Open educational resources provide lower costs for students by replacing textbooks, facilitate global collaboration on educational content, and increase access to education. However, selecting and developing high-quality open resources takes significant time, and some institutions do not recognize the value of creating open resources for career advancement purposes. Overall, open educational resources have benefits for lowering costs and increasing access, but also pose challenges regarding the time and effort required for finding and creating open content.

1. OPEN EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES:
BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
Erica Coe
Dean of Library, Learning Resources, &
eLearning
Olympic College

2. "Why Open Education? " by Giulia Forsythe, BCcampus

3. OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:
BENEFITS
Lower cost for students by replacing textbooks and other costly resources
Collaborate with faculty around the world to create resources
Facilitate peer review of materials and encourage continuous improvement
Provide access to people around the world who may not otherwise have
access to college
Foster understanding of copyright issues and open resources by
encouraging students to use open resources in their coursework
Increase student engagement with assignments by asking them to make
their deliverables open for use by future students in the course and others
across the world

4. OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:
CHALLENGES
Selecting sources can be time consuming and not all subject areas
have well developed and vetted open resources
Developing, revising, and maintaining materials can also be time-
intensive
Open textbooks may not include test banks or other ancillary
materials
Some colleges may not recognize the value of creating open
educational resources for tenure purposes
Some courses, like those preparing students for specific