This document discusses the benefits and challenges of open educational resources (OER) compared to traditional textbooks and course materials. The benefits include lower costs for students, increased access and flexibility, opportunities for customization and collaboration among faculty. However, challenges include the difficulty finding high-quality materials, lack of accessibility support, limited review and updating of content, and potential technical issues with online resources that have little support. Overall, OER can improve affordability and preparation for students but implementing and maintaining them takes significant effort from instructors and institutions.

1. Benefits and Challenges
Author: Naydene Hays

3.  Costs of textbooks and other course
materials continues to climb (in
2012, textbooks costs had grown
812%!)
 Students face numerous financial
roadblocks to success
 OER materials are less expensive (or
even free!)

4.  OER can be available from before day 1
 Students can review material before class starts and be better prepared!
 Students can even review material before they enroll in a class!
 Electronic textbooks mean students can access course material from anywhere
 Materials can be directly incorporated into online classes

5.  Students who do not have to wait for books are less likely to fall behind in a course
 Decreases in course costs mean that students are more likely to be able to
purchase all of the course material
 Students do not need to rely on borrow material that may have limited availability
or be damaged
 Students who are required to spend less for courses may be able to take more
classes and finish their degrees in a timely fashion

6.  If licenses allow, OER can be
customized!
 Faculty can pick and choose which
parts of books and courses are most
appropriate.
 Faculty have more control over their
course content!
"Control is an Option to
Command" by FredCintra is licensed under CC
BY 2.0

7. "Collaboration" by ChrisL_AK is licensed
under CC BY 2.0
 Faculty can work together to build
better resources
 Students can more easily contribute
original work to the academic
community
 Opens more room for scholarship and
discussion of ideas

9. There are lots of materials available
as OER. This can make finding
specific media quite difficult
"Stacks of Books." by Andrei.D40 is
licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Even in the vast repositories, some
material just doesn’t exist
"Unicorn" by hamur0w0 is licensed
under CC BY-NC 2.0

10.  According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 19.4% of
undergraduates in 2015-2016 reported having a disability.
 This percentage increases when looking at women (19.6%), older students (22.6%
for students 30 and over), and veterans (25.8%)…groups that already have lower
success rates than other students.
 Accessible OER is much less available than OER in general
 For example, of the 43 OER physics simulators available at phet.colorado.edu, only 9 are
listed as accessible!
 Often accessibility of OER is not specified, forcing undertrained faculty to
determine for themselves if there is an issue
 Though…accessibility is also an issue for non-OER as well…

11.  Publishers employ dozens of people
to edit and “polish” resources. This
is not a service often available to
OER
 OER relies on already overworked
peers to review released work
 I discovered numerous out-of-date
links and resources in OER courses
as owners were not updating courses
after posting
"Quality andValue" by wetwebwork is licensed
under CC BY 2.0

12. "Overworked..." by Lawrence
OP is licensed under CC BY-
NC 2.0
 Substantial work may have to be
done to find quality OER
 Additional work may be required to
adapt OER for a course
 Some OER may have a steep
learning curve for faculty
 Substantially easier to use
traditionally published materials in
some subject areas

13. "Technical Support" by Christopher.Johnson is
licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
 For technical OER (simulation,
online homework sites, etc.),
technical support may be limited or
non-existent
 Steep learning curves for some
materials can turn of potential new
users
 Students that face steep learning
curves for new tech can struggle to
be successful