There are several benefits to using open educational resources (OERs) according to the document. OERs give faculty more control over curriculum by allowing them to create customized course materials. They also help with student retention by reducing textbook costs. OERs integrate more seamlessly with online learning systems than e-textbooks. However, there are also challenges to using OERs. Finding and adapting high-quality up-to-date OER materials requires a significant unpaid time investment from adjunct faculty. Additionally, some students may perceive online resources as less authoritative than print textbooks and have more difficulty reading lengthy materials digitally.

1. Open Educational Resources
OERS: The Benefits and Challenges by Linda Stewart
The Benefits and Challenges Photo: Linda Stewart

2. What are the benefits of using OERS?
1) Gives faculty more power than publishers
• Faculty can create textbooks that support their own course objectives instead
of shopping for textbooks that are almost right.
• Most textbook publishers are located on the East Coast. They may be out of
touch with attitudes/current events in the Pacific Northwest.

3. What are the benefits of using OERS?
2) Student Retention
• The cost of textbooks may push some students to drop out.
• Composition textbooks cost $50-$100 for a 10 week course.
• I know students choose OER courses so that they can save money and pay
for food, housing, and childcare.

4. What are the benefits of using OERS?
3) Easier to Integrate with Canvas than e-textbooks
• I’ve used both OERs and etextbooks. It’s much easier for students to click an
OER link than to set up an etextbook account.
• When I used an etextbook, 2 or 3 students did not get access to the textbook
until Week 2 of the quarter.

5. What are the benefits of using OERs?
4) Everyone is on the same page—literally
• When I assign print textbooks, there are always a few students who purchase
alternate/old editions. Then they have problems finding the right page
numbers.
• I can link to OERS in my online assignments and announcements. Finding the
readings is easy. I can link to them in multiple places.

6. What are the benefits of using OERs?
5) Up to Date Content
• Textbooks become out of date quickly.
• Several composition textbooks I’ve used refer to Donald Trump or even
Barack Obama as President.
• Since you can remix and adapt OERs, you can make sure they are never out
of date.

7. What are the challenges of using OERs?
1) More Unpaid Work for Adjuncts
• Adjuncts are not compensated for the extra time it takes to locate and adapt
OER materials.
• Creating course shells is time consuming, and adjuncts may not even be
asked to teach the same courses multiple times. It’s possible to spend weeks
on a course shell, use it one quarter, and be assigned to different courses
other quarters.

8. What are the challenges of using OERs?
2) Finding Up to Date Course Materials
• Many of the textbooks listed in the Open Washington Resources are more
than 5 years old
• Newer textbooks remix old content, so even if the publication date is recent,
the content may be old.

9. What are the challenges of using OERs?
3) OERs may not appear to be as trustworthy as print books
• Students may not believe a web source is as authoritative as a print book
since they can create web pages and contribute to open source sites like
Wikipedia themselves.
• Sometimes links to OERs don’t work, which creates the impression of
impermanence/unreliability.

10. What are the challenges of using OERs?
4) Not a big concern of the Modern Language Association
• As an English teacher, I belong to the Modern Language Association, the
Association that publishes citation guidelines.
• We study MLA citation style in my composition courses, and there is a subtle
bias toward print/scholarly journals in the guidelines.

11. What are the challenges of using OERs?
5) Students may not read online materials as well as they read print materials
• Due to the physical challenges of focusing on a screen, students may have
problems reading lengthy, difficult texts online.
• I know that some students print out chapters in OERs, which is extra work for
them.