Open Education - Drawbacks

Drawbacks

A number of factors are of concern for improper implementation of open education systems, specifically in developing countries. One concern is that open education does not provide students with quality teachers, especially in the instance of developing countries using open education to reach students that cannot physically attend a school due to infrastructure limits. Also the quality of the programs are at risk due to the minimal administration and quality educators creating the open education courses.

Another concern would be the availability of technology to students. Policy and management play a crucial role in the success of open education and if one is not created with research backing their principles, the open education system could fail. In developing countries a major drawback is the accessibility to technologies that make open education successful. For example in Bangledesh, it is not affordable to have specific technologies. 17 per 100 households have radio and 4 per 100 have TV, therefore, most of the open education in developing countries is one way communication, which is still more sufficient than no education. Extensive research and evaluation must take place in order to create successful open education systems.

Legality over using the resources is another issue to consider. Who owns the material? Is the material copyrighted somewhere? If these resources being shared are copyrighted, who pays for the material? The open system would either need to be the authors of the information being shared or be the financial institution responsible for purchasing the material. However, if the open education is truly free to users, then the system could lack the resources to keep going.

The financial side of the open education system can also be a drawback. As mentioned above, the institution needs to figure out how to be able to be financially viable. The other side is allowing free enterprisers the ability to take these free resources and finding a way to charge someone else for them.