The Pros and Cons

Open EducationResources

By Yvonne Appenzeller

Pros:

• Students will benefit by saving money using free textbooks online or other resources the instructor recommends.

• Students today learn very differently from the past. Many more are visual learners and OER aids their education with free videos, images and exercises that help them understand the material.

• Students today are also more tech savy and would prefer to use their computers, tablets or other devices to receive the course material from their instructor and complete assignments.

• Educators will benefit through time saving (don’t have to create a whole course from scratch) and the variety and multitude of resources out there that can be added to enhance their course.

• The fact that OER, depending on the license it falls under, can be used as written or changed for the needs of students or educators makes it very useful in enhancing courses or student’s assignments.

Open Education Resources are tools found on the internet that are free to everyone.

Cons: • When choosing the content you wish to use through OER you must determine what license it is under.

This may take some digging. Once the license is found you must honor the license conditions.

• There is almost too much information available. It takes time to wade through the sites. Once you have found something you need to make sure it for 1) is OER and 2) it is accurate information.

• That is another con, how does the public know the information they are reading and want to use is actually accurate and correct?

• By the way, does this information ever get reviewed for accuracy? If it does get reviewed what are the qualifications of the person(s) conducting the review?

• Does old content get removed from these sites? The world is discovering and understanding new things at a very fast pace now. So there may be content on a site that is actually outdated and incorrect.

What are the hurdles to using OER?