Dive Brief:
- Because of new U.S. Department of Education rules dictating that Open Educational Resources (OER) must be free and modifiable, Games and Learning reports “some worry that a new flood of teaching content free to use may make the already difficult world of selling new and high-end learning games to schools that much harder.”
- Educational game designers stand to lose profits from the government’s #GoOpen campaign, since going open-source is the antithesis of proprietary software.
- It’s too soon to tell yet if the push for open-source resources will have a negative impact on learning game manufacturers.
Dive Insight:
“In a world where there are entire databases of free tools, why pay for a digital game?” asks Gaming and Learning. That question is at the heart of the matter, but on the flip side, money that might have been spent on textbooks in cases where free OER is utilized instead could consequently be used on digital tools and learning e-games. The Department of Education’s #GoOpen campaign and new OER advisor have encouraged some schools to cut back on dated textbooks, and to use digital resources instead. Still, the OER trend has been slow to catch on for some teachers.
