Opportunities and challenges when using OER in "voc ed"

1. Rob Earle/OER 101/May 12 2021
OER in Workforce Development
Opportunities and Challenges

2. Opportunities and Challenges
OER in Workforce Development
• Cost savings
• Accessibility
• Availability
• Adaptability
• Building community
• Availability
• Cost of and access to
technology
• Demands on instructor
• Compliance with
outside partner
requirements
• Keeping it current
Opportunities Challenges
Students at a vocational education and training
center by DS-MA036 World Bank licensed under CC
BY-NC-ND 2.0

3. Cost savings
Opportunities
• The price of college textbooks has
risen greatly over the past 35
years, outpacing all other
consumer goods in the Consumer
Price Index by a great margin.
• The cost of textbooks has a
profound impact on college
students, many of whom must wait
to purchase their course materials
until well into the semester or
choose not to purchase them at all.
• Source: Florida Virtual Campus.
2018 Student Textbook and Course
Materials Survey: Executive
Summary, 2018.
“Increase in Textbook Prices” by David Ernst, the Open Textbook Network, is licensed
CC BY 4.0.

4. Accessibility
Opportunities
• OER content is easily
accessed on the internet.
• Low to no replacement costs
if lost or stolen.
• No need to carry around
multiple expensive, and
sometimes heavy, textbooks. Photo from pxfuel.com. Public domain

5. Availability
Opportunities
• OER can be legally
downloaded.
• Accessible online from
any location with
internet access
• Accessible after
coursework completed,
without the need to
refer to hardcopy books
• No need to resell
textbooks.
Photo from pixie.com. Public domain

6. Adaptability
Opportunities
• When properly licensed,
material can be adapted to
meet specific program
requirements.
Seattle Maritime Academy. Used by permission.

7. Building community
Opportunities
• By sharing knowledge within
a trade, OER reduces
commodification of
knowledge and encourages
traditional mentorship and
“paying it forward.”
Works Progress Administration photo. Public Domain.

8. Availability
Challenges
• OER in particular fields
may be hard to find.
Photo from free stock.com. Used by permission.

9. Cost of and access to technology
Challenges
• The digital divide refers to the gap
between those able to benefit from
the digital age and those who are not.
• People without access to the Internet
and other information and
communication technologies will be
disadvantaged, as they are unable or
less able to obtain digital information,
shop online, participate
democratically, or learn skills and
offer skills.
• Source: Hilbert, Martin (2011). "The
end justifies the definition: The
manifold outlooks on the digital
divide and their practical usefulness
for policy-making".
Telecommunications Policy. 35 (8):
715–736.
Map by Dakman5. Released into the public domain by its author.

10. Demands on instructor
Challenges
• Adapting information to
specific programs.
• Finding OER (compared to
commercially-available
products)
• Confirming licenses or
public domain status.
Seattle Maritime Academy. Used by permission.

11. Compliance with outside partner requirements
Challenges
• Some workforce
development
programs have
specific
credentialing or
curriculum
requirements by
outside agencies
(USCG, culinary
institutes, labor
unions, etc.)

12. Keeping it current
Challenges
• Changing economic,
technological, and
regulatory conditions
require teaching
materials that keep pace.
There is an economic
incentive for
commercially-available
textbooks to do so.
Keeping OER materials
current can be more of a
challenge…