Open Courseware (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) – the pros & cons

Open Courseware (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) – the pros & cons

Based on “Get it out in the open” Times Higher Education http://bit.ly/1XLGXz) -24 September 2009 -

Advantages of making educational courses and resources open and freely accessible:

- supports self-motivated learners and provides pathways between informal and formal learning (accredited)

- increase the quality of teaching resources and ensures information is up to date as the information is “on show” to the world, including other teachers, trainers and academics

- this in turn provides a 'free' peer review process

- allows learners to 'try before they buy' or enrol in a course

- reduces replication and duplication of resources as teachers, trainers and academics can use, re-use and re-purpose existing quality resources

Disadvantages of making educational courses and resources open and freely accessible:

- the expense of updating existing resources to suit an online environment

- identifying copyright issues