Briefly describes the potential benefits and opportunities of adopting OER on an institutional level, as well as the potential barriers that may be found at technical colleges.

1. P E A R L D E S U R E
OER IN TECHNICAL
COLLEGES

2. OER IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES
Opportunities
• Shared knowledge
• Cost
• Variety
• Institutional repository
• Distance Education
Barriers
• Access
• Selection
• Faculty Buy-In
• Planning
• Technical Infrastructure

3. OPPORTUNITIES
FOR TECHNICAL COLLEGES THAT USE OER

4. 1. SHARED KNOWLEDGE
• Access to world-wide knowledge base.
• No copyright or licensing limitations to access content.

5. 2. COST
• No monetary cost for obtaining or reproducing
information.
• All materials are licensed for wide use.
• No cost to students to access course materials.
• Textbook prices continue to rise at a rapid rate.

6. 3. VARIETY
• OER is not limited to e-books or the written word.
• Video and graphics can be created in-house and shared openly.
• Media formats like video or audio are well-suited for
hands-on and virtual learning.
• Video demos (a la YouTube) have proven to be popular for
amateur learners on a variety of subjects.
• Multiple media formats support a larger variety of
learning styles.

7. 4. INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY
• Educators in technical colleges are experts in the field.
• Instructor-created materials harness institutional knowledge and
can be shared in a local repository.
• Institutional repository speaks to college credibility and
raises visibility of programs.

8. 5. DISTANCE EDUCATION
• In virtual setting, media can supplement or replace
hands-on learning.
• Move from in-class to hybrid or online model with more
ease
• No licensing of digital materials.
• Expand access to institutional knowledge/courses using
open-licensed materials in virtual settings.

9. BARRIERS
TO OER USE AT TECHNICAL COLLEGES

10. 1. ACCESS
• Internet-only.
• Most/all OER is digital and requires Internet access. Many
technical college students (and some instructors) do not have
reliable at-home Internet access.
• Computer vs. mobile use.
• Many technical college students (and some instructors) do not
have access to desktop or laptop computers. Not all OER will be
configured for mobile access.

11. 2. SELECTION
• Wide range of platforms.
• There is no centralized database of OER. Rather, there are
collections all over the Internet or at various institutions. The
amount of information may be overwhelming to sift through.
• Relevance of existing collections
• Overrepresentation of some fields and underrepresentation of
others.

12. 3. TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
• Understaffed IT department
• Any in-house implementation of an institutional repository will require start-up
and maintenance.
• Storage space
• Cloud-based requires security, server-based requires space and
maintenance.
• Repository maintenance
• Need a platform—either in-house or provided by vendor/LMS—that will
require updates and routine maintenance, an additional duty.
• Learning curve
• Repository maintenance is an additional skill. If someone is not already
trained there will be need to be a delay/training period.

13. 4. FACULTY BUY-IN
• Instructors may not feel the need to switch to OER.
• Instructors chose their textbooks for a reason and may be
hesitant to try something new.
• Additional work to create own material.
• If faculty/instructors already feel overworked, they may be loathe
to create something themselves.

14. 5. PLANNING
• Someone needs to be in charge of the effort.
• If already understaffed, there may not be funds to designate an
OER coordinator.
• Institutional support or buy-in is essential for a wide-
scale adoption of OER.
• Technical colleges generally have other, more pressing matters.