The "glory" of OER???

A bit of a convergence this week between this class and my OER class regarding permissions.  And in some ways, these sentiments around OER creating this "golden age" of course resources that will lead to better learning, improved teaching, and education for all seem, to put it mildly, naive.  And I also find it fascinating that there is so much effort put into the permissions conversations and Creative Commons ratings.  I understand that people want credit for their creations, and we need a way to communicate how materials can be used.  Creating good course materials is not easy.  The cost of commercial course materials is extensive, and not a high-profit-margin business model.  Yes, there have been times when certain commercial presses went overboard on price increases, and also used high prices on certain formats (print) to drive more users into digital materials.  OER had a lot of its beginnings as a response to high prices on course materials.  Now that we see the result of "free/open" course materials, it is clear that OER has had to refocus more on quality, instructional design, and leveraging the revise, remix, and redistribute part of the 5 Rs.  And I get that is why permissions are important.  With all the hopes and dreams associated with OER, I find it fascinating that cost and attribution were primary concerns over quality. Greedy capitalist that I am (not really), knowing what it takes to make really good course materials, I've always wondered why anyone does this "for free" unless heavily incentivized to do so by their institution.            

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