Open Educational Resources (OER)

This study conducted a meta-analysis of studies examining OER efficacy in terms of learning performance and course withdrawal. The authors found no differences in learning efficacy between open textbooks and commercial textbooks, but did find that the withdrawal rate for postsecondary courses with open textbooks was significantly lower than that for commercial textbooks.

The purpose of this guidebook is to provide straightforward ideas for how OER adopters (such as faculty, librarians, instructional designers, etc.) can identify the impact of OER adoption.

This open access journal article evaluates the existing research on OER efficacy and perceptions about OER.

This report by Babson Survey Research Group presents an analysis of findings from nationally representative sample of higher education faculty about OER.

"The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project aims to provide evidence-based research from a number of countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia."

A report by the Student Public Interest Research Groups (Student PIRGs) examines the impact high textbook prices have on student success.

Florida Virtual Campus surveyed 22,000 students about textbook affordability and acquisition at Florida’s public higher education institutions.

"In this chapter, authors Robin DeRosa and Scott Robison draw on a variety of examples to illustrate the empowering potential of open pedagogy [...]. The chapter concludes with a reflection on some of the challenges and lessons learned from engaging students in public scholarship."

New York Times opinion piece about the cost of textbooks.

This essay explores the ideological and rhetorical underpinnings of the open educational resource (OER) movement in the context of the neoliberal university.

This chapter in the book A Field Guide for Academic Librarians posits the library as "perfectly positioned to lead our institutions’ OER programs, with the potential to establish or cement the library as integral to student success initiatives and as an important partner in faculty and curriculum development."

With their historically anti-authoritarian vibe, and roots in the feminist/punk movements of the 1980’s/90’s, zines are a perfect antidote to traditional classroom, typically ruled by a rigid, top-down hierarchy.

This article examines the implementation of OER at Queensborough Community College.

This study compares student learning outcomes using OER compared with a free digital textbook in an American Government course.

The results of the first cross-campus survey of student opinions on Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses are in: City University of New York (CUNY) students like their ZTC courses, primarily for the cost savings and ease of access. The survey results yield rich data about how positively students feel about their Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses as well as ways to improve the design and delivery of Zero Textbook Cost courses to make them more beneficial for student learning.

This article reports findings from a study conducted with students in three sections of a Health Psychology course that replaced a traditional textbook with open educational resources (OER) as the primary course material.

A specific example of the design and implementation of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in a Spanish as a heritage language course is found at Lehman College from the City University of New York (CUNY), which serves a significant student population of Hispanic origin.

"The big ambition of Equality Archive is to digitally present multidimensional issues, people, and history relevant to feminist thought and action in the United States. As an Open Education Resource (OER), it blurs genre—analog and digital, scholarly and popular, theory and practice—to offer a free and reliable source of knowledge and activist opportunities for a generation trained to seek information via Google and YouTube."

"In this opinion piece, we reflect on open educational resources and the Creative Commons license, describing both and posing challenges to the Computer Science Education community to share their educational products more openly than has been traditional practice."

"Incentivizing faculty adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) as a method for reducing textbook costs to increase access and affordability of higher education has been an area of development in academic libraries. This manuscript describes the experience at Lehman College, CUNY, the only four-year public college in the Bronx, NY and the alignment of OER with institutional goals"

"This column explores the concept of Open Educational Resources and how it relates to librarianship."

This chapter explores Open Educational Resources in the context of changing library needs.

"This column explores the concept of and issues surrounding Open Educational Resources (OER) for librarians."

"In this article, we use transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1978) and Digital + Critical Participatory Action Research (D+CPAR) to analyze the effectiveness of integrating OERs into a course and reflect on how we used OERs to support student learning and make civic engagement more equitable at an urban community college."

"This paper outlines the development of the OER trend in community colleges in particular and discusses the practical applications for the development of a business law course at Queensborough Community College."

" This article analyzes how academic libraries are currently engaged in open access textbook and OER initiatives. By drawing on examples of library initiatives across the United States, the author illustrates how libraries are facilitating the adoption and implementation of these affordable resources."

"As open educational resources (OER) becomes a more established concept, its growth and continued success not only center around the creation of new content but also depend upon the development and evolution of existing content, licenses permitting. The evolution of and persistent access to existing content requires easily editable works and the ability to download local copies of OER files so that no technical limitations hinder what the license permits. Such measures as text files, OpenDocument formats, and version control present a way to keep OER content editable and shareable, in compliance with licenses. Librarians are uniquely positioned to help users understand those solutions."

"The price of open-access electronic textbooks is certainly attractive to students, but the possibility raises the question of whether students want electronic textbooks, or whether—despite the increasingly digital nature of most students’ existence—students still prefer print textbooks."

"We designed, revised, and assessed an open educational resource for our Principles of Microbiology course. Student feedback was used to guide the revisions, which took place over the course of several semesters. Student survey responses to lab manual content were very positive, and students overwhelmingly favored a no-cost online manual over one that is commercially published. The process we used to develop this lab manual serves as an example for others who might want to develop their own customized materials for their courses."

" Using open digital tools creates space for productive dialogue within and across courses and departments, allowing for critical co-investigation not just within a single course but in the college community. An open learning space in which everyone can work together enables browsing and viewing each other’s work, and empowers students to participate more fully in their education."

"This chapter provides an overview of efforts to reduce the cost of textbooks for students at Hostos Community College through various Open Educational Resource (OER) initiatives and describes how these efforts are supported college-wide."

Leading scholars and publishers from ten countries have agreed a definition of predatory publishing that can protect scholarship. It took 12 hours of discussion, 18 questions and 3 rounds to reach.