2. Saves costs for students
Math Textbooks for example range from $150 to $250.
Many Community College student are working and raising a family
3. Grants access to more quality choices
Multiple resources in a variety of disciplines are readily available
There is a trend in higher education to offer open online courses to
anyone that wants to go to school.
Educators have an opportunity to influence a wider audience of students
with the work they have developed and are sharing via OER
4. Helps for course preparation and
retention of knowledge
Opportunities for students to preview materials prior to the start of the
course. They do not need to wait until a text is available for sale in some
bookstore.
Students are better positioned to become informed consumers of
courses. They can decide if they want to take the course or not.
The materials are readily available after the course has completed. This
helps review and retain knowledge.
5. Maximizes opportunity for high quality
materials
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
Allows for peer review
6. Provides professional development
Utilization of OER requires a comprehensive understanding of the
copyright and licensing rules and regulations.
This offers new tools for new and veteran instructors.
Accessing and contributing to OER makes you more valuable in your
current role and can help expand career opportunities.
7. Quality Assurance
Determining if the quality and relevance of the material is not a trivial
matter.
The end users of OER may or may not be aware of any institutional
review process that was conducted prior to release of thematerials.
There is a need for ore research in determining the impact OER materials
have on student success.
8. Sustainability of OER
Funding for OER initiatives has been inconsistent
Maintaining the resources can be difficult and expensive.
Resources require regular maintenance to ensure that they do not lose
value or become obsolete.
9. Lack of public understanding in OER
OER is a very large paradigm shift in attitude about educational materials
and the implementation of new knowledge tools.
Many in education do not understand the potential of OER and feel that
it threatens their ownership of intellectual property.
Creative Commons Licensing is not completely understood. Courses such
as the one offered by SBCTC can help.
10. Non-revocable nature of Creative
Commons licenses
Are developers and providers of OER materials ready to release their
works using these licenses.
Once you have licensed in Creative Commons the license cannot be
revoked.
If you stop offering work to creative commons, you may not impinge on
the rights of those users that had already accessed and used your
materials.
11. Accessibility & OER
There are some challenges to finding accessible OER.
Repositories are not always informative as to whether a review of
accessibility or if it is accessible.
