A short presentation on the benefits and challenges of open educational resources.

1. OPEN
EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES
C H AL L E N G E S AN D B E N E F I T S
- C AM E R O N K J E L D G AA R D -

2. BENEFITS CHALLENGES
• Affordability
• Sharable & Customizable
• Easily Reproduced
• Accessible
• Available
• Internet Access
• Lack of OER relevant to skilled
trades
• No-Derivative licenses
• Sustainable funding
• Maintaining relevance

3. AFFORDABILITY
Higher education is becoming more expensive in the
united states. Tuition has risen dramatically over the
past decade.
Traditional textbooks can be prohibitively expensive for
many students; leading some to attempt the course
without buying the book and others to opt out of the
course entirely.
The first and most obvious benefit of OER is that they
are available to students free of charge. Maybe less
obviously, they are also free to teachers; for them to
supplement or replace existing course material

4. SHARABLE AND
CUSTOMIZABLE The least restrictive creative commons license OER
can be published under require only an attribution to
the original author. The means the material can be
redistributed and remixed as the user sees fit.
This means that existing OER which may bear some
relevance to a teacher’s course may be tailored to fit
perfectly.
Additionally, the material may be freely redistributed
to students and other faculty

5. EASILY
REPRODUCED
Open Educational Resources are generally
digital.
One of the many benefits of hosting course
content digitally is that it is easily reproduced.
With OER being freely redistributable it couples
well with being hosted digitally, easily copied
and accessed by all who may have an interest
in the content.

6. ACCESSIBLE
Accessibility is yet another advantage
OER gains from existing digitally.
Many students with disabilities may
struggle with traditional paper
textbooks or be unable to use them at
all.
Digital resources have a host of
accessibility tools/software available to
users. Such as screen readers, braille
output devices and screen magnifiers.

7. AVAILABLE
The high cost of traditional
textbooks lead to a significant
delay for many students’
purchase of them as they wait
for funding to become available.
OER are available to students
on day one of their studies. Not
only this but OER are available
prior to the beginning of the
course and after; for those
students who wish to preview
course material or those who
wish to brush up at a later date.

8. CHALLENGES
The world isn’t perfect.
We’ve spent some time discussing the benefits of these amazing
resources.
Now it’s time to explore some of the challenges they can present
to both faculty and students who are utilizing them.

9. INTERNET
CONNECTION
As discussed, earlier OER are generally hosted as digital content;
this brings a host of benefits with it but is not without its
disadvantages and challenges.
The first and primary of these being that accessing digital content
requires a reliable internet connection.
Despite its growing prominence in our daily lives internet access is
considered neither a public utility or a right. There are little to no
assistance programs for people who cannot afford internet access.
People living in rural areas may not have access to reliable high-
speed internet as many service providers don’t see an incentive in
making high speed internet available in sparsely populated areas.

10. LACK OF OER RELEVANT TO THE SKILLED
TRADES
It has been mentioned in this course, and it’s true, that there is a wealth of OER available for a great
number of disciplines.
However, during completion of this course myself and several other participants noticed a stark lack
of OER related to welding.
The skilled trades- welding, machining, HVAC and automotive maintenance, among others- are job
markets with a high demand for labor in our current economy. Furthermore they require relatively
short and affordable periods of schooling to produce qualified candidates; making them a great
candidate for the development of relevant OER

11. NO
DERIVATIVE
LICENSES
It was mentioned earlier in this presentation that the least
restrictive license requires only an attribution to the original
author.
However, a number of more restrictive licenses exist, these
include: share-alike, no derivatives and non-commercial.
Of these licenses the one most relevant to the educator is the
no derivative restriction. This restriction requires that if the work
is to be shared in must be done so in full and with no
alterations. This can hamper the educator who wishes to tailor
the content of the OER to better suit their course.
A careful examination of the license restrictions is necessary to
avoid violating it.

12. SUSTAINABLE
FUNDING
For all it’s great benefits, perhaps because of it’s greatest
benefit (no-cost access), OER lacks something very important-
it doesn’t make anyone any money.
Profit incentive is the driving force in the most productive and
well-developed sectors of our economy, including the textbook
industry.
With no possible profit it is difficult to foresee where a
sustainable source of funding for the creation and continual
maintenance of OER. Most of the work creating OER seems to
be carried out by passionate educators working to better the
quality of education for students in their discipline.

13. MAINTAINING
RELEVANCE
In just about any discipline there are constant changes. New
research, technologies and standards of practice.
An OER may be of superior quality when it is produced, but
that quality must be maintained. If any educational resource is
not continually updated to reflect the current standards of the
industry about which it teaches it will slip into obsolescence.
This challenge is directly tied to the one discussed previously.
Many initiatives to create OER come with initial funding, but
without a sustainable and continuous funding these OER may
become obsolete.