OER 101 assignment that details the benefits and challenges of open educational resources

1. Open Educational Resources (OER)
Benefits,
Challenges and
Potential Solutions
Dr. Keith Rice, Olympic College
"Open Educational Resources (OER) - Benefits, Challenges and Potential Solutions" by Keith Rice is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
(all images are included within this licensing)

2. OER Hesitancy
The infancy of OER was over 20 years ago, yet it still has not
matured as a tool. There is a reluctance to invest (both time
& finances) by educators and administrators in providing
Open Educational Resources (OER) opportunities which in
turn has hindered its potential and subsequent academic
advancements. Consequently, an investigation of both its
benefits and challenges should be examined for you to
consider its adoption (or not).

3. Benefits
OER Benefits can be summarized by the six C’s:
Cost
Convenience
Collaboration
Customization
Copyright
Circulate

4. Benefits
COST CONVENIENCE
• Potentially saves money for
students – especially at the
community college level who often
are struggling financially .
• Students do not have to purchase
textbooks or additional class
materials (e.g., lab manual).
• OER essentially provides free
educational resources that make
education more affordable – if the
student has adequate internet
access and technology.
• Faculty do not have to invest their
own resources into purchasing
textbook and associated class
materials for potential adoption as
well as additional academic
resources for building lectures and
labs.
• Accessibility is greatly increased by
providing readily available and
pertinent resources through the
internet.
• Aids course preparation for faculty
by supplying readily available and
diverse resources through internet.
• Greater variety of media resources
are available including interactive
discussions, video captioning,
worldwide communication, cultural
diversity, and student interaction.

5. Benefits
COLLABORATION CUSTOMIZATION
• Encourages frequent
engagement with colleagues
and experts in the development
of courses.
• Provides new avenues for
working with professionals in
your field (e.g., Canvas
Commons).
• Presents more opportunities
for unique partnerships with
educators from the local to
global levels.
• Creates new opportunities for
pedagogical research with
colleagues.
• Educators can be more selective in
developing course curricula and
modify and tailor course readings to
meet the needs of both
introductory and advanced classes.
• Provides increased clarity and
certainty in choosing materials.
• Be more adaptable in improving
course content and structure and
become more proficient in updating
class materials.
• Allows greater creativity in the
crafting of course content by
providing a multitude of resources
that can be molded to fit particular
class structures.

6. Benefits
COPYRIGHT CIRCULATE
• Information literacy is improved
through OER andCreative
Commons by providing clear-cut,
uncomplicated foundations on
copyright, fair use and public
domain.
• Educators, authors and artists are
provided pathways for controlling
their copyrights through licensing.
• Copyright permissions are
controlled more easily through
Creative Commons attribution
licensing.
• Licensing controls allows educators
to effortlessly navigate and control
their digital repositories.
• Provides improved visibility of your
pedagogical work and course.
• Wider distribution of course
materials - showcasing you to a
global audience.
• OER materials will enhance
professional development since
they can be published regularly and
instantly.
• Greater visibility of materials will
showcase professional work and
enhance the reputation of one’s
university.
• Usage of Creative Commons sites
will provide more avenues for
redistribution and reuse of
materials .

7. Challenges
OER Challenges can be summarized by the six P’s:
Proficiencies
Peer Process
Procedural Standards
Promotional Principles
Public Epiphany
Perpetuality

8. Challenges
PROFICIENCIES PEER PROCESS
• One of the keys to successful OER
implementation is the availability of
adequate computer technology to
both faculty and students.
• Both faculty and students need to
be literate in using modern
information resources. Variable
technological background due to
digital divide issues (e.g., lack of
access toWI-FI in rural counties) will
manifest itself in both computer use
issues and knowledge inadequacies.
• There is extensive technology
resource variations from K-12 to
colleges (both in the U.S. and
globally). Resource availability as
well as migration of OER resources
from different platforms and
systems remains a pervasive issue.
• The quality of OER materials is
quite variable. It is currently left up
to the researcher to decide on the
veracity of the presented materials.
• A vetting process is needed to
provide a more reliable process for
judging the value and relevance of
published resources.This would
also improve the time and effort
needed for individuals to find
pertinent materials.
• There should be increased research
and subsequent data analysis as to
the viability, authenticity and
veracity of OER materials. This is
turn would provide more
confidence in employing these
resources in courses.

9. Challenges
PROCEDURAL
STANDARDS
PROMOTIONAL
PRINCIPLES
• Coordination among leadingOER
websites is needed to provide
standardization of OER databases
and resources. This will lead to less
time constraints in users having to
navigate disparate sites.
• Rubric templates need to be
developed for evaluative OER
searches with clear, definable steps
to provide efficient filtering of
available resources. This should
include keyword searches, red flag
warnings, and best option
suggestions, across the majority of
known OER databases.
• Every academic discipline needs to
target development of OER
materials to prevent discipline
deserts – subject areas that lack
OER resources.
• University promotion and tenure is
inextricably interlinked with traditional
publishing. Although development of
OER materials can be seen as professional
development it does not have the same
gravitas in personnel review. For more
academic personnel to become engaged
in OER it needs to have an equal
importance and assessment weight in
comparison to traditional publishing.
• Besides OER being given professional
development value, it should also be
factored into the normal workload of
faculty duties. This ensures that the
present undervalued labor placed on OER
development is institutionalized as part of
an academic staff member or professor’s
duties.
• University administration must recognize
the value and worth of OER development
activities in the assessment of academic
staff and professors. Publishing open-
access materials normally do not come
with the same prestige as peer-reviewed
articles and books. This has been a past
impediment for scholars and writers (lack
of scholarship recognition) in publishing
under the CreativeCommons licenses .

10. Challenges
PUBLIC
EPIPHANY
PERPETUALITY
• A huge paradigm shift is needed in
academic circles and the public in
accepting the premise and
applicability of OER.
• Educational institutions and
associated administrators usually do
not understand the potential of
OER and its capacity to help faculty
deliver more customized and
relevant courses to students.
• Educators and academic publishers
feel threatened by the perceived
lost of intellectual property. There is
a need to recognize the concept and
application of open licensing that
reinforces intellectual ownership.
• A fundamental issue of OER is
sustainability. Akin to many academic
projects with only incubator funding,OER
has no goals for its enduring legacy – and
needs a plan for its perpetuity.
• OER funding is not assured so the issue of
maintenance and updating materials is
unknown.The idea that large groups of
professionals who are philanthropic of
their time in creating and updating
materials with no reward (financially or
professionally) is illusory at best. A
compensation plan for OER
developmental labor is a necessity for it to
endure.
• If teachers or students are biased against
the usage of OER materials this creates a
critical barrier, whether in using them for
class development or assigned to them. It
is a hurdle that must be crossed if
sustainability is to be achieved.
• Perpetual revision of OER materials - with
a permanent maintenance plan - is
essential for OER perpetuity. This also
requires that the quality of materials is
upheld through frequent peer review and
publication.

11. Potential Solutions
1. Higher Education Commissions must require colleges and
universities accept OER materials as professional development for
personnel that is equal in stature to more traditional publications.
Furthermore, it would benefit the review of accreditation
materials for each institution if there was a funded OER program
on campus.
2.There must be a concerted effort within every academic
national organization (e.g.,Association of American Geographers)
to promote OER. This can be accomplished through ad hoc
discipline commissions (within each society or institute) as well as
seed funding for new faculty to become engaged in the process
(e.g., summer grants).
3. Federal Government agencies (e.g., National Science
Foundation (NSF)) that normally fund both K-12 and Higher
Education should be petitioned for earmarked grant funding
specific toOER. Private Foundations can also be approached but
likely will be limited in scope due to underlying legal conditions
(e.g., money can only be used for student scholarships).