|
FIGURE 5.3 Figure available at |
OER vs. Free Library Resources
Teachers and professors typically use a mix of “all rights reserved” commercial content, free library resources, and OER in their courses. While the library resources are “free” to the learners and faculty at that institution, they are (1) not really “free” because the institution’s library had to pay to purchase or subscribe to them, and (2) they are not available to the general public. The chart in figure 5.3 describes the cost to learners and the legal permissions available to teachers and learners for each of these types of educational resources.
OER in Primary and Secondary (K–12) Education vs. Tertiary (Higher) Education
Open educational resources are used in all sectors of education. How OER are produced and adopted, however, often differs depending on the level of education in which they are used.
In general, tertiary (higher education) faculty members are more likely to:
- have the time, resources, and support to produce and revise educational resources;
- own the copyright to the content they create (though this depends on their contract with the college or university); and
- make unilateral decisions regarding what content is used in their courses.
As such, higher education faculty are often OER producers and can decide whether or not to adopt these OER in their courses. OER adoption in higher education tends to occur one faculty member at a time. Given this opportunity,
