Open Educational

Resources (OER)
B E N E F I T S A N D C H A L L E N G E S B Y K I M D AV I S

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

What is OER?
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (O
ER)
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).
 Benefits of OER
 Huge cost savings for students!

Offers an assortment of diverse course materials for a

variety of disciplines.

Offers a user friendly respository full of images,

textbooks, course materials, videos and more!

Provides content to meet a variety of learning styles.

Opensource.com by Libby Levi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
 Additional Benefits
of OER
Students can use materials without the worry of
copyright infringement.

Excellent source of professional development content

and tools.

Environmentally friendly by reducing paper

consumption and printing costs.

Opensource.com by Libby Levi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Global content and shares best practices
internationally.
 Challenges of OER
Creative Commons licenses are non-revocable. Once
it is released and in circulation, you cannot stop
someone from using your work according to the terms
of the Creative Commons license (even if you decide
to stop distribution of your work).

Materials could be outdated and not updated as

frequently as needed.
Opensource.com by Libby Levi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Searching for content can be extremely time
consuming.
 Additional
Challenges of OER
Digital information can disappear if not archived and
backed up in a known and trusted repository.

As OER continues to grow, quality assurance can be

a challenge. There is a broad range of OER, but
evaluating quality and relevance can be tedious and
uncertain.

Equity and lack of access to technology at home.

Opensource.com by Libby Levi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Students may not have a personal computer or access
to the Internet, especially in rural areas.
Thank you