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Open Educational Resources (OERs) are teaching materials that typically have a Creative Commons license specifying permission and parameters for copying, distributing, attributing, or altering. Truly open OERs do not require registration or payment to access. The availability (open) and price (free) make OERs a great addition to an institution’s curriculum and an instructor’s cache of teaching material. I have completed online graduate courses and a professional certificate that used a combination of instructor-created content, freely-accessible websites and videos, and creative-commons-licensed OERs. I appreciated not having to purchase textbooks in addition to paying tuition and fees. The free material my instructors used in those courses was high quality, and I came away with a positive perception of OER use in higher education. As a result, I expected a good experience when I was asked to review an online course in the spring of 2022 that was comprised of OERs. Unfortunately, as I began reviewing the course the saying, “You get what you pay for” kept going through my mind. But fortunately, it was a good reminder of how to avoid potential pitfalls when using OERs.

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