The document discusses the benefits and challenges of Open Educational Resources (OER). The main benefits are that OER aims to provide educational resources to more people globally through digital access, the resources are free to use, and they can be reused and shared under Creative Commons licensing. However, the challenges are that computer access is still limited for most of the world, OER authors are not paid for their work, there is no formal quality review process, using OER requires effort and acceptance, and awareness of OER is still low even among academics.

1. What’s It All About?-- Benefits
Why do I need to think about it ?– Challenges
Margo Harder Faculty

2. Benefit One
Open Educational Resources (OER) has the strongest intension of opening
educational resources to a far broader population of individuals with
computer access .
Benefit Two
There is no charge for the information. It is free
Benefit Three
OER material can, depending on the CC licensing be reused , shared etc.
.

3. Benefit Four
OER material appears at this time to be voluntarily given by authors and not
institutionally required .
Benefit Five
OER broadens authoring opportunities and collaboration with other academics.

4. Challenge One Open Educational Resources (OER) is not a universally available
resource . Computer access is a major requirement for most of the world’s
population. It could contribute to a widening gap between the educated and
uneducated.
ChallengeTwo Although proper use of the Create Common Licensing
recognizes OER authors and their licensing choices, authors still remain
without a line of remuneration.
Challenge Three Quality management, peer review or rating of OER materials
does not appear to be part of the CC system.

5. Challenge Four It takes time, effort and a level of acceptance on the part of
potential OER participants to use the system as envisioned.
Challenge Five Not a lot of folks including academics know about OER.