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Activity 7 - 3 key issues in OER

The three key issues in Open Educational Resources are student learning experience,  pedagogy and sustainability. Whilst it is reported that students gain enormously from the opportunity to share and influence course content they may not benefit so much from a lack of clear course direction and accreditation. Whilst continuing Professional development (CDP) may be recognised through OEP students looking for qualifications in order to follow recognised pathways to careers are unlikely to gain what they need from OEP alone.

Pedagogy may be enhanced by OEP whereby a much larger audience is reached and learning materials can be creatively crafted using a number of mediums but this requires a change of mind-set and culture which is not always easy to achieve. Institutions can choose to mandate change but rarely do so leaving teachers to decide for themselves whether they are able to embrace a distinctive move towards more flexible curriculum delivery in which the student has more input and where teachers may need to be more collaborative as well as taking on technological understanding that might be outside the scope of their previous experience.

Sustainability is potentially the biggest threat to OEP, especially to the smaller supplier of education. There needs to be funding to create the resource and the skills to both create and sustain it in a world where technological platforms are in a constant state of change and improvement. The problem is two-fold, financial and dependence on a skill base whereby changes in technology can be embraced as they occur. The latter, in itself, requires financial support but it must also be remembered that knowledge sharing does depend on the provision of information by more knowledgeable others whose time has a cost implication. Unless organisations have sufficient other lucrative activity that generates enough profit to support OEP they will not be able to sustain projects with a danger that both platforms and content become outmoded but may still sit on the internet offering poor, outdated resources.

McGill, L., Falconer, I., Dempster, J.A., Littlejohn, A. and Beetham, H. Journeys to Open Educational Practice:  UKOER/SCORE Review Final Report. JISC, 2013  https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/60338879/HEFCE-OER-Review-Final-Report

From <https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/60338879/HEFCE-OER-Review-Final-Report>