Ramesh Kumar

Whatcom Community College

OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

BENEFITS & CHALLENGES

OER BENEFITS- OVERVIEW

1. REDUCED COSTS

2. CHOICES AND FLEXIBILITY

3. GLOBAL ACCESSIBILITY AND GLOBAL REACH

4. CURRENCY OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

5. CUSTOMIZABLE TEACHING MATERIALS

6. PROMOTING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY AMONG EDUCATORS AND INSTITUTIONS

OER CHALLENGES - OVERVIEW

1. TECHNICAL ISSUES

2. CUSTOMIZATION OF MATERIALS

3. REVOCABILITY OF RIGHTS

4. INFORMATION OVERLOAD AND REDUNDANCY

5. TRAINING AND MIND-SET CHANGES REQUIRED

6. OPPOSITION FROM FACULTY AND DEPARTMENTS

7. LACK OF APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTOR AND STUDENT SUPPORT MATERIALS

BENEFIT 1:REDUCED COSTS

• College Textbook Costs Spiralling1

• Average student spends $1200 per year on books

• Between 2002 and 2013, price of college books increased 82% - more than 3x inflation rate

• 65% of students had decided against buying a textbook because of high costs

• 48% reported that they chose classes based on textbook costs

• 94% of students who did not buy a required textbook said their grades would be affected

• BOTTOM LINE: HIGH COSTS OF TEXTBOOKS HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON EDUCATION AND LEARNING

• OER's CAN HELP ERADICATE THESE PROBLEMS

1. HTTP://WWW.USATODAY.COM/STORY/MONEY/PERSONALFINANCE/2014/02/02/C NBC-COLLEGE-TEXTBOOKS-EXPENSIVE/5038807/

BENEFIT 2:CHOICES AND FLEXIBILITY

• Related to costs, instructors' options for assigning copyrighted supplementary textbooks are limited

• Having OER's as choice for textbooks allows a wider range of learning materials to be assigned for a course

• Can augment reading materials as course progresses. Not possible with traditional printed textbooks

BENEFIT 3: GLOBAL ACCESSIBILITY AND REACH

• Can access materials from any part of the world

• Can make materials accessible to any part of the world

• Can reach audience who are shut out of traditional learning environments – retirees, working people, homemakers, people who have difficulty reading and writing English

BENEFIT 4:CURRENCY OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

• Traditional printed textbooks need to be revised. There is a definite time lag between these revisions

• Associated with these revision delays, there are costs associated with revisions for the publisher and the purchaser:

• revised editions need to be reviewed, checked for errors and incur printing costs

• older editions become obsolete and cannot be resold in the market

• OER materials can be updated almost in real time with no additional costs to purchaser keeping the content current especially in rapidly metamorphing subject areas such as computer science

BENEFIT 5: CUSTOMIZABLE MATERIALS

• Most OER materials give permission for modification and re-distribution of modified materials

• Instructors can tailor OER materials to their specific courses

• Materials can be made accessible to students in different countries through translation into local languages

BENEFIT 6: PROMOTING COMMUNITY FEELING

• Making materials available can enhance the reputation of colleges and faculty in addition to fostering a sense of community sharing spirit

• This will encourage more contributors to making their materials available as OER

CHALLENGE 1: TECHNICAL ISSUES

• OER Materials require reliable technical infrastructure and technical support people

• This could be a challenge in developing and third-world countries

• If the network goes down, access to resources disappears

• Qualified technical people to support the necessary infrastructure may be difficult to find and retain

• Need to train both instructors and students in use of technology

• Need to enable students access to computers which could be a huge cost issue in developing countries

CHALLENGE 2: CUSTOMIZABILITY ISSUES

• The benefits of open modifiability may be neutralized by the types of materials available

• For example, most of the OER materials are in PDF format whether they are textbooks or presentation slides

• PDF materials are not easily editable rendering them as reference materials

• Ability to easily edit PDF materials require expensive software which may be beyond the reach of instructors and colleges

CHALLENGE 3: REVOCABILITY ISSUES • The Creative Commons Wiki has this to say about CC

licenses1:

• CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

• The irrevocable nature of CC licenses may deter some contributors from making their materials available under Creative Commons

1. HTTPS://WIKI.CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/FREQUENTLY_ASKED_QUESTIONS#WHAT _IF_I_CHANGE_MY_MIND_ABOUT_USING_A_CC_LICENSE.3F

CHALLENGE 4: INFORMATION OVERLOAD

• Instructors may be inclined to suggest a large number of materials since they are "free"

• This increases the burden on the learner.

• Wading through multiple materials can not only result in information overload but

• Also result in redundancy since there may be overlapping content among different sources

CHALLENGE 5: TRAINING AND MINDSET ISSUES

• Usage of OER materials requires a paradigm shift on both instructor and student

• Most students are still used to the conventional printed textbook and having material on an electronic device may be intimidating or uncomfortable especially for older students who are new to technology

CHALLENGE 6: FACULTY & DEPARTMENTAL OPPOSITION

• In larger universities where there are several sections of the same course, there may be rigid guidelines on a specific printed textbook.

• May require approval from department or divisional heads who are averse to OER

• Faculty who use books authored by them may present opposition if they feel that OER materials may supersede their own books

CHALLENGE 7: LACK OF ADEQUATE SUPPORT MATERIALS

• Most printed copyrighted textbooks come with a host of support materials for both instructor and students.

• These include:

• Student Workbooks

• Instructor Manuals

• Testing Materials

• Videos and Presentation Slides

• Most OER materials do not come with this support placing additional burden on the instructor

• Most of the OER materials also do not have sufficient exercises in these materials again imposing additional burden on the instructors

CONCLUSIVE THOUGHTS

• I feel that the overall goal of education is to make available education at an affordable cost to as many as possible

• Despite the fact that there are several challenges to be overcome in the OER approach, it represents a positive and constructive step towards making possible the "Education For All" objective

• Colleges and faculty should be promoting the use of OER materials in their curriculum