Being a Smart Consumer of Online Educational Resource Marketplaces

One of the challenges teachers face when planning instruction aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is access to high-quality material. Recent surveys have shown that many teachers assemble instructional materials from various sources. Whether someone is new to the profession, teaching a new topic, or simply revising a lesson that feels outdated, there are many reasons an educator might go looking for materials on the internet. Given the widespread use of open educational resource marketplaces, like Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT), there is a growing body of research concerned with the quality of material available on these sites. Research findings in this area can help educators understand how online marketplaces operate and give them up-to-date information to be smart consumers when searching for instructional material.