This document discusses the good news and bad news of Open Educational Resources (OER). The good news includes that there is a lot of educational material available online for free reuse and adaptation. However, it can be difficult to find suitable materials and additional work is often required to modify materials for one's own needs. While OER allows for collaboration and inspiration, it also poses risks like being taken advantage of or creating materials that make one obsolete. Overall, OER provides benefits but also challenges that must be considered.

1. Open Educational
Resources
Good News/Bad News
Bart Salisbury

2. What is OER?
• Open Educational Resources, or OER, is
a process and forum for the creation and
sharing of educational materials.
• Let‟s take a moment to look at some of the
advantages and disadvantages OER has
to offer.

3. Good News
• Lots of stuff is available!
•Literally thousands of objects litter the
internet for you to choose from.
•No matter what you‟re looking for: a quick
tidbit to an entire course, there‟s a good
chance you‟ll find it.

4. Bad News
• Good luck trying to find it!
•While there is a lot of material available,
OER is still relatively new and not all
material has been cataloged in readily
accessible ways.
•Which means you‟ll probably have to
spend some time, initially at least, digging
around the Internet for suitable material.

5. Good News
• Adapt rather than create!
•There‟s a huge effort involved in coming
up with something new. But, as you‟re not
the only one doing this there‟s a good
chance someone else has already created
something you can use.
•Plus, it takes less effort to tweak than it
does to start from scratch.

6. Bad News
• Creation may take less time!
•Needs are often idiosyncratic, so the stuff
you find will probably need some
adjustment. Which means the more
involved or comprehensive is the material,
so too will the work involved to whip it into
shape.
•In the long run, after editing and
reformatting, you might wind up spending
more time than if you had started from

7. Good News
• Use a variety of material!
•There‟s pictures, video, maps, text,
applications-- all sorts of goodies for you to
use to make your material more engaging.
•You really do have the ability to put the
„multi‟ into your multimedia presentations.

8. Bad News
• Options don‟t always get along!
•Sorry, but the sad reality is lots of material
looks good singly, but refuses to get along
jointly. Media files may be incompatible, not
just with each other, but with the
technology you plan to use.
•Given the variability in the technology of
your audience safety says be conservative,
which means all these options aren‟t truly
options.

9. Good News
• You can be inspired!
•It‟s worthwhile seeing how others
approach a particular topic or subject--it
gives us something intellectual to gnaw on,
which leads us to build something better.

10. Bad News
• You can be frozen by the possibilities!
•There‟s something to be said for too much
of a good thing. Yes, there are lots of good
ideas, but, perhaps, this can overwhelm.
And, being overwhelmed is not a good
thing--we tend fall back on the tried & true.

11. Good News
• Collaborate with others!
•It may see that you‟re alone, but turns out
you‟re not. Lots of others are doing the
same thing you are, and working with
others can be invigorating and fulfilling.
•OER provides a framework for sharing
that‟s easily used.

12. Bad News
• You could be doing someone‟s homework!
•Group work always poses a risk--there are
(sorry Mitt) „makers and takers.‟ While it‟s
nice to contribute to an effort, it‟s not so
nice to be taken advantage of.

13. Good News
• Build something greater than yourself!
•Let‟s be honest--we have egos, and don‟t
mind having those egos stroked. Building
something notable works toward that end.
After all, why not dare to be great?

14. Bad News
• Write the ticket for your own
obsolescence!
•The more materials that accumulate,
produced usually without institutional
support, provides the material needed to
replace with you someone (something?)
else--after all, you put your work out there
to be used by others. There‟s nothing to
say it can‟t be used against you.

15. Conclusion
• Nothing‟s perfect, and OER is no
exception. There are advantages and
disadvantages, and it‟s up to you to
evaluate these plusses and minuses
relative to your own situation.
• In the long run, there‟s a huge upside to
OER, for us individually and collectively.
But, like all other things worth having,
there‟s risks in obtaining it.

16. Resources
Viv Rolfe: “What are the Benefits and Pitfalls of Open Educational Resources (OERs)?:
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Are-the-Benefits-and-Pitfalls-of-Open-Educational-Resources-
(OERs)?&id=5638015
University of Maryland University College: “Open Educational Resources: A Guide for Faculty on finding and
Using OERs in the Online Classroom”
http://libguides.umuc.edu/content.php?pid=98930&sid=742401
Lou McGill: “Stakeholders and Benefits”
https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/24838012/Stakeholders%20and%20benefits
Jose Francisco Astorga Paliza: “Open Educational Resources Advantages”
http://whyopenedmatters.org/video/39/open-educational-resources-adv/
Lynn Russo Whylly: “The Benefits of Open Educational Resources”
http://www.districtadministration.com/news/benefits-open-educational-resources

17. Resources
Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams: “Benefits and Challenges of OER for Higher Education Institutions”
http://www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/OER_BenefitsChallenges_presentation.pdf
Antony Stella: “Quality and Quality Assurance in Higher Education: The Opportunities and Challenges of OER”
http://www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/OER_OER_and_QA_Challenges.pdf
Daniel E. Atkins, John Seely Brown, Allen L. Hammond: “A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER)
Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities”
http://www.hewlett.org/uploads/files/ReviewoftheOERMovement.pdf
deliddoa‟s blog: “What are the Key Challenges for the OER Movement?”
http://www.olnet.org/node/639
Bridget McCrea: “4 Challenges of OER in Higher Education”
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2012/06/26/4 challenges for oer in higher education.aspx

18. Smilies!
Chat smiley by OCAL (http://www.clker.com/clipart-4243.html),
released into the public domain (http://www.clker.com/disclaimer.html).
Very sad smiley by Danielle (http://www.clker.com/clipart-very-sad-smiley.html),
released into the public domain (http://www.clker.com/disclaimer.html).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley: “...not a “distinctive” mark under US law, and therefore could not be
trademarked by anyone in the United States.” See: Smith v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (No. 97-5313:
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1020631.html)