Bryan Alexander (Twitter)There's certainly a reputation issue.
— Bryan Alexander (@BryanAlexander) June 7, 2018
Established publishers, Amazon, Facebook, especially Apple look shiny and impressive.
In contrast, OER looks like public access tv.
When I was at a major talent agency selling to studios/producers, their mantra was “keep executives busy reading our material/meeting our clients; they won’t have time to think about hiring/using our competition.” I suspect the same applies here.
And of course just after posting, I’ve read an article about Microsoft’s acquisition of Github which highlights just how valuable ($7.5B) the nice, shiny, usability of a product can be worth. We definitely need to work on the UX so #OER doesn’t look like public access. Perhaps this is why I appreciate the emphasis that the #indieweb places on UX and design.
Syndicated copies:
Re “#OER as public-access TV” metaphor: I deliberately chose one #OER intro/GE text w/ subversion of that in mind. It does topic “coverage” AND looks/acts just like a standardized textbook—no whines on that count. Another text’s PDF looks like a Kindle ebook—so yeah, UX issues.