For teachers and learners, the proliferation of open educational resources (OER) in combination with advances in information technologies has meant centralized access to materials and the possibility of creating, using, and reusing OER globally, collaboratively, and across multiple disciplines. Through an examination of a community of author users of the OER portal Connexions, this article explores OER reuse behaviors and factors contributing to and hindering those behaviors.
For teachers and learners, the proliferation of open educational resources (OER) in combination with advances in information technologies has meant centralized access to materials and the possibility of creating, using, and reusing OER globally, collaboratively, and across multiple disciplines. Through an examination of a community of author users of the OER portal Connexions, this article explores OER reuse behaviors and factors contributing to and hindering those behaviors. As such, the article sheds light on how OER can be sustained and continuously improved, with an emphasis on the reuse of dynamic, relevant, and high quality materials over time.