A review of the use of open educational resources: The benefits, challenges and good practices in higher education

This article reviews the use of open educational resources (OER) in higher education institutions, focusing on the benefits, challenges and good practices. It covers 59 case studies which reported OER use. The case studies were published during the period 2009–2018 and collected from Scopus and Google Scholar. The findings revealed that the major role of higher education institutions is as OER users rather than providers. The benefits of involvement in OER for the institutions included the improvement of students’ learning performance; easy access and use of learning resources; the cost reduction and dismantling of learning barriers; and the sharing of learning resources and collaboration. On the other hand, there were various challenges, namely the limitations of the technology infrastructure; the problems of intellectual property rights; the inadequacy of policy and support; the absence of learning objectives; and the language barriers. The good practices for successful use of OER as shown in the case studies were to customise the contents of resources, develop policy support, and facilitate close cooperation among the relevant units.