March 7-11 is week is Open Education Week, a celebration of the global Open Education Movement. Its goal is to raise awareness about the movement and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide.
So, what are Open Educational Resources or OER? While there are a number of different definitions, they all agree that OER are teaching, learning, and research materials that are freely accessible and adaptable, either because they are in the public domain or by the nature of their usage license. Many also discuss this adaptability in terms of the 5R activities: the ability to reuse, retain, revise, remix, and redistribute.
Much of the focus on OER has been on the free aspect. This is especially true for OER that are designed to replace commercial textbooks. This, indeed, is an attractive piece of OER. Textbooks costs have become a financial burden to many students. According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics textbook costs have increased by 1041% since 1977 and 88% between 2006 and 2016. But affordability is not the only benefit of OER.
OER also contribute to student success. A large-scale study at the University of Georgia showed that switching from a commercial text to an OER, resulted in positive grade changes as well as a decrease in the percentage of D, F, and withdraws. While these changes were more significant for lower income students, all students saw improvement.
Central to this success is OER’s emphasis on equal access. To adapt to the high cost of textbooks, some students try to share textbooks or go without. Faculty may seek to help by allowing older editions of texts or putting copies of the text on reserve in the library. However, all these methods result in unequal access to required course materials. OER provide each student equal access to the same information.
The adaptability of OER also allows modifications of materials to better reflect diverse perspectives. A variety of viewpoints and images can be included in the content which allows students to identify with and better relate to course materials.
To learn more about OER at Loras check out our OER Research Guide or talk to one of the librarians.