The Benefits and Challenges of using OER in Public Health

EducationHallie Pritchett, MPHSeptember 22, 2016

Public Health Education

Public health education may refer to: Community Health Education Health Advocacy An Associates, Bachelors, or Graduate

degree program

Benefit #1: Accessibility

Open Educational Resources (OER) are created in order to be accessible for all students, including those with potential disabilities. Within public health, the communities and populations you may be creating educational materials for are extremely diverse.

Benefit #2: CostOERs are available free of cost, which is beneficial for the students as well as the institution, as it is financially sustainable. Education level has a direct correlation with population health, therefore the more affordable education is, the more realistic people will engange, and the better a population’s health may be.

Benefit #3: Knowledge Sharing

The ability to easily share knowledge enhances the quality of materials for all to use. As there are a limited number of quality health related materials currently available on OER this will greatly improve the options.

A teacher can customize their class however they like and/or students can lead their educational journey. There are so many areas of study within the field of public health, therefore this greatly allows for students and professionals to tailor their education.

Benefit #4: Customization

Benefit #5: Life-long Learning

Students can choose to take courses related to the field and build their continuing education credits by taking many health related OER classes. There are a number of professional certifications related to public health that require continuing education credits. Aside from the potnetial requirement, many people in the field are naturally lifelong learnes.

Challenge #1: Availability

It’s often hard to find public health related materials in the public health field that are actually OER.

Challenge #2: Quality

As hard as it is to find materials in the first place, it’s doubly difficult to find quality health related materials . Anyone can post and/or license their material, without having it fact-checked. If material isn’t maintained, it can become out of date.

Challenge #3: Students may lack

accessNot all students have access to computers or the internet, which makes using OER difficult. Many students in public health higher education as well as the communities that public health educators are trying to reach are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Challenge #4: Licensing

While it has it’s benefits for the material’s author, it’s a complicated process which can make the use of the materials complicated. Often, health educators don’t have time to navigate difficult systems.

Challenge #5: Time consuming

It’s incredibly time consuming to search for and find adequate OER materials. As stated in the previous challenge, time is a necessity.