Internet Learning Volume 6, Number 2, Fall 2017/Winter 2018 | Page 50

Access to Information Doesn’t Have to Come with a Pretty Cover and a Price Tag
consider whether any failure has to do
with a flawed implementation of OERs
or the use of OERs in general.
Appropriate Materials
Make sure course material is at the
appropriate level. For example, avoid
creating a required reading list comprised
of scholarly articles for a 200
level undergraduate course as the students
are not likely cognitively ready
for such dense material. This may seem
like an obvious consideration, but it is
overlooked more often than one might
think. Some professors get excited about
choosing new materials, yet do not consider
how overwhelming they might be
for a learner. Likewise, a graduate-level
course relying on websites, newspapers,
or popular magazines is not going to
help students meet course objectives or
become masters of their discipline.
Our most significant early setback
in this process involved an introduction
to world politics class that had
withdrawals and failures rise sharply after
switching from a textbook to OERs.
We resisted the temptation to simply
insert the textbook back into the class
and instead looked for more appropriate
OERs. The effort and OER updates
were successful, as the decline in retention
reversed.
Minimizing Issues with Links
We learned to find the most stable web
links and create a repository of backup
sources for them. We encountered tremendous
difficulties with nonworking
and changing links at the beginning
of the OER transition process. But, we
learned to minimize these problems by
being proactive in the use of resources.
Librarians effectively maintain stable
links when the process is approached
with forethought. For example, adding
resources through Intellus Learning allows
librarians to monitor links.
If sources from the open web are
needed, there are several options. But
it is crucial to think about which will
be the most reliable over time. For example,
a stable website sustained by a
research institute for 5 years is likely a
better source for material than an individual
scholar’s university page that may
be removed due to resignation or retirement.
Even when selecting seemingly
higher quality, stable websites for readings,
we have learned to check the links
to them frequently. With technological
advances, there are now programs available
to help resolve broken link issues
much more rapidly, and they can be
embedded into the course learning platform,
or learning management system.
This resource is a budget consideration,
but is worth the cost. Finally, note that to
prevent copyright infringement, linking
out to resources is preferable to making
electronic copies of them.
Leadership Support
Like so much of what is done in academia,
this is a creative, intellectual,
and fluid process. While administration
may be focused on achieving strategic
objectives, the OER process is nonlinear
with many challenges along the way.
No two courses have the same needs,
and as mentioned previously, there are
some fields in which textbooks might
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