The Benefits and Challenges of Open Education Resources

1. BENEFITS AND
CHALLENGES
OF OERs
By Sarah Whiting

2. The Benefits of OERs
 Can be adapted for accessibility
 Can save students and learning institutions money
 Can save teachers time in course preparation
 Allow for creativity in course design
 Engage students in the use of technology

3. Benefit 1: Can be adapted for
accessibility
 OERs allow instructors to find quality
resources that meet their students’ individual
needs
 Resources be adapted without concerns of
copyright infringment
 Audio resources and alt-text make courses
more accessible to students with visual and
hearing impairments

4. Benefit 2: Can save students and
learning institutions money
 Makes access to educational resources easier for low-
income students
 Quality resources are available without the high cost
often associated with them
 Saves learning institutions the costs of ordering
textbooks and subsidizing costs for students

5. Benefit 3: Can save instructors
time in course preparation
 Part-time instructors care about teaching quality
courses, but don’t always have enough time for
unpaid prep work
 OER courses are already designed, so they save
instructors prep time
 Instructors can spend more time providing
feedback to students instead of course design
 OERs still allow for flexibility in how to teach

6. Benefit 4: Allow for creativity in
course design
 Instructors can enrich their courses with a wide
variety of materials of different mediums: books,
videos, audio recordings, etc.
 All learning styles can be engaged
 Side benefit: Instructors can be sure that they are
following copyright laws in the use of course
materials

7. Benefit 5: Engage students in the
use of technology
 For some students, especially in the field of ESL,
using technology is a challenge
 OER resources are a way of showing students how
the Internet puts quality resources right at their
fingertips
 Teaching an OER course or using OER resources
can be a great introduction to the use of technology
in the classroom, if introduced appropriately

8. Challenges of OER
 Time spent finding appropriate materials (especially
for ESL classes)
 Time spent to make resources accessible
 Time spent to make resources fit classroom needs
 Possible lack of material in some fields
 Information overload (for instructors and students)

9. Challenge 1: Time spent finding
appropriate materials (especially
for ESL classes)
 The more specific the needs of the instructor,
the more challenging to use OER
 Weeding out resources that aren’t what you
want can take time
 Find ESL resources that will instantly be
appropriate for your students’ specific level
could be difficult

10. Challenge 2: Time spent to make
resources accessible
 If a course isn’t designed to be accessible,
this places a burden on the instructor
 Finding time to adapt the course could be
difficult for some instructors
 This challenge could go away the more
people start using OER, and the more
accessible resources become standard

11. Challenge 3: Time spent to make
resources fit classroom needs
 Education is never one-size-fits-all
 Finding a course that can be taught as-is could be
difficult or nearly impossible (at least in ESL)
 Some courses and materials may have aspects or
pieces that don’t fit the needs of a particular class
 For ESL instructors, picking resources that will fit with
the required class curriculum could take time

12. Challenge 4: Possible lack of
material in some fields
 OERs are a relatively new thought
 The amount of resources in some specialized fields
may be sparse
 This presents a challenge for instructors with a desire
to use OER but who can’t find resources
 This challenge could go away as OER becomes more
popular

13. Challenge 5: Information
overload (for instructors and
students)
 The sheer amount of OERs found online can
be overwhelming
 Instructors may find it difficult to decide which
resources to use, and how to use them
 Weeding out unnecessary or not useful
resources could be challenging

14. Conclusion
 OER has a variety of benefits, including:
 The ability to adapt resources
 Low costs for students and institutions
 Huge potential for creativity of instructors
 However, along with the benefits, a variety of potential
challenges exist:
 Time spent adapting and finding resources
 Possibility of information overload
 A lack of material in some fields
 Overall, OER is to be embraced and is surely to be a
huge part of the future of education for many fields.