Advantages and Disadvantages of using

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Yasmin Mahasongkham Access Services Highline College

Advantages

• Textbooks and course materials are (mostly) free to students

• Instructors can pick and choose content they want to use for their course

• Instructors can remix and reuse content that is openly available

• Promotes collaboration with people from all over the world

• Content of material may be more to-date than textbooks

Disadvantages

• Still evidently new and some information may not be available

• Time consuming to find material if you are building a course

• Materials may not be accurate• Many types of attribution! Must read the fine line…• Open access is great until accessibility is an issue (great

video--but no accessibility features aren’t used i.e. closed caption)

My questions about OER…

• What a lot there is to know about OER!!! How long will it be until OER is associated with a cost to students (everything can’t be free right?)? How will the role shift for big publishing houses (Pearson)? What kind of different accessibility issues will arise from this that is “not typical” ?

Final thought…

• Although there is still so much to know, what I know and what I’ve learned about OER is far more positive than the negative. OER is relevant to our time TODAY with technology getting more and more advanced each day. It is exciting to be part of the revolution of this innovative process.