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OER Skepticism

What follows are two questions from and two potential responses to someone who is skeptical about adopting and open educational resource.

Anyone could have posted that information online.

This question surprises me. I understand it as a reflex, but not as an argument that anyone would defend. It's true that OER can be written and published by anyone; however, it is also true that faculty members are experts in their domains and are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the information presented to their students is appropriate and factual. Regardless of an author's academic status or lack thereof their work has the potential to be useful; however, that's up to individual instructors to decide. Adopting OER requires effort on the part of instructors as it would if they were adopting a traditional textbook -perhaps more in order to tailor the OER to their class or make it more thorough. In exchange for their effort, students taking that class forevermore will not have to purchase materials.


OER aren't peer reviewed like most textbooks.


That's not entirely true.  OpenStax textbooks are written by a host of experts much like traditional textbooks and do go through a peer review process. Furthermore over half of the textbooks in the Open Textbook Library, a repository of open textbooks, have undergone peer review (FAQ, 2017). To be included in the Open Textbook Library, books must be "in use at multiple higher educational institutions, or affiliated with a higher education institution, scholarly society, or professional organization." (criteria, 2017) If you are willing to contribute a review of a text in the Open Textbook Library, they have been known to provide stipends in exchange for that effort during workshops and would likely accept a review written by a faculty member at a higher education institution.


Open Textbook Library FAQ. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2017, from https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/FAQ.aspx
What about the quality of open textbooks?

Open Textbook Library Submit an Open Textbook. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2017, from https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/Submit.aspx
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