This document discusses the benefits and challenges of open educational resources (OER). The benefits include equitable access to education for all students regardless of their financial situation, lower costs for course materials which allows students to spend financial aid on other necessities, opportunities for professional development and customization of materials for faculty, and catering to different learning styles. However, developing OER courses can be time-consuming, some faculty may have a fixed mindset resisting change, institutions may have unrealistic expectations, ensuring quality and keeping materials up-to-date is challenging, and not all students have access to necessary technology.

1. OER 101 – Benefits
and Challenges
Lynne Szymanski
Lake Washington Institute of Technology

2. Benefits of OER • Everyone should, at a minimum,
have a chance at a good education
• Higher Education tends to be a pay-
to-play system that not everyone
can afford
• OER courses can help even out the
playing field give more students an
opportunity to attend college
Equitable Access
to Higher
Education

3. Cost of Materials
for Students
• Textbooks can cost a ton and can cause
Sticker Shock at the price
• Students don’t always have enough
Financial Aid money to pay for it all so
they don’t buy the books.
• As one of only 5 technical colleges in the
state, traditional textbooks mostly impact
the academic core classes students take at
LWTech
• OER course materials allow students to
use what's left of their Financial Aid
money on things like…gas to get to
school, food, or tools or materials for their
technical classes
Benefits of OER

4. Professional
Development for
Faculty
• Faculty can develop their own OER
materials to be shared with others
all over the world by thinking
outside of the traditional textbook
box
• By developing OER materials
Faculty have the opportunity stretch
their curriculum development skills
• Faculty can customize materials for
their classes that will target the
topics they want to cover without
having students buy a textbook
where only a few chapters will be
used
Benefits of OER

5. Learning Styles!
• Most students have a preferred
way of learning – listening,
read/write, visual, hands on
learning – OER can provide
materials for any or all of those
learning styles in one class!
Benefits of OER

6. Departmental
Resource
Collections
• Academic departments can work
collaboratively to build a wide
variety of OER materials for every
course taught
• They don’t have to do the updating
of materials themselves because the
worldwide network of educators are
always contributing, updating,
tweaking, and sharing materials
• OER materials are Peer Reviewed so
they can trust in the quality of the
materials they have at their finger
tips
Benefits of OER

7. Challenges
of OER
Time Consuming
• Transitioning a class into OER can
require a lot of research, time, and
energy
• With so many options available
development can be overwhelming
and create a sense of paralysis
• With a full teaching schedule,
faculty could potentially feel that
creating an OER class is beyond
their capacity

8. Challenges
of OER
Fixed Mindset
• The Textbook is the course –
• This is how we have always taught
this class –
 If learning something new takes
effort and it is therefor rejected the
above statements could be
covering for a fear of failure and a
fixed mindset

9. Challenges
of OER
Institutional
Expectation
• Some Administrators may have
unrealistic expectations of the time
it takes to create an OER class
• Is the Institution committed for the
long hall?
• Does everyone on campus really
understand what OER is?

10. Challenges
of OER
Quality Matters
• Faculty have to spend time evaluating OER
materials to make sure they are correct and
address the topics needed
• Creators don’t always keep their materials up to
date

11. Challenges
of OER
Technology
• Not all students have access to the
technology needed to use OER –
Software
• Some students may not have a
computer or internet access at home
so OER materials may not be as
useful as a physical textbook