Snapshot
Type of Interaction: Synchronous, Asynchronous
Type of Course: Hybrid, Flipped, Online, Face-to-Face
Other posts in this series: OER Part 1: What is OER and OER Part 2: Removing a Costly Barrier in Education
The term “Open Educational Resource(s)” (OER) refers to educational resources (lesson plans, quizzes, syllabi, instructional modules, simulations, etc.) that are freely available for use, reuse, adaptation, and sharing.
~ Wiki.creativecommons.org
Open educational resources (OER) have been praised for reducing student costs in the higher education system (Grimaldi, 2019). It is well-known that the average 4-year degree can place students into thousands of dollars of debt that could take them decades to pay off. OER can put a dent into these costs by giving students a low- or no-cost option for materials and resources they need for their courses and eventual careers. OER has been “lauded for… improv[ing] equity in higher education” (Grimaldi, 2019). Their cost advantage means that educational materials are no longer available only to students who can afford to pay a high price for them. However, does access improve student learning?
Most studies have said that there is no significant advantage to students using OER as opposed to other textbooks. Stated another way, there is no significant downside when it comes to using OER in the classroom, either. According to the Open Textbook Alliance (2019), a “journal-published analysis of OER programs at public institutions showed that students using open materials perform as well, if not better, than their peers using traditional course materials.”
Maybe we’re looking at it all wrong, though. What if the improvement lies in students finally getting their hands on course materials? Students who could not afford textbooks before can now finally read them, watch the videos, do the assignments, and basically get an understanding of the course content from more than just a lecture in the classroom because they now have access to that content. They get to interact with the material in a way that was closed off to them before. Isn’t that an improvement in their ability to learn?
OER was never supposed to be better than paid-for textbooks and materials. It was just supposed to level the playing field for those students who could not pay retail prices for the material. Textbooks were never meant to be a barrier to academic success, but as their costs rose to outrageous levels, they became expensive obstacles that some students could not overcome. Basically, OER improves student learning because it allows all students to have access to course materials, not just those who can afford it.
References
Creative Commons. (2016). What is OER? Wiki.Creativecommons.org. Retrieved from https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/What_is_OER%3F
Grimaldi, P. J., Basu Mallick, D., Waters, A. E., & Baraniuk, R. G. (2019). Do open educational resources improve student learning? Implications of the access hypothesis. PloS one, 14(3), e0212508. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212508
Open Textbook Alliance. (2019). Open textbooks: Making education more accessible. OpenTextbookAlliance.org. Retrieved from http://opentextbookalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Open_Textbook_Alliance_Guide.pdf