The Road Ahead Open Educational Resources Touting the Benefits while Recognizing the Challenges

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PAT PICKERING, RN, MSN, PNP THE ROAD AHEAD OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES TOUTING BENEFITS WHILE RECOGNIZING CHALLENGES Dream Road by James Dolan licensed CC BY NC

description

Identifies key challenges and benefits for instructors and students using Open Educational Resources (OER).

Transcript of The Road Ahead Open Educational Resources Touting the Benefits while Recognizing the Challenges

Page 2: The Road Ahead   Open Educational Resources  Touting the Benefits while Recognizing the Challenges

Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others (definition by Hewlett Foundation). 

For educators, students and others, courses utilizing OER offer many benefits that can lead to success in a variety of ways. However, the road to development, implementation and ongoing monitoring of these courses provides challenges, some of which could derail the process and even lead to failure.Crossroads: Success or Failure by Chris Potter licensed by

CC

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OER BENEFITSFOR STUDENTS

• Money saved• Gone are expensive textbooks

and access codes• Access increased

• Internet-based work expands accessibility (location and tech tools used)

• Resources broadened• Exposure to a wide variety of

information, materials and tools both for course and future use

• Review available• Ability to go back and review

course material at a later date• Engagement increased

• Allows for a course design that incorporates more student interaction, involvement and engagement (For example, students do the research to find the answer)

FOR INSTRUCTORS• Eliminates course startup delay

• Students have immediate access to course materials; no waiting for textbooks resulting in late starts

• Eliminates frequent textbook updates• Gone are the increasingly

frequent textbook updates and associated course revisions

• Constantly current• By not having to rely on

textbook content, some of which is outdated before print, course materials can be kept updated in real time; also helps/encourages instructors to keep current!

• Expanded learning and sharing network• Affords the opportunity to learn

from and share with other educators outside the college’s “walls”

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OER CHALLENGESFOR STUDENTS

• Forces use of Internet-based materials – no more printed texts• A surprising number of

students prefer printed textbooks

• Barriers to access• Some students are still on

dialup; military students or those using government/work computers cannot upload documents

• Here today, gone tomorrow• Information on the Internet

may be available today and disappear overnight

• Chronic hardware glitches• Some students are operating

outdated computers that may not be able to handle the course materials

• Varying technology skills• Not all students have adequate

technology knowledge and skills

FOR INSTRUCTORS• Time!

• Developing an OER course will take time and effort. It also will require ongoing maintenance and updating

• Demystifying licensure• Though the course has helped

begin the understanding of licensure, there are still questions; going the wrong direction on licensure could be a problem

• Fighting fear of the unknown• Reality is, in some ways this is

just a tad bit scary as it seems there is a lot that could go so very wrong

• Lurking reluctance• Many are ready and willing;

others do not want to share their work for a variety of reasons

• Wildly varying quality of material• Some materials are well done

and valid; others not so much