Pros and Cons of OER

2. BENEFITS OF OER
• Democratization of access
• OER unlocks access to materials that would have otherwise required
gatekeepers, i.e. institutions, instructors, etc.
• Greater durability of academic materials
• Materials can be updated periodically to reflect new trends, ideas
• Possibility of greater accountability and quality control
• System of reviews, feedback, or evaluation could enforce quality control
• Crowdsourcing innovation and creativity
• Wide-ranging access allows for maximum feedback and input
• Non-traditional voices may be incorporated

3. CHALLENGES OF OER
• Incentivizing production of high quality materials
• How do we sustain institutional support?
• Accessibility issues
• Can a universal set of accessibility standards be developed and applied to
OER materials?
• Quality issues
• Are students benefiting from, or at least performing similarly to how they
would using standard materials, from OER resources?
• Sustainability of the movement
• Is OER a fad that will be overshadowed by something else?
• Overreliance on technology
• Does OER disconnect learners from traditional media, i.e. books, and is this
harmful?