The Challenges and Benefits of Using Open Educational Resources: A Presentation

1. THE CHALLENGES AND
BENEFITS OF USING OPEN
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
By Amy Ledgerwood
South Puget Sound, Olympic and Shoreline Community Colleges

2. OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS
Finding Best
Fit for
Courses
No/low
Cost for
Students
Challenges
Open
Educational
Resources
Time
Researching
Proofreading and Editing
Materials
Equal Access for
All
Students Can Start
Right Away
Benefits
Team
Collaboration
Funding for Adjuncts to
Develop Courses Using OER
Creativity
Accessibility and
Inclusion
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3. CHALLENGES OF USING OER
(BECAUSE I LIKE TO SAVE THE PROS/POSITIVES FOR LAST!)
Excessive Amount of Time Researching
Finding the Right Ones to Use For Various
Courses
Proofreading and Editing Materials
Funding for Adjuncts to Develop OER Courses
Creativity
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4. OER CHALLENGE: TIME RESEARCHING
• Researching OER for the various courses taught can be very time consuming and
daunting. Finding just “the right thing” to use for courses can be difficult. In my
experience with OER so far in the type of courses I teach, finding something that
helps students learn the technology we are teaching can be difficult. The hardest part
is finding something that meets all our course objectives in the area of office
technology. We need something that teaches so many computer concepts and tests
their skills as they go along, and that can be difficult to find.
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5. OER CHALLENGE: FINDING THE RIGHT ONES TO USE
FOR VARIOUS COURSES
• For OER to work in our Office/Business Technology, Computer Information Systems
and Adaptive Technology course to work, they must have components that test
students in their abilities to use computer software. This can be hard to find. So far,
the OER is very generalized in these topics and often do not give the students the
step-by-step tools they need to learn a process. The materials out there that our
department has found are through “Pressbooks”. Not all of the content is suitable for
our needs so it would be ideal if we could develop our own and tie into using some
of the Pressbook materials as well.
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6. OER CHALLENGE: PROOFREADING AND EDITING
MATERIALS
• In the content that I, along with my colleagues, have found there is so much that
needs to be revised for our area. Proofreading the materials and editing them can
take hours of time. Not only that, but we have found that we need to test everything
to ensure that it works as it should for the students. We also have had to created
solutions along the way with the assignments. Not all OER has everything available.
Understandably, this is part of the process for the creation and refinement of OER.
Understanding and knowing that would be helpful for others as they venture out into
this area in their fields of expertise.
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7. OER CHALLENGE: FUNDING FOR ADJUNCTS TO
DEVELOP OER COURSES
• Depending on where you work, you may or may not have the additional funding it
may take to for your faculty to develop and create OER in their area of teaching. With
the excessive amount of time it takes in the development process, I believe it is a
huge undertaking to ask adjunct faculty to create these materials without some sort
of compensation beyond that of their regular teaching contracts.
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8. OER CHALLENGE: CREATIVITY
• One of the biggest challenges for me as an instructor is to find ways to engage my
students and keep them interested and challenged in the area that I teach
(office/business technology). I find it a constant challenge to come up with creative,
engaging lessons and assignments for students to do that will incorporate the
learning and reinforcement they need to be successful learners. This can be
particularly challenging when I am faced with coming up with my own assignments
that revolve around computer programs. However, even if it is a challenge to come
up with creative things, it is also fun!
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9. BENEFITS OF USING
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
(SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST!)
No or Low Cost to
Students
Equal Access for
Students
No Wait Time
Getting Started in
the Course
Collaboration with
Team/Colleagues
Accessibility and
Inclusion
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10. OER BENEFITS: NO OR LOW COST TO STUDENTS
• One of the main benefits of using OER is to the students! In current times especially,
finding the extra funding to pay for course materials can be daunting. Students can
take a course and have everything ready and available to them right away so they
can get started immediately with their learning. This is one of the most crucial
benefits, in my opinion, of using OER in today’s world.
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11. OER BENEFITS: EQUAL ACCESS FOR ALL STUDENTS
• The beauty of OER is giving all students equal access to their materials. For example,
one student might be able to pay for their materials before a course starts or right at
the beginning of the quarter and can get started right away, whereas another student
could be waiting on their funding to pay for the course materials and have to wait to
get started, thereby putting them behind from the start. With OER, it avoids this since
all students have the materials at the same time, right from the start.
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12. OER BENEFITS: NO WAIT TIME GETTING STARTED
• With OER, every student can begin immediately with their course studies. There is no
wait time and they are off and running with the learning right away!
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13. OER BENEFITS: COLLABORATION WITH
TEAM/COLLEAGUES
• Another benefit to using OER is it gives everyone in any given department the
opportunity to work more closely with their colleagues on development of course
materials.
• In Office Technology, we have found that working together as a team helps us
develop and refine our materials that much better since we all work together on the
materials and can see things from different angles.
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14. OER BENEFITS: ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSION
• Since OER are available to anyone and everyone, it impacts the accessibility of the
materials in a positive way!
• OER is all inclusive, which means that there is fair and equal usage among students
and instructors or anyone who wants to have access to the materials.
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15. In summary, there are many benefits (and a few
challenges!) to using OER. This course has given me
the knowledge and resources I needed to continue
learning about OER. It has also given me the
confidence I needed to continue working on moving
my courses toward the goal of utilizing these
resources.
Thank you! ALEDGERWOOD1@SPSCC.EDU
ALEDGERWOOD@OLYMPIC.EDU
ALEDGERWOOD@SHORELINE.EDU
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“The Challenges and Benefits of Using Open Educational Resources"
by Amy Ledgerwood is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Amy Ledgerwood
aledgerwood1@spscc.edu
South Puget Sound Community College