Benefits and Concerns of Open Educational Resources

Donna MiguelInstructor, Bellevue CollegeOER Training Course, Summer 2016"Benefits and Concerns of Open Educational Resources" by Donna Miguel is licensed under CC BY 4.0

REFLECTION

Before I took this course, I really had no idea what Open Educational Resources were, and even what the purpose was.

To help students out financially, I would just copy chapters and put them on Canvas, but now, there are other options to consider

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the OER instructors: Boyoung Chae, Jess Thompson, Monique Belair and Brook Bane for creating a thorough, organized, and easy to navigate Canvas course!

Thanks to the classmates for great feedback.

BENEFITS OF OER: ACCESS TO LEARNING

Disrupts the one size fits all approach to education

Region, place, location: universities and community colleges being the “only” place to receive a formal education

Formal education: that formal education is the only type education, which further perpetuates what and who is considered educated, competent and “smart” (reframing of what it means to be educated)

Learning styles: diverse methods of instruction, practices, assignments and delivery to accommodate all types of learners

Pedagogical styles: diverse methods of instruction, practices and assignments to continuously address student needs

Universal design: diverse methods of creating material accessible for communities with disabilities or other intersectional facets of identity

BENEFITS OF OER: FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS

Rising costs of college

Distribution of materials usually (hopefully) has little to no costs for educators and students

Open textbooks and other materials used for classes are less expensive than renting and buying options

Open courses are accessible to all students, from anywhere and can be accessed at any time, at students’ own paces

Open materials are accessible more than once (vs. textbooks and classes being at one point in time)

Open materials that are updatable have little no costs (vs. textbooks continuously being updated and sold at higher costs)

BENEFITS OF OER: PROMOTES INNOVATION THROUGH COLLABORATION

Uses the “it takes a village” philosophy through decision making, revision, editing and continuous feedback

Can highlight innovative techniques to teaching and learning via feedback and communication

Can promote diverse techniques to teaching and learning via feedback and communication to address changing student needs

Allows networking and collaboration through open access from anywhere in the world at any time

CONCERNS OF OER: ACCESSIBILITY

Does everyone really have quick and reliable access to the Internet?

Does everyone really have technology that requires access to the Internet?

Are there institutions or places that donate, or rent for cheap, technology for those who want to utilize OER?

If academic institutions adopt/adapt OER systemically, how to address above issues for students with no penalization (meaning there should be no costs to students, costs being course grades)

Are academic institutions prepped to train employees on OER?

Are materials disseminted widely, and sustainable?

CONCERNS OF OER: LANGUAGE

The concept and definition of Open Educaitonal Resources are confusing, and complex for everyone to understand

The concept and definition of OER doesn’t have accessible language

Are the concepts translated into numerous languages for bilingual and multilingual communities?

CONCERNS OF OER: OTHERS

Some information, through open access, may contain incorrect information How is information assessed, and by whom?

Some sources may not give proper attribution or credit

If used in academic institutions:No explanation of how OER works on disrupting systems of

oppression that perpetuate internalized oppression (ex: telling myself that “I’m not a good at math,” or “I’m a slow, ineffective reader”

No integration ofmetacognition (learning “why I think I’m a crappy writer” or “what I did to understand that math problem”) in OER

THANK YOU!