The pros and cons of OER

1. The Good, The Best, and the Possible
Dawnne Ernette
Instructor, BBCC

2. The Good
 Help students prepare for courses
 Students can preview course content
 Students can revisit course content
 Allows for reinforcement of concepts that build into
next course level

3. More Good
 Allows access to multiple sources of quality
instructional material
 Free lectures and tutorials provided by colleges and
universities
 Everyone knows exactly what they can reuse,
repurpose, or even revise
 No copyright worries

4. The Best
 Social Responsibility
 Equal access to educational opportunities
 Students are not excluded from course material because of
limited funds…
 …but we still have to make sure that all students can access
content, especially content exclusively online.

5. The Possibilities
 Some can feel threatened by OER…
 …but we can hold workshops, present at conferences,
and actively collaborate to help show the good of OER.
 OER is not fully sustainable…
 …but see above—we just have to get folks on board.
 Quality assurance is an issue…
 …but we can implement a peer review system that
evaluates all resources.

6. More Possibilities
 The Creative Commons license is non-revocable…
 …but, truly, the sharing should be free and supportive of
educational excellence.
 There are not enough resources out there yet…
 …so we can start sharing all of our great ideas, lesson
plans, activities, and help make OER a big, wide-
reaching, sustainable, evolving, and COMMON resource
bank for all.