The benefits and challenges of Open Educational Resources

1. B Y P A U L E L D R I D G E
OER: Benefits and Challenges

2. Benefits
 Reduces cost for students
 Using OER may help students to avoid buying textbooks and other
materials
 Reduces cost for teachers
 Teachers may also save money by sharing digital resources
 Reduces material usage
 Teachers may be able to make fewer copies and use less paper
textbooks
 Encourages an atmosphere of sharing and collaboration
 OER encourages teachers to share ideas and fosters an environment
of collaboration
 Exposes teachers to new resources and ideas
 Open resources may yield ideas that would never come from a
textbook

3. Challenges
 Difficult to ensure validity of license or authorship
 It may be difficult to determine true authorship of an open source
item
 Can be hard to find specific subject matter
 Depending on subject, teachers may have difficulty finding the exact
materials they need
 Little quality control
 Materials can be of varying levels of usefulness and quality
 Students may have difficulty accessing
 Not all students have access to technology
 Difficult to police usage
 Once posted, regardless of license, a resource could be used
commercially or altered