A response essay to an article

A Response to Open Educational Resources: The Educational Ecosystem Comes to Life
By
Student
Education has evolved over time from the traditional teacher-student interaction in a classroom to a more liberal digital space on the World Wide Web. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are broadly defined as freely accessible, openly licensed educational material that can be modified, improved and shared digitally. OERs have revolutionized the way we learn today. They have provided an interactive, transformative online platform where both teachers and students can learn and improve.
OERs have reduced the cost of education by eliminating the need to buy expensive textbooks. With the ever-rising cost of tuition, digital platforms provide a cheaper way of accessing educational material. Students can access whole textbooks, do their research and interact with other learners and educators conveniently (Lisa, 2010). OERs have also made it possible for learners to access education without attending classes and paying hefty institutional fees.
Since OERs can be modified and improved; they provide a superior learning tool over ink and paper. Educators find this useful in customizing what they teach in class to suit their students better. The specificity provided by these resources helps save time and provides higher quality educational content (Sanchez, 2013).Faculties can collect data, do research, and provide relevant content for their classes. OERs have made this possible by providing the learning material freely.

Faculties can harness from a wide range of learning material to provide quality content for their learners. This would otherwise have been limited to the knowledge of the educators, thus limiting the quality of education in the institution (Bell, 2017).
There are challenges however that hinder the growth and spread of OERs. Most evident is the lack of awareness that they do exist at all. Another challenge is the perception that free education is of inferior quality. Also, most OER materials are in English, which undercuts its growth. These challenges can be addressed by creating awareness and continuous quality improvement of OERs. Indeed, the future is digital, and education will no doubt follow suit.
 
References
Bell, S. (2017). Research Guides: Discovering Open Educational Resources (OER).
Lisa, P. (2010, Jan 29). Open Educational Resources: The Education Ecosystem Comes to Life. Retrieved from https://opensource.com/education/10/1/open-educational-resources-education-ecosystem-comes-life
Sanchez, C. (2013, March 29). The use of technological resources for education: a new professional competency for teachers.