Open Educational Resources

Advantages and ChallengesRachel Goon

Advantages for students

• Free or low-cost materials save students money• All students have access to materials, regardless of

socioeconomic status• Online OER learning objects can be more engaging

than a textbook• Opportunities for students to participate in

creating course materials• Opportunities for students to learn about

copyright, idea ownership, and “honorable use” of others’ ideas

“College Students Spending Time Outside” by York College of PA is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Advantages for faculty

• Opportunities to share our ideas and get feedback from others• Opportunities to rejuvenate our teaching methods by learning

from others• It’s easier to teach when all students have the materials!

“Faculty member Asma Abbas” by Bard College at Simon’s Rock is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Potential hurdles to clear

• Quality of materials can vary• Some disciplines have more readily-available OERs than others• It can be time consuming to find OERs• Adapting them for our own use also takes time• Not all OER are designed to be printable, and some studies suggest

that we understand textual material better on paper than on a screen

“Men's 100m Hurdles at the Triton Invitational 2011” by SD Dirk is licensed under CC BY 2.0