Challenges and Opportunities of OER at a Bilingual Canadian University

Abstract

Promoting the use of open educational resources (OER) at a bilingual university comes with its own challenges. Beyond the common concerns about quality and the time-consuming task of searching for OER on multiple platforms, at a Canadian institution offering over 500 programs in both English and French, a large gap in the availability of OER in these two languages has serious equity implications. While courses taught in English benefit from the availability of resources created in the U.S. or supported by provincial consortia, there is a critical lack of OER in French, especially in the Canadian context. There is a real risk that studying in English becomes more advantageous and affordable, thus further threatening French-language programs. In this talk, we address some of the reasons behind the limited availability of OER in French and the difficulty in finding existing OER in that language, and expand on the equity implications of this situation. We also suggest some solutions and opportunities beyond translating what already exists, including fostering a culture of OER creation in French to equalize access and address the longstanding obstacles of a limited and fragmented market for commercial textbooks in French.