OER support a future where students and instructors have free access on the first day of classes (“Day-One Access”) to a wide variety of high-quality educational resources that have been collaboratively developed, reviewed, revised, and shared across institutions. Additional benefits of Open Educational Resources include easy adaptability to fit within the context of specific courses, and to meet the needs of specific students. The cost of creation, use, and maintenance of OER is much lower than the current rising costs of textbooks and other classroom resources.
At the end of this module, you will be able to describe ways that OER benefit both students and faculty.
CLO 2 Describe how OER benefits students and faculty
MLO 2.1 Understand the benefits of using OER from a student-centered perspective
MLO 2.2 Understand how OER benefit faculty
MLO 2.3 Understand how Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility overlap with Open Educational Resources
The resources in this section will explain benefits for students that include:
Reduced textbook costs
Accessibility
Equity & Inclusion
Student Success
Why Open Education: SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, summarizes the reasons for using OER with these four points:
Textbook costs should not be a barrier to education
Students learn more when they have access to quality materials
Technology holds boundless potential to improve teaching and learning
Better education means a better future
Benefits for Students (Texas Learn OER): Module 3: Why OER? of the Texas Learn OER course describes how students benefit from the cost savings that OER provide, the ability to access materials immediately, and student success. It’s key findings are from Florida Virtual Campus’ 2016 and 2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey
Benefits for Students (SUNY): Addresses Day-One access, student success, and textbook costs - Same info as above, includes different videos as well as thought exercises.
There are also multiple benefits of OER for faculty, including:
Customization of materials
Fits teaching style & needs
Flexibility
Quality
Better understanding of student access levels
Benefits for Faculty (Texas Learn OER): Module 3: Why OER? of the Texas Learn OER course addresses the benefits to faculty through:
Customization and flexibility to use, improve, and share open content
Professional development opportunities through network and collaboration
Providing students better access while reducing course material costs
Benefits for Faculty (SUNY): This site features SUNY faculty talking about OER adoption in their courses.
OER: Equity & Openness (Texas Learn OER): Module 3: OER: Equity & Openness uses the Equity in Open Education video created by Iowa State to explore how equity intersects with open education. In addition, this resource specifically addresses the value of openness during a time of crisis.
Accessibility (Texas Learn OER): Module 6: Accessibility of the Texas Learn OER course explains universal design and how it improves accessibility for all learners, identifies steps for choosing and using accessible OER, lists ways accessibility must be considered when adopting OER, and reflects on accessibility of current teaching resources and how they can be improved.
Open Education by SPARC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Why OER? By Carrie Gits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey: Results and Findings by Florida Virtual Campus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey: Results and Findings by Florida Virtual Campus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Leveraging the Benefits of OER by Mike Daly and Phylise Banner on behalf of SUNY is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
OER: Equity & Openness By Carrie Gits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Accessibility By Carrie Gits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.