Open Educational Resources (OER)

Benefits & Challenges

OER Defined Benefits Challenges Moving Forward

Presentation Overview

“Open educational resources (OERs) are freely and openly licensed educational materials that

can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes.”

~Wikipedia article

OER Defined

Provides high quality education to a broad and

global population Allows for self-paced learning and

remediation, a great example of this is the Khan Academy where students can either catch up or advance their math skills

Helps teachers enhance the classroom experience

Reduces costs for students Promotes collaboration

Benefits

Certain areas of the country and world are without internet

access, limiting the population who can access OERs Maintenance of quality materials – how can we be sure

materials are accurate, reliable, and who is responsible for updating or checking when a work is reproduced?

Lack of understanding about what OERs are, how to find and use them, as well as how to develop them

Can we keep up and make sure OERs will stick around and continue to be a powerful resource?

Gaining buy-in from people or companies who lose a profit from OERs

Building more OER resources

Challenges

What is in store for the future of OERs? While

that question cannot be answered, in order to build, grow and sustain OERs, people need to be educated about the benefits, challenges, and purpose of OERs. As educators realize the immense benefits it provides to them and to their students, hopefully there will be a continued movement to share resources, educating people globally

Moving Forward