Open Educational Resources: Time, Resources and Sustainability in an Ephemeral Digital World

This chapter focuses on concepts of time, resources, and sustainability that impact Open Educational Resources (OER) and explores structural needs for technology, funding, staffing, and content. We examine the lifecycle of OER projects as an entity, beginning with inception, proceeding through development, progressing through periodic adjustments of activity level and focus, and continuing in sustainable growth, maintenance, archival, or obsolescence and demise. We focus on time as a core concept for OER. Time expresses itself in the web through “link rot” as web-based resources are taken down, moved or changed in various ways, hindering researchers and educators. Time also expresses itself in the fast pace of technological change, breaking even technically “live” OER when infrastructure such as coding and browser standards, media standards, operating systems, and security practices change. In this chapter we suggest possible solutions to these issues of time, focusing on resource allocation and planning to prevent loss or obsolescence, and synthesizing research on the sustainability of OER. We propose the Time, Resources, Sustainability (TRS) model of OER management relating time, resources, and sustainability to structural concerns. Key to these solutions is a forward-thinking mindset to ensure the maintenance and stewardship of OER for the use of future students and educators.