Powerpoint for OER 101 course

1. OER Adoption
Benefits and Challenges
Karin Pfister
OER 101
May 2016

2. Why Open Education Resources?
Faculty benefits
• Increased flexibility of how you use content
• No copyright permissions to chase after
• No book orders or publishers to deal with (if using Open
Textbooks)
• No heavy, bulky text to tote
• Possibilities of customization, can modify/edit as needed
• Student feedback is positive (students are grateful)
• Saves time and effort through reusing of resources rather
than creating from scratch
Student benefits
• Low cost or free
• Increased availability
• No heavy, bulky text to tote
• Easy to find and access, even before course begins and after
course ends
• Ability to add to resources as part of coursework (if lecturer
allows)

3. Other Benefits…
 OER emphasises learning communities and
learner engagement
 OER supports development of skills needed for
problem solving
 OER creates opportunities for personalised
learning
 OER allows students to create and share their own
content
Adapted from: Holotescu, C. (2007) Open Educational Resources and FLOSS

4. But, there are challenges…
 Time requirement to find just what you need
 Quality and “fit” are often “not quite right”
 Lack of University OER policies to guide and
support lecturers
 Deciding on the most appropriate license
 Making sure there is NOTHING in the resource
you’ve created that will prohibit you from labelling
CC; or making sure you attribute anything within
your resource that is NOT CC and then label your
resource “CC Unless labelled otherwise”
 Staff incentive to create and share OER