Open Educational Resources

- Benefits and Challenges

- by Daniel Nietering

Open Educational ResourcesBenefits1. Costs2. Promise of the future3. Long-term work

reduction4. Peace of mind5. Professional

development

Challenges1. Quality control2. Over-dependence on

technology3. Short-term work

increase4. Institutional reluctance5. Accessibility

Benefit 1: Costs• The high cost of textbooks for students is simply

unsustainable. • OERs are free for our students, so they serve to make

education more affordable for all

Benefit 2: Promise of the future• Because OERs are non-revocable, it means that the

number of OERs available to educators will continue to expand at a runaway rate. This holds a lot of promise!

Benefit 3: Long-term work reduction• Non-revocable materials means you don’t have to

worry about new editions coming out and rendering your favorite textbook obsolete. If you find a source you like, you can use it forever! This can also reduce your workload in the long run.

Benefit 4: Peace of Mind• There’s often a nagging feeling that the thing you’re

copying might be copyrighted. OERs remove all doubt and anxiety.

Benefit 5: Professional development• If OERs are indeed the future, then educators that can

use them proficiently will have a leg up moving forward. It makes them more versatile and better prepared for the exigencies of a changing workplace.

Challenge 1: Quality control• There is a less rigorous vetting process with OER, so

one must be more careful about the quality of materials that make their way into the classroom

Challenge 2: Over-dependence on technology• Networks still go down periodically. With our

increased dependency on the internet comes an increased susceptibility to lesson materials suddenly becoming unavailable.

Challenge 3: Short-term work increase• There is simply a lot of stuff to sift through when you

are employing OERs for the first time. Becoming familiar with the reliable repositories of lesson materials can take some time.

Challenge 4: Institutional Reluctance• As the OER movement is only about ten years old,

OERS are often misunderstood or perceived skeptically by fellow educators or even institutionally

Challenge 5: Accessibility• As has been made very clear in the previous module,

many OERs are currently inaccessible to learners who may require closed captioning, for example. More will need to be done in the future to ensure that our resources our universally accessible.