"VIDEO: Education without limits: Why open textbooks are the way forward" by opensourceway is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Open Educational Resources (OER) have become a powerful way for educators to share high-quality, flexible, and free learning materials. Yet despite their growing popularity, many teachers still hesitate to adopt OER because of persistent myths and misunderstandings. Some worry that OER lack academic rigor, while others assume using them is complicated or time-consuming. In fact, a multi-country qualitative study about what faculty think about OER: their awareness, concerns, perceived barriers (quality, time, institutional support, licensing, etc.) was done and found that myths are everywhere! For example, faculty often believe that finding or adapting OER is time-consuming; concerns about quality and lack of peer review are common (Marín et. al., 2022).
In reality, OER can save time, reduce costs for students, and enhance instruction when used thoughtfully.
Below we identify10 common misconceptions about OER and offer clear explanations to help teachers make informed decisions. Whether you’re new to open education or simply curious, these clarifications can help you see how OER can enrich your classroom without sacrificing quality.
Myth: OER are just “free stuff online.”
Reality: OER are not simply free resources—they are openly licensed, which means educators can legally retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute them. Lantrip & Button (2025) compared two sections of the same course: one using a faculty-created OER, the other using a commercial textbook. They found no significant difference in final grades, withdrawal rates, or enrollment the following term and students in the OER section rated the quality of the OER significantly higher than the commercial text.
Myth: OER are low quality.
Reality: Many OER are peer-reviewed and created by experts. Well-known repositories like OpenStax or BCcampus maintain rigorous editorial and review standards comparable to traditional publishers. OER can replace conventional materials without adversely affecting student performance (Hilton et. al., 2019).
Myth: Using OER is copyright infringement.
Reality: OER carry open licenses (e.g., Creative Commons) that explicitly grant permission for use and adaptation, provided the license terms (like attribution) are followed.
Myth: OER are only textbooks.
Reality: OER include lesson plans, labs, videos, datasets, quizzes, full courses, simulations, and more—far beyond just books.
Myth: Adopting OER is time-consuming because you must create everything from scratch.
Reality: Teachers can adopt existing OER as-is or make small customizations. Many ready-to-use courses and modular resources already exist. Faculty perceptions studies (Marín et al.) illustrate that many faculty express concerns about time but also note the existence of many ready-to-use OERs or adaptation is feasible.
Myth: OER aren’t updated or current.
Reality: OER can be updated more quickly than traditional textbooks because anyone with the right expertise can revise them, and many projects have active editorial teams. Many studies show faculty & students perceive OER quality as comparable to commercial textbooks (Lantrip & Button, 2025; Fischer et al., 2015; Howard & Whitmore, 2020).
Myth: OER can’t be integrated with learning management systems (LMS).
Myth: Students won’t value free materials.
Reality: Research shows students often prefer OER because of affordability and accessibility, and outcomes are equal to or better than those using commercial texts. Howard & Whitmore (2020) shows students shift preference toward OER once cost is revealed. Check out the YouTube video below that shares some OER research successes!
Myth: OER lack accessibility for students with disabilities.
Reality: Many OER initiatives prioritize universal design and accessibility; teachers can also adapt materials to meet specific accessibility standards.
Myth: There’s no professional recognition for using OER.
Reality: Increasingly, institutions and funding agencies reward OER adoption and creation through grants, tenure/promotion credit, and public scholarship opportunities.
References
Fischer, L., Hilton III, J., Robinson, T. J., & Wiley, D. A. (2015). A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 27(3), 159-172.
Hilton, J., Larsen, R., Wiley, D., & Fischer, L. (2019). Substituting open educational resources for commercial curriculum materials: effects on student mathematics achievement in elementary schools. Research in Mathematics Education, 21(1), 60–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794802.2019.1573150
Howard, V. J., & Whitmore, C. B. (2020, August). Evaluating student perceptions of open and commercial psychology textbooks. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 5, p. 139). Frontiers Media SA.
Lantrip, J. & Button, M. (2025). Comparing a Faculty-Created OER and Commercial Textbook: Student Outcomes and Perceptions. Open Praxis. 17(3), 561–578. https://doi.org/10.55982/openpraxis.17.3.897
Marín, V.I., Zawacki-Richter, O., Aydin, C.H. et al. (2022). Faculty perceptions, awareness and use of open educational resources for teaching and learning in higher education: a cross-comparative analysis. RPTEL. 17 (11). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-022-00185-z