LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: Impact of OER

Advantages of Adopting OER in the Era of COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic creates greater urgency for high quality, customizable, no- and low- cost instructional materials designed with remote instruction in mind.

OER has four advantages over traditional textbooks in the COVID-19 learning environment June 9, 2020

Remote-instruction friendly. Almost all OER is born digital, available for free online or in print at low cost. Much OER comes pre-loaded in a format that is compatible with the most commonly used learning management systems.
Adaptable. In contrast to traditional textbooks, which are locked by copyright, OER can be customized by instructors as they adapt their courses to remote instruction.
Accessible forever. Given the economic impact and potentially long duration of COVID-19, students are more likely than ever to take extended periods to complete their degree paths. Being able to reference materials from prerequisite courses months or years later will help them persist. Unlike commercial ebook access codes that expire at the end of the semester, students can retain OER permanently.
A good investment. These are times of tight budgets for both students and institutions. OER adoption is one of the few interventions that both saves students money and generates additional revenues for institutions. OER has saved higher education students nearly a billion dollars in textbook costs in the US and Canada. Research shows (PDF) that there is also a positive financial return on investment (ROI) for institutions that adopt OER, as students who save money on texts take additional credits.

Accelerating Adoption of OER in the Era of COVID-19 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://www.doers3.org/covid19.html. Driving OER Sustainability for Student Success (DOERS³) is a collective of 22 higher education systems and state/province-wide OER initiatives in the U.S. and Canada.

Impact of OER: quick facts

7 Things You Should Know About Open Educational Resources (PDF)
What are OER, where is this trend going, and why does it matter to teaching and learning?
What Are the Impacts of Adopting OER?
The OER Adoption Impact Explorer helps you understand some of the impacts of adopting OER instead of commercial textbooks.

OER in Action at Community Colleges

Tidewater Community College
Launched in Fall 2013, TCC was the first to offer a degree in which students pay nothing for required textbooks. Named “Z-Degree”, this program awards an associates degree in business administration with zero textbook cost to students.
Maricopa Community Colleges
Dubbed "Maricopa Millions Project," this is a partnership between the eight community colleges in Phoenix, Arizona with the goal of saving students $5M in 5 years in textbook costs.
Scottsdale Community College
Started the Math OER program in 2012 where faculty used OER materials such as open textbook, interactive workbook, online homework software, and tutorials to teach mathematics to their students.
Lane Community College
Launched the OER Faculty Fellowship that provides support and opportunities for faculty to create and use OER in their courses, save students money, and increase the number of textbook-free courses.
Washtenaw Community College
Big savings: Textbook alternatives have kept $1.79M in WCC students’ pockets; college committed to more

Journals about OER

Reports about OER

Covering the Cost: Why we can no longer afford to ignore high textbook prices
Finding #3: High textbook prices have a disproportionate impact on students at community college.
Launching OER Degree Pathways: An Early Snapshot of Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative and Emerging Lessons
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation, the Shelter Hill Foundation, and the Speedwell Foundation together provided funding for 38 community colleges across 13 states to build entire degree programs using OER.
Mainstreaming Open Textbooks: Educator Perspectives on the Impact of OpenStax College Open Textbooks
Results shows that OER enables a majority of educators to better respond to student needs, making teaching easier, and changing teaching practices.
A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students
Study of 16,000 students across 10 institutions, compares several measures of student academic success between those using open textbooks and those using traditional textbooks.

E-books about OER

Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science
Publication Date: 2017
Open Divide: Critical Studies on Open Access
ISBN: 9781634000291
Publication Date: 2018-04-01
Opening the Textbook: Open Education Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2015-16 (Babson Report)
Publication Date: 2016
Pirate Philosophy For a Digital Posthumanities
ISBN: 0262332213
Publication Date: 2016-04-15

Types of OER

OER include learning materials such as:

open textbooks
full courses
modules
syllabi
lectures
homework assignments
quizzes
lab activities
games
simulations

Organizations Supporting OER

Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
CCCOER is a growing consortium of community and technical colleges committed to expanding access to education and increasing student success through adoption of open educational policy, practices, and resources.
Creative Commons
With the internet, universal access to education is possible, but its potential is hindered by increasingly restrictive copyright laws and incompatible technologies. The Open Education program at Creative Commons works to minimize these barriers.
Michigan Community College Association
Michigan Colleges Online is an initiative of the Michigan Community College Association and the 28 Michigan community colleges.
OER Foundation
An independent, not-for-profit organization that provides leadership, international networking and support for educators and educational institutions to achieve their objectives through open education.
Open Professionals Education Network
Provides free support and technical assistance to all grantees of the $2 billion Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College & Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program from the U.S. Department of Labor.
SPARC
SPARC is a global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education.
Student PIRGs
Nationwide organization of Student Public Interest Research Groups that advocates for free and affordable textbook access to students.
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Foundation supports mainstream adoption and effective use of openly licensed educational resources that provide students around the world greater access to a world class education.

Want to adopt this guide?

Oakland Community College Library Research Guide on Open Educational Resources by OCC Librarians is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://nmc.libguides.com/oer/home and https://libguides.lcc.edu/oer/overview.

Guide Editor: Wendy Kamps-Tsao