I read an article published by Inside Higher Ed this morning about Cengage moving into the OER territory. Apparently, they are planning on charging $25 per student to access their OER materials. They are claiming the cost is for the platform.
In case you were unaware, OER stands for Open Educational Resources. The definition that I like best comes from Creative Commons: "Open educational resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes." I find it slightly ironic that big publishing giants are moving into OER. Part of the OER movement stems from trying to get away from publishers, their licenses, and the fees they charge. The OER movement is to allow researchers, scholars, academics, and really anyone the ability to access free information. If OER is supposed to be FREE and OPENLY LICENSED then Cengage is not promoting OER. In my opinion, if it has a cost attached to it, then it can't be OER. Cengage is trying to get around that fact, as I previously mentioned, by claiming that the fee is for the platform use. I fear that many other publishing companies will be following in their footsteps in the near future. Just as textbooks and course materials have increased in price, so will these platform fees. It's only a matter of time. Am I being too cynical? Quite possibly. I just think that if you are going to claim that you are providing OER, you should be providing it freely and openly. End Rant.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI have worked in Education my entire life moving from K-12, to a community college, to my current position at a four year. I am fascinated by weird things and information in general. Archives
November 2017
Categories
All
|