Open Educational Resources can change the way we think about course content. Here are some things to think about .

1. OPEN EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES
Kate Schwarz
EDCC Technology
Resource Center

2. ARE YOU READY TO JUMP IN – WITH
BOTH FEET?

3. COST? OER stands to dramatically reduce the costs for
students.
« According to Tidewater
Community College, their Zero
Textbook program (“Z Degree)
saves each student about $500
each quarter, or about the cost
of 1 course.
Bliss, TJ. Z as in Zero: Increasing College Access and Success trough Zero Textbook Cost Degree.
http://www.hewlett.org/blog/posts/z-zero-increasing-college-access-and-success-through-zero-
textbook-cost-degrees

4. ACCESS TO MORE QUALITY
CONTENT
« OER is the promise of accessing high quality
content for free.
« Leading Universities offer nearly a thousand
courses online (MOOCs, Open Courseware, etc.)
« One instructor describes the process of using OER
as “breaking the umbilical cord” to publisher
content.*
« Librarians are becoming content specialists -
again.
*Tidewater Community College's Textbook-Free "Z-Degree“ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu_LPUxtDgc

5. COURSE MATERIALS ARE LESS
RESTRICTED
« Could be accessed by students before
and after the course
« Connected to the wider world, courses
can become a launch pad for further
discovery
« Content is accessible by more teachers
and students, and “Peer Review” is on a
global scale.

6. OER
IS THE PROMISE OF
GLOBAL
DISTRIBUTION OF
INSTRUCTION

7. ANY DOWNSIDE?

8. SUSTAINABILITY
« Who will organize and house OER in
the future?
« Will foundations and higher education
be able to sustain their commitment to
quality content with funds to assemble
and curate the best?
« As MOOCs evolve, will they be
monetized out of OER models?

9. QUALITY OF CONTENT
«Instructors may not be willing to trade a
volume of quality content for the time
needed to locate and an adapt it.
«Geoff Cain, College of the Redwoods
suggests that the number of resources is “so
vast that it can literally paralyze instructors.”*
«If institutions begin to depend on OER
content, will there be institutional support for
staff development of the skills necessary to
create OER content and, more importantly,
evaluate it.
*McCrae, B. 4 Challenges for OER in Higher Education 6/26/2012. http://campustechnology.com/articles/2012/06/26/4-challenges-
for-oer-in-higher-education.aspx (access 3/3/2015

10. LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
« Using publisher material has very
clear and traditional legal
requirements.
« Creative Commons licensing is
new and still evolving. How can we
help instructors make informed
judgments about intellectual
property – their own and others’?

11. NO COST IS NOT FREE
« OER Repositories and institutions of
higher education have incentivized the
development and maintenance, e.g.,
providing stipends to faculty to develop
content. UMass –Amherst estimated they
save students $135,000 by paying 15
professors $17,00 to produce content.
« OER is a paradigm shift from “The
Textbook is the Content” to The Content
is the Content. Faculty require support in
this shift in the areas of professional
development and instructional design.

12. HOW DOES OER LOOK TO
YOUR CAMPUS?