Assignment for OER 101 class

1. Using OER
Sherry-Anne McLean

2. Benefits of OER
• More equitable access for students (low/no cost; access to materials
for all students on day 1)
• Allows a mechanism for instructors to contribute to a pool of improved
resources (i.e. add videos, solutions manuals, activities to support an
OER text)
• Creates a community and culture of sharing (education for all)
• Allows access and integration of current information (news events,
scientific discoveries, etc.) without waiting for a publication cycle
• Gives instructors better control of the curriculum (gather/collect
resources to support course objectives, instead of allowing a textbook
to dictate what gets covered in a particular unit…)
• Current, affordable opportunities for professional development

3. Challenges of OER
• Takes a lot of time to search for/verify the quality of the resources
• Use/integration of OER requires a high-level of attention to copyright,
attribution, etc. which is intimidating to many faculty
• Getting printed materials for students can be a challenge (textbook
costs are generally associated with students, whereas copy costs
associated with more limited school budgets; sometimes commericial
printers will not make copies with NC license restrictions)
• Rarely find a single resource that meets all the needs of a course.
Pulling together too many materials in too different of formats can
create a lack of cohesiveness/disorganized feel to a course
• Difficult to adapt/remix materials in a DSS “accessible” format (videos
not captioned, inconsistent formats for screen readers, etc.)