Benefits and challenges to OER

1. Leah
Hannaford’s
Thoughts on Open
Educational Resources
(OER)

2. Benefits to OER:
 1 - The opportunity to save learners money
 2 - The potential for long-term access to
course materials
 3 - The collaborative nature that OER offers
 4 - The evolution of higher education – we live
in a connected world – our educational
resources will adapt to that world
 5 - Enhancing subjects that change rapidly
and preserving subjects that might disappear

3. Challenges to OER:
 1 - Finding materials that have quality in
all aspects
 I can find materials with good video – I can
find materials with decent practical
exercises – can I find materials with both in
all subjects?

4. Our current information
systems:
 2 - OER will need to be integrated into
existing information systems
 Systems used for resource retrieval and also
instruction
 3 - Time spent informing learners and
teachers on how to find and incorporate
OER

5. Articulating policies:
 4 - Learners and faculty will need to
Understand and be able to articulate
differences in copyrights
 5 - Maintaining stamina to create better
systems
 Integrating OER will require more than a
few presentations on “why” and will need
to move into the “how” – learners, faculty,
and staff will have to work together to
integrate OER