The benefits and challenges of Open Educational Resources

1. Open Educational
Resources: aka OER
The Pros and Cons
By Gina Hatcher

2. Major Benefits…the Pros
• Opens access to higher education to all
• Broadens the access to many reputable quality
institutions such as:
• Yale
• Harvard
• John Hopkins…. to name a few
• Reduces the cost to students, especially in
books and supplemental learning materials
Open Educational Resources aka OER; The Pros and Cons by Gina Hatcher

3. Other Benefits
• Open licensing maximizes the equitable sharing
of materials to the benefit of both the creators
and recipients of the resources
• Broadens the opportunities for scholarship and
recognition among educators and researchers
worldwide
Open Educational Resources aka OER; The Pros and Cons by Gina Hatcher

4. The Challenges…the Cons
• Scope of Subject Matter and Academic disciplines are limited
• All areas of higher education are not yet included such as Community and
Technical College Professional and Technical subjects
• Considering “open access” is the hallmark of these institutions, OER is a
reasonable fit
• Quality Assurance
• Keeping material current and updated is expensive and requires a consistent
and systematic approach. No such protocol currently exists in OER.
• Technological changes, digitalization of materials and life cycle of
information is constantly changing
Open Educational Resources aka OER; The Pros and Cons by Gina Hatcher

5. More Challenges
• Accessibility---issues in terms of universally available in formats
to students with special needs at this point is either non-existent,
or very limited.
• OER is not universally understood or desired by many
• It requires a new paradigm of the role of higher education
• It redefines ownership of intellectual property
• It expands the alternatives to traditional copyright protection.
• Sustainability
• Funding resources that were available to jumpstart the movement will
eventually end. Their currently no long term plan in place to take over
when current funding sources are exhausted.
Open Educational Resources aka OER; The Pros and Cons by Gina Hatcher

6. The Results
• OER has a viable place in the 21st century educational arena. Only
10 years in existence, it has made significant progress, but has a
long way to go before yet in being firmly established and
accepted.
• It is a paradigm shift in every respect, but the 21st century in itself
is a paradigm shift in so many ways in how we live, communicate,
politic…and of course…educate.
Open Educational Resources aka OER; The Pros and Cons by Gina Hatcher