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While the benefits and potential of OER are numerous, there are still some challenges to overcome. Teachers, students, administrators, parents, and board members all have a stake in quality education. Below are a list of concerns for all involved with links to resources that help address these concerns and offer solutions.
While the benefits and potential of OER are numerous, there are still some challenges to overcome. Teachers, students, administrators, parents, and board members all have a stake in quality education. Below are a list of concerns for all involved with links to resources that help address these concerns and offer solutions.
Evaluating Quality Resources
Evaluating Quality Resources
If you’ve visited our OER 101, Finding OER, and Sample Lesson pages, you’ve discovered the many resources available to educators. The biggest challenge could be how to determine if the resources you’ve found are the right fit for you in terms of quality and alignment with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Achieve’s Open Education Resources (https://achieve.org/about-us): Achieve is a nonprofit education organization organized by a group of educators and governors whose efforts are designed to prepare states to make college and career readiness a priority for all students (Achieve, n.d.a).
Here you will find a set of downloadable rubrics that can help teachers, districts, and other users evaluate OER (Achieve, n.d.b).
(Achieve, 2012)
Copyright Concerns
Copyright Concerns
Sharing and using content on the web can provide multiple challenges, including how to safeguard against unfair use and how to understand the differences in copyright. Whether you are a content creator or are someone who plans on using, remixing, or modifying work to meet your needs, check out how Creative Commons helps inform and equip educators on the OER front (Creative Commons, n.d.f).
Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/about/):
Here you will learn more about their licensing considerations (Creative Commons, n.d.d).
In addition to checking out our Finding OER page, click here to learn more about how to find resources on Creative Commons.
(Creative Commons, 2010)
Costs and Other Considerations
Costs and Other Considerations
As with any program, vital concerns are cost and sustainability. How can organizations and individual educators find ways to maintain a free OER platform? In many cases, it depends on educational regulations on the federal, state, and local levels. Click on the links below to learn how some states and organizations discuss OER implementation and sustainability.
T.J. Bliss & Susan Patrick's (2013) International Association for K-12 Online Learning report "OER State Policy in K-12 Education: Benefits, Strategies, and Recommendations for Open Access, Open Sharing" (https://www.inacol.org/resource/oer-state-policy-in-k-12-education-benefits-strategies-and-recommendations-for-open-access-open-sharing/) informs policymakers about how to promote collaboration through the use of OER. This report demonstrates how some districts are helping teachers create content, share resources, and personalize instruction by using publicly funded learning materials.
#GoOpen Districts
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology launched the #GoOpen campaign (https://tech.ed.gov/open/districts/) to support school districts and educators in using openly licensed educational materials (Office of Educational Technology, 2017).
David Annand's (2015) Open Educational Resources Knowledge Cloud article "Developing a Sustainable Financial Model in Higher Education for Open Educational Resources" (https://www.oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/2133-18284-1-PB.pdf) discusses financial issues regarding the sustainability of Open Educational Resources in higher education. It points out that even though OER produce cost savings for students, the development of OER platforms mostly rely on government and private funding and questions if this can be sustained. The author argues that before OER can be adopted, changes must be made to government polices.
Terra Dankowski's (2016) American Libraries article "Pushing for Open Textbooks: Libraries and networks try new incentives and funding" (https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2016/05/31/pushing-open-textbooks/) explains how American Libraries and a coalition of multiple university libraries join together to advocate for open education. This coalition is working towards an initiative that addresses the problem of the high cost of textbooks through open access models.
Doug Johnson's (2014) Educational Leadership article "Open Educational Resources: On the Web and Free" (http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar14/vol71/num06/Open-Educational-Resources@-On-the-Web-and-Free.aspx) describes how one school district in the state of Minnesota began their journey from moving away from their reliance on textbooks to moving toward open access educational material. This is a story of their transition to their new content management system: Moodle.
Andrew Hashey & Skip Stahl's (2014) National Center on Accessible Educational Materials article "Open Educational Resources: Designing for All Learners" (http://aem.cast.org/about/publications/2014/open-educational-resources-designing-all-learners.html) provides an overview of OER for K-12 educators involved in the selection, acquisition, and use of instructional materials.
Jennifer Putnam Davis's (2017) American Libraries article "Intellectual Freedom and Open Access: Working Toward a Common Goal?" (https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/intellectual-freedom-open-access-working-toward-common-goal/) discusses how the principles of intellectual freedom and open access can intersect. "Intellectual Freedom and Open Access: Working Toward a Common Goal?" was the name of a discussion panel through which multiple professionals who are experts on intellectual freedom discussed their perspectives on open access.
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