How does OER efficacy vary based on students and course modality?
Educational Quote:
“Education is the movement from darkness to light" ~Allan Bloom
Weekly Insights:
This weeks readings were based on several research studies in higher education. Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are less expensive than course materials. Previous findings have indicated that learning outcomes are similar between OER and commercial resources, but there is considerable variation in the findings.
Article Findings:
Assigning open textbooks in college and university courses can help student save money on increasingly expensive commercial textbooks.
OER have proven to be a key component to student access and success, providing free or low-cost textbook alternative to financially strapped students.
Complete, quality, and affordability are three greatest challenges for higher education today in terms of students, student learning, and student success.
OER improved end -of-course grades and decrease DFW letter grades.
OER address affordability, completion, attainment gap concerns, and learning.
Students perform better in courses that have adopted OER regardless of socioeconomic or demographic background.
Students in courses that used OER more frequently had better grades and lower failure and withdrawal rates than their counterparts in courses that did not use open textbooks.
The decision to employ OER appears to have financial benefits to students without any decrease in their learning outcomes.
Sources:
Hilton et al. (2016). "Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate."
Hendricks et al. (2017). "The Adoption of an Open Textbook in a Large Physics Course: An Analysis of Cost, Outcomes, Use, and Perceptions."
Grewe & Davis. (2017). "The Impact of Enrollment in an OER Course on Student Learning Outcomes."
Colvard et al. (2018). "The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics."
Hilton, J. (2016). "Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions."
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