open education resources pro and con
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Open Education Resources a short comparison of Pros and ConsTRANSCRIPT
Open Education Resources
The Pros and ConsBy Amanda E. LeeVan
Photo credit: opensourceway / Foter / CC BY-SA
The Pros
OERs can supplement textbooks & lectures when information is incomplete
With supplemental lesson modules With videos and podcasts With student centered activities With formative and practical assessments With interactive labs
Students around the world can access OERs at any time, over and over
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OERs can reduce the expense of traditional textbooks and course packs
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Continually Improved Resources
OERs can be improved quickly through editing by other users
or through solicited feedback
Depending on the license other uses can revise, remix, and add additional content to continually update resources
Provide Enhancements to regular course content with free content and open tools Multimedia material can accompany text allowing for multiple formats to
meet UDL guidelines which may help all students to learn the material more easily
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Cons
Con: Quality issues with some OER resources
Since there are several OER repositories that allow any user to create an account and post materials
the accuracy and relevance of some materials is questionable
There are no quality standards for resources submitted
Con: Technological barrier issues
Some students may have trouble using some OERs if they use an older or slow computer or internet connection
Not all students have ready access to internet
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Con: Creative Commons licensing terms can be confusing to users
Users unfamiliar with the CC licensing may be confused with if and how they can use resources
Con: Creative Commons licenses are non-revocable
CC Licensing can be changed or removed from items but materials already used, reused or revised will continue to be exponentially available
This may scare off some educators who are unsure of their future potential as published professors who may feel they would loose out of royalties
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Con: Question on the long term sustainability of OERs
While there has been significant money for OER startup development, there is some question about keeping the resources up to date and maintaining the servers and file sharing portals open for worldwide access over the long term
Will You OER?
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