BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF USING OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Matt Green, IT Instructor WCTC

The Benefits of using OERs

1. Frees up some of the instructor’s time so that they may have more time to provide feedback to student instead of creating materials that already exists.

2. Reduces the costs for students and the frustrations they face as textbooks constantly change versions.

3. Reduces the “Grey Areas” related to the fair use of materials for educational purposes by clarifying reuse of materials and lessons.

The Benefits of using OERs

4. Reduces the Carbon Footprint for most courses due to the fact that materials tend to be digital.

5. Promotes high quality course development by enabling curriculum developers to review courses from some of the top educational institutions in the World.

The Challenges of using OERs

1. Acceptance from students. Most of our students receive financial aid (they do not appreciate the cost savings) and view free resources as inferior.

2. Relevance of materials. Some topics need to be updated annually to be valid and all resource providers struggle to keep up. (Example: Android Development)

The Challenges of using OERs

3. Quality of Lessons and materials. Most textbooks are reviewed by editors and subject mater experts. While several OER providers provide some editing and review, there is less controls then a quality textbook.

4. Lack of motivation to develop. Many faculty supplemented their income by writing textbooks in the past. While many efforts to create OERs are grant funded, the amount paid is not much of an incentive to create Open Materials.

The Challenges of using OERs

5. Lack of integration with LMS. Few OERs are SCRUM compliant. This is changing (TAACCCT  funded materials will need to be SCRUM compliant) but as SCRUM compliant components are built it will take even more resources to keep resources current.