This presentation was created in partial completion of the SBCTC OER 101 course in Winter 2018.

1. BENEFITS AND
CHALLENGES OF
OPEN EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES (OER)
Jamie M. Jones
SBCTC OER 101 Course
Winter 2018

2. Benefits of OER

3. Save Students Money
• Textbooks are
expensive
• New editions and
style guide updates
can drive up the
costs
"Money" by GotCredit is licensed under CC BY 2.0

4. Accessibility
• OER materials can often be modified and made
accessible more easily
• Ability to make OER materials more accessible is
beneficial for all students and folks who access the
materials

5. Availability of Materials
• OER makes materials more readily available to a
broader audience
• Expands the audience of educational materials
• Allows knowledge and research to be shared more
widely

6. Easily Modified and Updated
• Can modify and remix materials as desired (dependent
upon the licensing)
• Can be updated with more ease and less expense
• If a style guide is updated, the OER can be updated
• If something in the field changes, the OER can be updated
without added cost

7. Crowdsourcing and Knowledge-sharing
• Other folks in the field can contribute to the OER
• Increases the quality of educational materials
• Can fill gaps when they are discovered

8. Challenges of OER

9. Expense of Making Research Open
Access
• Costs associated with making materials open access
can be high
• Institutions do not always cover the costs of making
materials available in repositories

10. Quality
• It can be difficult to find quality materials in some fields
• Materials may not reviewed for quality

11. Time
• Locating quality materials can be time-consuming
• It can be time-consuming choosing OER materials

12. Myths and Misunderstandings
• There is a general lack of understanding of OER
• OER are sometimes thought of negatively

13. Licensing
• Understanding the licenses takes time and effort
• Folks do not want to surrender rights to intellectual
property
• The irrevocable nature of licenses can lead folks to be
skeptical of creating OER materials

14. Sources
• How to Use Open Educational Resources
training by SBCTC, CC BY 4.0