OER critic: Obama administration may be going too far with #GoOpen support

Dive Brief:

Michael McShane, director of education policy at the Show-Me Institute in Kansas City, MO, writes for EducationNext that there are long-term viability issues with open educational resources based on both supply and demand factors.
OER repositories can be overwhelming because of how much content teachers have to sift through to find something to use in their classrooms, and while there is a push to keep the content free, it takes time and skill to create high-quality resources — and money to pay these creators has to come from somewhere.
McShane says the federal government has the infrastructure to collect and disseminate best practices and the grant-funding abilities to support the creation of high-quality open resources, but it shouldn’t be putting its thumb on the scale in favor of OER when that could cause textbook companies to collapse before the new industry can fully support the needs of schools nationwide.

Dive Insight:

One key element of the U.S. Department of Education's legacy during the Obama presidency is a focus on technology and innovation, and within that, support for open educational resources. The #GoOpen campaign launched this time last year, pushing schools to adopt openly licensed materials and calling for the creation of more high-quality materials that can be accessed for free. Much like the department’s other major initiatives, this one focuses on equity. Buying the latest versions of every textbook can get expensive, and only the most well-resourced schools can afford it. Open educational resources bring more information within reach of cash-strapped districts.

Many critics point to the overwhelming mass of content in the OER space, but the fact is finding new educational materials is difficult no matter what form they come in. When states were implementing the Common Core State Standards, districts had to sift through traditional resources that claimed to be Common Core-aligned but actually were not. It’s hard work. And whether the resources are free or not, schools will still have to do it.