OER - Excesses and Limitations

Devising an OER programme relating to 'learning digital skills' proved both exciting and frustrating. Exciting because I could happily explore the wealth of resources that OER offers and frustrating because links were broken, resources wouldn't load or zipped downloads were cumbersome and time-consuming.

My chosen resources were generally easy to access (although they may not be suitable for people with additional needs) and of reasonable quality in terms of presentation and content.

Issues:

Target audience are addressed in resources as 'students' – not a term used very often in the workplace and might alienate learners

Lack of standardisation in presentation might lead to some confusion or at least a feeling of 'amateurishness' and loss of credibility for learners

Not all of the sessions were exact fits, some were also 'contextualised' or 'situated' and referred to previous modules which could cause confusion

Impact on overall learning outcomes

Some adjustments made due to lack of appropriate materials available (targetted audience too young, materials too theoretical or topics simply not available.

Time saving?

Certainly the effort searching for materials was less than that required to create from scratch. Some time was wasted reviewing irrelevant resources, but that aside, I am certain that OER has a great deal of potential in the world of corporate training.

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Since we were not given the task of providing scaffolding or e-activities to use alongside these materials, in line with a designated pedagogy, I do feel that it's difficult to give a proper appraisal of OER in this context.