Thanks for your reply. 
I will say this is the first time I have done a tutorial, this one is listed as for 5.0 where you are directed to perform a task, the engine appears to freeze and no one associated with this thought to add a heads up, Your engine is going to appear to lock up for an hour. 
Of possible interest, I updated the 5.0 project to 5.1 (made a copy) to see what would happen, and loading the level associate with this project it appears to once be sitting for an hour.
I will say that the tutorial is well written with outstanding illustrations, except for the lack of the warning that should be, but is not there.
Another question that pops up, is this a usual occurrence when doing the operation as described, or is it just something that occurs because I am using a collection that is years old, even if it says it is updated to v5.0? Actually you addressed the likelyhood. I’ll know when I try it with modern assets.
The Open World Collection has a lot of good stuff in it, but only if it is compatible with the engine, now likely 5.0-5.1, that you are using. If everything you try to do with it (OWC) results in an extended wait, I’ll be inclined to dump it and use other assets. It’s completely anti-productive
Of note, as a reinforcement, I updated the 5.0 project associated with this tutorial to 5.1 (made a copy) to see what happens, and just loading in the associated level, makes it sit for an hour awhile the engine churns in the background.
The next step is to get some up to date foliage assets for this and keep going. 