The document discusses the benefits and challenges of using Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education. It notes benefits like providing global access to education, increasing participation through open sharing of materials, advancing knowledge by unlocking and remixing content, improving quality and reducing costs. Challenges include lack of long-term sustainability, understanding of copyright, maintaining quality of digital resources, assessing effectiveness, and funding for research and development.

1. Benefits and Challenges
in Using Open Educational
Resources
Setsuko Buckley, Ed.D., Instructor
Whatcom Community College

2. Open Educational Resources (OER) is the
emergence of teaching materials and processes in
higher education in the digital age.
What are the benefits and challenges in using
OER?

3. BENEFITS:
 Providing access to education to people all over the world
 Increasing participation by sharing open digital materials and
teaching practices
 Advancing knowledge by unlocking information and
reusing/remixing educational materials
 Improving quality of educational materials and teaching
practices and education in general for the benefit of all learners
 Reducing the cost of educational materials and education as a
whole for all learners

4. CHALLENGES:
Lack of…
 Long-term sustainability as institutional resources
 Public understanding of copyright ownership of a
digital work
 Maintenance of quality of digital resources
 Assessment on the effectiveness of the use of OER
 Funding for OER research/development and course
offerings