Case Study

Case Study: Ethical Dilemmas in Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Scenario:

The Nautilus has surfaced at a university research facility where administrators have mandated the rapid transition from traditional textbooks to fully Open Educational Resources (OERs) within a single semester. While the intent is to lower costs and increase accessibility, the transition has revealed significant challenges, including:

Lack of vetting for resource quality, leading to outdated or biased materials.
Faculty concerns over simply placing links without context or narrative, reducing instructional cohesion.
ADA compliance issues, where many resources do not meet accessibility standards for diverse learners.
Ethical dilemmas in compensating content curators and ensuring academic integrity.
Inconsistent alignment with learning outcomes, as some OERs do not fully address course objectives.

University leadership is now seeking a policy recommendation on how to navigate these ethical challenges while still leveraging the benefits of OERs.

Your Mission:

Investigate the ethical concerns of OER implementation by reviewing curated resources and case studies.
Analyze perspectives from faculty, students, administrators, and content creators.
Develop a policy framework that ensures high-quality, accessible, and pedagogically sound OER integration.
Present your findings in a format of your choice (e.g., report, roundtable discussion, interactive presentation).

Key Questions:

How can you or your organization ensure the quality and credibility of OERs?
What strategies should be implemented to provide proper instructional scaffolding for OER use?
How can institutions balance the benefits of OERs with ethical concerns around content creation and compensation?
What role should accessibility play in OER adoption, and how can compliance be ensured?
How has the conversation about OERs expanded with the use of AI?

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