1. Open
Educational
Resources
Presented by:
Leisa Collins, M.Ed.
In fulfillment of course requirements:
“How to Use Open Educational Resources
OER”, Open Education and
eLearning, Washington State Board for
Community and Technical
Colleges, March, 2014
A review of some
benefits and challenges
2014
2. What are they?
“Open Educational Resources (OER) are
teaching and learning materials that are
freely available online for anyone to
use, whether you are an
instructor, student, or self-learner. OER can
exist as smaller, stand-alone resources that
can be mixed and combined to form larger
pieces of content, or as larger course
modules or full courses.”
Delich, P., Godwin, A., & Petrides, L. (2007, October 8). Why OER? Retrieved February
26, 2014 from the Connexions website: http://cnx.org/content/m15211/1.3/.
3. A sampling of Benefits across
major constituent groups*
Students:
easy, free, often selfdirected access to
quality educational
resources
Teachers/Content
Developers: wider
reach for
expertise, especially for
low-enrolled subjects –
which can be
enhanced thru global
collaboration
Educational Institutions:
global
exposure, increased
student
capacity, increased
external partnerships
Global/national/local
communities (inc.
employers): access to
content, new
partnerships
*McGill, Lou, (2013, January 28). Stakeholders and
benefits, Retrieved February 26, 2014 from the PBWorks website:
http://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/24838
012/Stakeholders%20and%20benefits.
4. A sampling of Challenges in
using OER
Public understanding of copyright
laws vis-à-vis OER is still low
Dedicating resources for content
creation beyond initial grant-funded
projects will be difficult for many
organizations
What is learning? by mrsdkrebs CC BY 2.0 license
OER is not currently search engine
friendly – hard to find
Transparency for the content
development review process –
quality assurance – is not currently
high
Problems with give and take:
unwillingness to share intellectual
property and to use resources
produced by someone else
