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The benefits and challenges of using open educational
- 1. Ben Vallejo Adjunct Professor, Biology, Oceanography, and Nutrition Spokane (WA) Community College Moorpark (CA) College University of Phoenix (AZ)
- 2. 1. Saves cost for students 2. Grants access to more quality choices 3. Helps preparation for course and retention of knowledge after course 4. More clarity and/or certainty regarding reuse of materials 5. Social responsibility – provides education for all Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 3. “Many of my students are struggling. They are working adults trying to make ends meet. I used to use $150 textbook from publisher and I switched to an open textbook. My students love it because it costs nothing. They are now asking if my next course will use the free textbook too.” Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources Dollar Signs by Mike Mozart is licensed under CC BY
- 4. There are 750 free online courses from leading universities that are open to the public. Students in low-resource environments can enjoy the recorded lectures and video tutorials developed by institutions such as, University of California at Berkeley Harvard University Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources UC Berkeley by Charlie Nguyen licensed by CC BY.
- 5. If students have that opportunity to take a look at the course materials before taking the course, it will help them make an informed decision in choosing the right course, and preparing themselves for the class. Students could revisit their course materials after the semester is over to refresh their memories or even to further study the topics. Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 6. Peace of mind You will not need to contact the author about making use of her work provided that what you want to do falls within the ‘open’ license. Free, so you will not need to provide monetary compensation for use Discovering alternative ideas for presenting and teaching your subject matter Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 7. Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources Crowd by James Cridland licensed by CC BY.
- 8. Showcases research to widest possible audience Enhances a university’s reputation as well as that of the teacher or researcher Shares best practice internationally Allows for peer review Maximizes the use and increases availability of educational materials Raises standard of educational resources by gathering more contributors Allows modification for accessibility, without worrying about copyright infringement Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 9. 1. Quality Assurance 2. Sustainability of OER 3. Lack of public understanding in OER 4. Non-revocable nature of Creative Commons licenses 5. Accessibility & OER Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 10. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them. There is a lack of research data focusing on comparing the amount students learn from OER compared to the amount they learn from prevailing publisher materials. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter. Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 11. Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without serious maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality will be lost. Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 12. Requires a huge paradigm shift. Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that it threatens their ownership of intellectual property. Open licenses clearly recognize and can reinforce someone's intellectual ownership. The open licenses are simply to make the sharing process easy while protecting the copyright. Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 13. You cannot stop someone, who has obtained your work under a Creative Commons license, from using the work according to that license. You can stop offering your work under a Creative Commons license at any time you wish; but this will not affect the rights associated with any copies of your work already in circulation under a Creative Commons license. Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 14. Not every repository identifies if a resource is accessible or has undergone an accessibility review The faculty adopting the resource must make their own evaluation and modifications. A more streamlined and systematic approach will be needed in the future. Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
- 15. Original content is from How to Use Open Educational Resources training by SBCTC, CC BY 4.0 Ben Vallejo, The Benefits and Challenges of Using Open Educational Resources
Editor's Notes
- OER can offer drastic savings in the cost of education. Some of your students who otherwise cannot afford to buy expensive textbooks or other course materials will enjoy this affordable option when taking your course. A faculty member from a community college said during an interview: “Many of my students are struggling. They are working adults trying to make ends meet. I used to use $150 textbook from publisher and I switched to an open textbook. My students love it because it costs nothing. They are now asking if my next course will use the free textbook too.” “I made my own course materials package for my students .It is free to download and a printed version is only 40 dollars. I could not find a ready-made open textbook for my course. So I combined the open resources out there and developed my own. It was a lot of work, but my students are happy to save good money.”
- There are 750 free online courses (Links to an external site.) from leading universities that are open to the public. Students in low-resource environments can enjoy the recorded lectures and video tutorials developed by other institutions such as, Open Yale courses (Links to an external site.) (from Yale University), JHSPH OpenCourseWare (Links to an external site.) (from the Johns Hopkins University) Webcast.Berkeley (Links to an external site.) (from the University of California at Berkeley), Stanford Engineering Everywhere (Links to an external site.) (from Stanford University), MIT OpenCourseWare (Links to an external site.) (from MIT) Open Learning Initiative (Links to an external site.) (from Carnegie Mellon University) Harvard Open Courses (Links to an external site.) at Harvard Extension School (from Harvard University) This is just to name a few. Many other universities, colleges, and other educational institutions in higher education are preparing to offer open online courses to the public. Educators are happily sharing their life work with more students and enjoying the greater influence their materials have on larger audiences.
- If an instructor opens his/her own course materials, and shares them with the public it greatly enhances opportunities for learning for both students who already took the course and the prospective students. Students often would like to check out the course materials before the term begins. If students have that opportunity to take a look at the course materials it will help them make an informed decision in choosing the right course, and preparing themselves for the class. Students also would like to revisit their course materials after the quarter/semester is over to refresh their memories or to further study the topics. Open course materials will help them reinforce what they have learned and further develop their level of understanding in the area.
- If you’re re-using someone else’s materials, the most notable reason for using OER is peace of mind. The resources are licensed to allow the sharing of content and so you will not need to contact the author about making use of his or her work provided that what you want to do falls within the ‘open’ license. OERs are free at the point of use, so you will not need to provide monetary compensation for using them. Then there is the opportunity of discovering alternative ideas for presenting and teaching your subject matter or being able to point your students to the alternative explanations for further study (text in this paragraph is from Why OER (Links to an external site.) by Kabils, CC-BY (Links to an external site.)).
- A growing number of digital resources are available. Teachers, students and self-learners looking for resources will not have trouble finding resources but might have a harder time judging their quality and relevance. Many institutions that supply OER go through an internal review process before releasing them to the public but these processes are not open in the sense that the user of the resource can follow them (text from Open Educational Resources (Links to an external site.) by Jan Hylen, CC-BY (Links to an external site.)). Also there is a lack of research data focusing on comparing the amount students learn from OER compared to the amount they learn from prevailing publisher materials. Whether the material is free or expensive, quality does matter.
- Many OER initiatives begun in recent years were dependent on one-time start-up funding. Although some projects have a strong institutional backing, it is likely that the initial funding will cease after a few years and maintaining the resources will be difficult and expensive. Without serious maintenance the resources will become obsolete and the quality will be lost. Therefore it is critical to figure out how to sustain these initiatives in the long run.
- This is technically not a concern regarding the use of OER, but rather something that OER providers might find challenging in releasing their works using these licenses. Creative Commons licenses are completely non-revocable. This means that you cannot stop someone, who has obtained your work under a Creative Commons license from using the work according to that license. You can stop offering your work under a Creative Commons license at any time you wish; but this will not affect the rights associated with any copies of your work already in circulation under a Creative Commons license. So you need to think carefully when choosing a Creative Commons license to make sure that you are happy with people using your work consistent with the terms of the license even if you later stop distributing your work (this paragraph is from Before Licensing (Links to an external site.) by Creative Commons, CC-BY (Links to an external site.)).
- While accessibility is gaining more attention, there are still some challenges when it comes to finding accessible OER. Not every repository identifies if a resource is accessible or has undergone an accessibility review - leaving the faculty adopting the resource to make their own evaluation and modifications. By including statements regarding accessibility in the resource description, we can begin to address this, but a more streamlined and systematic approach will be needed in the future.
- While accessibility is gaining more attention, there are still some challenges when it comes to finding accessible OER. Not every repository identifies if a resource is accessible or has undergone an accessibility review - leaving the faculty adopting the resource to make their own evaluation and modifications. By including statements regarding accessibility in the resource description, we can begin to address this, but a more streamlined and systematic approach will be needed in the future.