Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the ways in which the selection of educational materials results in implications that impact access to these materials. This is necessary considering the evolving nature of educational materials offered by traditional publishers, and the increase in the availability of online learning materials, among those, open educational resources. I begin by reviewing the existing literature on emerging problems and barriers to learners’ access to educational materials including textbooks, online learning resources, and open educational resources. The findings from the literature review confirm that learners are now engaging with an increasingly complex ecosystem of educational materials, both print and digital, in a multitude of differing forms and formats, with various terms of use and durations of sustained access. Educators have a variety of choices to make when considering the educational materials to be used in their courses, and while fitness for purpose still dominates as the most important selection criterion, ease and persistence of access are becoming important considerations. A model which encapsulates the findings considering the variety of educational materials is presented alongside a discussion about the specific considerations for each.
Highlights
There is a growing global demand for education and as a result, a greater need to access educational materials
The purpose of this paper was to examine the literature around educational materials and present a model which seeks to provoke considerations around the implications of resource provision today
Our learners are working in a complex ecosystem of learning resources, some of which are prescribed by their teachers and some of which they may independently seek out to supplement and enhance their learning
Summary
There is a growing global demand for education and as a result, a greater need to access educational materials. Lesson plans, textbooks, presentations, simulations, and other educational materials are typically used in learning activities to help mediate learner understanding of concepts and provide resources for learning. In the context of higher education, educators are usually responsible for selecting educational materials and learners are responsible for gaining access to them. Some have argued that this contradiction is highly problematic because those responsible for selecting resources are not required to pay the price to obtain them, with the implication that considerations around how learners acquire materials and at what cost are not front of mind for the decision maker (Richardson, 2015). In developing countries the situation is compounded, as educators and learners remain heavily dependent on imported textbooks and reference books, and in many cases these resources are exceptionally expensive and may lack local context and cultural nuances to ensure they are relevant for learners (Barton et al, 2002; Goodier, 2017; Hodgkinson-Williams et al, 2017; Kanwar et al, 2010).
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