A review of benefits and challenges of OER for both students and instructors.

1. Open Education Resources (OER): Benefits
and Challenges for the Student and the
instructor
TRICIA MCINTOSH

2. Benefits
STUDENTS

3. 1. Cost savings
•Online resources are free.
•Cost to obtain printed copy of text is at a much lower amount than purchasing a textbook from a
publisher.
•Students can use cost savings to pay for other school related fees (labs, parking, tuition, fees).
•More students can participate in courses (equity).

4. 2. Access and Retention
•OER materials can be accessed before, during, and after course is completed.
•Instructors can modify OER materials to increase accessibility.
•Course objectives are retained when students can access resources after the course is
completed.
•Interactive technology helps students retain information.

5. 3.Quality of Resources
•When instructors choose OER for their classrooms, student learning is enhanced by the use of
up-to-date and content-specific resources.
•Some textbooks have sections that are no longer relevant or effective in teaching students.
Instructors can select resources that fit their objectives, making the learning experience better
for students.

6. Benefits
INSTRUCTORS

7. 1. Access to and Ease of using OER
•Learning about OER is easy (i.e., take this course)
•There are many resources for locating OER for the classroom. Openwa.org lists repositories for
images, videos, textbooks, and course material.
•Citing resource owners can be made by using the Open Attribution Builder.

8. 2. Modification
•Instructors can modify OER resources without penalty from the owner’s Creative Commons
license. Attribution must be made to the owner.
•Instructors may choose modification of OER resources to better support course objectives.
•Instructions can include a variety of OER resources (textbooks, images, videos, lessons) to
enhance the learning experience.
•Modifications allow access for various students’ abilities (accessibility) and learning styles
(Universal Design).

9. Challenge
STUDENTS

10. 1. WIFI Needed
•Student access to OER is tied to their ability to access the internet unless the resources are
printed.
•Slow internet service can deter learning.

11. Challenges
INSTRUCTOR

12. 1. Time
•Time is needed to locate and review OER materials.
•Time is also needed to assess the benefits of the resources following their use.

13. 2. Interest
•Not all instructors are interested in using OER materials. They do not want to learn about OER
and its benefits.
•Some instructors are not interested in collaborating course materials for different sections of a
course.

14. 3. Access
•If an instructor does not know about Openwa.org, they may have difficulty finding good OER
materials.

15. 4. Evaluation of OER Materials
•Because instructors can modify course materials to suit their course, it is difficult to know how
they well they work until after its use. Choosing a textbook and reading reviews may be easier
and less work.