The Benefits and Challenges Open Educational Resources

By Kathy Bright

2

Benefits Students Save $$$ !

• The most important reason to incorporate OER into your course!

Instructors get the opportunity to learn what their peers in the discipline are using to teach concepts.

Students are exposed to alternative methods of presenting concepts and other course materials

OER information lives beyond the course dates, giving students access to the information for many years

OER materials can give students the opportunity to brush up on materials in advance of taking courses.

Challenges Finding applicable OER can be time consuming Not finding OER after searching can be frustrating Incorporating OER requires being able to differentiate which

ownership laws apply: Copyright, Teach/Learn Act, Public Domain

Correct attribution of OER in a course requires technical skills in the LMS and in the applicable software (e.g., MS Word, Powerpoint)

OER used may become outdated, requiring continual review and replacement

There is no efficient way to inform OER users that materials have been updated/changed/replaced