Advantages & Challenges of Open Educational Resources

1. ADVANTAGES & CHALLENGES OF OPEN
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
JESSICA CUSTIS | SHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE|
ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES BY JESSICA CUSTIS (CC BY 4.0)

2. OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION
Slide 3: What Is Open Educational Resources (OER)?
Slide 4: Advantages of Open Educational Resources (OER)
Slide 5: Advantages of Open Educational Resources (OER)
Slide 6: Challenges of Open Educational Resources (OER)
Slide 7: Challenges of Open Educational Resources (OER)
Slide 8: Bibliography

3. WHAT IS OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
(OER)?
OER: a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.
Privilege is a form of societal power. Specifically, privilege is a form of unearned power that is derived from
sex, race, gender, ability, and/or socioeconomic standing ((What is OER?).
History of OER: OERs began popping up in the early 1970s and have since evolved thanks to librarians,
catalogers, and volunteers who aim to create viable resources, including more modern, specialized OERs
(Roncevic 2022).
According to Roncevic, the College Board reports undergraduates to spend an average of $1,200 annually
on textbooks, making affordability a huge concern, and the boom in OERs is directly correlated to the
increase in college textbook costs.
Where Do We Go From Fere?: Over the course of nearly 30 years, OERs have evolved into reliable and
cost-efficient resources for students and researchers. However, finding ways to make them fully
“discoverable,” as well as teaching faculty where and how to get to OERs, is the current challenge at hand.

4. ADVANTAGES OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
(OER)
OER & Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice (DEIJ) Intersectionality
• The inclusion of OER texts written by BIPOC, women, and other underrepresented or marginalized
communities can help community colleges develop an inclusive atmosphere and culture.
• Several studies have shown that offering zero-cost textbooks and course materials levels the playing
field for historically-underrepresented students struggling to balance paying for tuition and day-to-
day living costs. The availability of OER offers academic instructors the freedom to explore materials
written by a wide range of authors and incorporate a diverse body of work into their courses; this is
also the first step towards the de-colonization of classroom materials.
Making Education More Affordable
• Often, Household income is a deciding factor for students' access to course materials. Many of the
students at community colleges come from different socioeconomic backgrounds. OER and other free
course materials support these students' ability to afford their education.

5. ADVANTAGES OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
(OER)
Continuous Improvement of Resources
• OERs can be swiftly improved by users directly changing the content or by soliciting and incorporating user
comments, unlike textbooks and other static sources of knowledge. An existing OER can be adjusted for a
class by the instructor, who then makes the updated OER available for use by others (students/instructors).
Enhance Existing Materials & Courses
• OERs cover various educational topics in various styles and formats since they include such a diverse range
of assets. Because of these diverse formats, various learning strengths and styles can be supported by
several modalities of representation for fundamental concepts.
Quick of Immediate Access to Materials
• OERs are available to students anytime and anywhere in the world. Before the classes begin and well after
it ends, this is an excellent resource for any student wanting to revisit course materials for reference with
future classes or jobs.

6. CHALLENGES OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER)
Quality of Materials
• Often, anyone can register for an account and upload content to various OER repositories; certain materials
might not be factual or pertinent.
Current Materials
• OER authors typically don't get paid for their work; they might not have much incentive to keep their OER
up to date or ensure that it will still be accessible online.
Copyright/Intellectual Property Concerns
• You should be cautious about the materials you use and distribute. Content that is used must not violate
copyright laws. Since Open Educational Resources are intended for public access, the fair use exemption
might not be applicable.
• Please be sure to review the Creative Common Licenses for more information about how information is categorized and
shared via Creative Commons

7. CHALLENGES OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER)
Possibility of Losing Information
• The majority of OER is digital. Therefore, the information could be lost forever if these resources are not
archived and backed up in a reliable repository.
Making the Time to Create OER Materials
• Finding current OER and/or creating new ones can take a significant amount of time. Because of this,
libraries, administrators, and instructional designers at various colleges and universities are assisting
professors who want to include OER in their classes.

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Creative Commons . (n.d.). What is OER? What is OER? - Creative Commons. Retrieved November 2022, from
https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/What_is_OER%3F
• Roncevic, M. (2022, August 31). Open educational resources: The story of change and evolving perceptions. No Shelf
Required. Retrieved November 2022, from http://www.noshelfrequired.com/open-educational-resources/

9. THANK YOU!