — removing one section may leave another section without the context it needs.

Contextual adaptation changes the underlying goals, assumptions, or conditions. This includes replacing case studies with locally relevant scenarios, substituting tools that are available in your setting, rethinking prerequisite knowledge, or reframing the purpose of an activity for a different professional context. Contextual changes are the deepest and most impactful — they are also where the original resource's design is most likely to need careful rethinking.

Most adaptations involve all three levels. You might update terminology (surface), reorder activities (structural), and replace examples (contextual) in a single pass.

Making adaptation decisions¶

For each mismatch you identified, decide:

Keep — it works as-is, or the mismatch is minor enough to address verbally during delivery
Modify — it needs specific changes to work, but the core structure is sound
Remove — it does not serve your outcomes and would create confusion or wasted time
Replace — the purpose is right but the content needs to be entirely different (a new example, a different tool, an alternative activity format)

These are design decisions under real constraints. You will not have time to adapt everything perfectly, and you should not try. Focus your effort on the changes that make the biggest difference for your learners. A localised example that helps learners connect with the material is worth more than perfect formatting.

Accessibility as adaptation¶

Adaptation is also an opportunity to make materials more accessible than the original. Consider:

Alternative formats — If the original is a PDF, can you provide an editable version (Word, Markdown, Google Docs) so others can adapt it further? Can you provide a version that works on mobile devices?
Simplified language — If the original uses dense academic prose, can you simplify without losing meaning? This benefits all learners, not just those working in a second language.
Alt text and structure — If images lack descriptions, add them. If the document lacks proper headings, add structure that supports navigation and screen readers.
Offline usability — If the original assumes constant internet access, can you make it work offline? Can embedded videos be replaced with text descriptions or downloadable alternatives?

These changes are not extras — they are part of making the resource genuinely usable in your context.

Attribution: crediting what you build on¶

When you adapt someone else's work, you have both a legal obligation (from the license) and a professional responsibility to credit the original creator. Good attribution is straightforward: it tells the reader where the material came from and what you changed.

What to include¶

A complete attribution has four elements:

Creator — who made the original
Title — the name of the original work
Source — where it can be found (a URL or repository reference)
License — what license applies to the original

When you have adapted the material, add a note about what you changed:

Adapted from "Introduction to Qualitative Coding" by J. Mwangi, available at [link]. Original licensed under CC BY 4.0. Adapted by [your name]: examples replaced with community health scenarios; exercises restructured for 45-minute sessions; instructions simplified for non-specialist audience.

Where to place attribution¶

Put attribution where it is visible and useful — not buried in a footnote. For a document, the beginning or end of the section that uses adapted material works well. For a slide deck, a final slide or a notes section. For a collection of materials, a central attribution page that lists all sources.

Key takeaway

Attribution is not just a legal requirement — it is part of the open ecosystem. When you credit sources clearly, you make it easier for others to find and build on the same materials. You also model good practice for your learners.

Documenting your adaptations¶

Beyond attribution, document what you changed and why. This serves two purposes: it helps others who might want to adapt your version further, and it helps you remember your reasoning when you revisit the materials later.

A simple adaptation log captures the essentials:

What you changed — content, structure, examples, difficulty level, format
Why you changed it — the specific mismatch between the original's assumptions and your context
What remains context-specific — changes you made that are tied to your particular setting and might need further adaptation for other contexts

This does not need to be elaborate. A few sentences per significant change is enough. The goal is transparency, not bureaucracy.

In practice¶

👉 Use Activity 14: OER Workflow — document your adaptations and their rationale

Work through Section 3 (Adaptation and Localisation Log). For each resource you are adapting, record what you changed, why, and what remains specific to your context.

what to do: Apply targeted adaptations to at least one resource. Document what you changed, why, and what assumptions you addressed. Include attribution for each adapted resource.
focus sections: 3 (Adaptation and Localisation Log)
expected output: An adaptation log with documented changes, reasoning, and attribution for each adapted resource
approximate time: 20–30 minutes

👉 Come back to Activity 8: Learning Activity Design

what to do: Update one activity using your adapted material. Check that the adapted resource fits within the activity flow — instructions are coherent, the adapted examples work, and the activity can be used without additional explanation.
expected output: A revised activity that integrates your adapted materials and works in your context
approximate time: 10–15 minutes

Before you move on¶

You should now have:

at least one resource adapted for your context with specific, documented changes
assumptions identified and addressed at the appropriate level (surface, structural, or contextual)
clear attribution for each adapted resource
an adaptation log that explains what changed and why

If adaptation was not the right choice for all your materials — if some gaps need original content — the next lesson covers creating OER from scratch.