Assignment: Public Goods and OER

Public goods are often thought to be goods or services that are provided by the government, but that confuses cause and effect. What exactly are the characteristics of a public good? Hint: Who provides the public good is not one of the characteristics.

Consider open educational resources (OER), for example, open textbooks. These are available free online from companies like OpenStax College and Lumen Learning. Make a case for why OER can be considered public goods.

Hint: who covers the cost of providing these products and why is that relevant to your answer?

Rubric

Criteria Not Evident Developing Proficient Distinguished Weight
Explain the non-excludable characteristic of public goods 3
Explain non-rivalrous characteristics of public goods 3
Explain how OER is a public good 6
Suggests ways of paying the costs of OER 6
Articulation of response (citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas.) 2
Total: __/20