Open Education 2017

The movement toward open educational materials has been slow to gain traction among the teaching mainstream. OERs are still not generally discussed in teacher education programs. According to a study by The Boston Consulting Group (2013), only 21% of educators report being äóìvery awareäó of what OERs are, indicating that they may not be comfortable using them themselves. These findings seem to indicate that educators simply need more education and background on what OERs are and how to use them.



In truth, however, it is not well-understood as to why open educational resources (OERs) have been slow to gain traction among the mainstream of educators. Is it because these OERs are somehow fundamentally flawed or not useful to teachers, or is it simply a lack of knowledge and preparation regarding the use of these materials? Little is known as to why teachers and faculty don't use OERs more frequently, especially because many educators express concern for lowering the cost of materials for their students, one of the primary problems solved by the use of OERs.



To better understand these problems, the presenters embarked on a research project to measure and interpret educator's attitudes towards OERs. This research was conducted using a open online course on finding and using open and free teaching materials. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether additional knowledge and preparation on the use of openly licensed materials helps teachers feel more comfortable using OERs for their own teaching and learning applications. In this session, we'll share our findings from this experience and discuss implications for persuading and training educators on the use of OERs in the future.

Presenters will share results from a survey of 2014-16 applicants to Affordable Learning Georgia's (ALG) Textbook Transformation Grants, an OER and affordable materials adoption, adaptation, and creation-focused grant program. The survey asked respondents to identify and rank factors motivating their interest in adopting OER, from specific aspects of the ALG grant to a desire for improved student learning. Open-ended questions provided new information about the unanticipated challenges, benefits, and changes to teaching practices related to OER. ALG's strategic planning changes based on these survey results will also be discussed.

It has been shown that OER reduce cost of educational materials without risking academic success (Lovett et al., 2008; Hilton et al., 2013; Pawlyshyn et al., 2013; Bowen et al., 2014; Allen et al., 2015). Additionally, Hilton, Fischer, Wiley, and Williams (2016) demonstrate that students enrolled in courses with OER have a tendency to present higher course grades, are less likely to withdraw from the course, and have a higher chance of enrolling in more credit hours the following semester. While these initial findings are encouraging, studies also clearly acknowledge limitations within the research. In some cases, results are inconclusive and occasionally contradictory. Two factors that contribute to the complexity of studying OER are the nascency of this area of research and the difficulty of identifying causal relationship between OER and student learning and success outcomes.



While the literature shows the spectrum of benefits of OER, both financially at the institutional and student levels as well as facilitating access and student academic success, there is still a need for more research into the relationship between OER and student learning and success outcomes. The benefits of OER are not necessarily seen consistently across courses and institutions. This is confounded by the ever growing concerns around college completion.



This session provides a brief summary of current studies, focusing on methodologies and frameworks for research and identifies areas where more studies are needed. The rest of the session is set up like a workshop. It shares the developing research plan at SF State and includes interactive, hands-on time for participants to discuss their own research interests around OER. The workshop utilizes frameworks, guided questions, and templates to facilitate participant research plan development. Attendees will leave the session with tools to further develop and implement research at their own institutions.

The movement toward open educational materials has been slow to gain traction among the teaching mainstream. OERs are still not generally discussed in teacher education programs. According to a study by The Boston Consulting Group (2013), only 21% of educators report being äóìvery awareäó of what OERs are, indicating that they may not be comfortable using them themselves. These findings seem to indicate that educators simply need more education and background on what OERs are and how to use them.



In truth, however, it is not well-understood as to why open educational resources (OERs) have been slow to gain traction among the mainstream of educators. Is it because these OERs are somehow fundamentally flawed or not useful to teachers, or is it simply a lack of knowledge and preparation regarding the use of these materials? Little is known as to why teachers and faculty don't use OERs more frequently, especially because many educators express concern for lowering the cost of materials for their students, one of the primary problems solved by the use of OERs.



To better understand these problems, the presenters embarked on a research project to measure and interpret educator's attitudes towards OERs. This research was conducted using a open online course on finding and using open and free teaching materials. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether additional knowledge and preparation on the use of openly licensed materials helps teachers feel more comfortable using OERs for their own teaching and learning applications. In this session, we'll share our findings from this experience and discuss implications for persuading and training educators on the use of OERs in the future.

Presenters will share results from a survey of 2014-16 applicants to Affordable Learning Georgia's (ALG) Textbook Transformation Grants, an OER and affordable materials adoption, adaptation, and creation-focused grant program. The survey asked respondents to identify and rank factors motivating their interest in adopting OER, from specific aspects of the ALG grant to a desire for improved student learning. Open-ended questions provided new information about the unanticipated challenges, benefits, and changes to teaching practices related to OER. ALG's strategic planning changes based on these survey results will also be discussed.

It has been shown that OER reduce cost of educational materials without risking academic success (Lovett et al., 2008; Hilton et al., 2013; Pawlyshyn et al., 2013; Bowen et al., 2014; Allen et al., 2015). Additionally, Hilton, Fischer, Wiley, and Williams (2016) demonstrate that students enrolled in courses with OER have a tendency to present higher course grades, are less likely to withdraw from the course, and have a higher chance of enrolling in more credit hours the following semester. While these initial findings are encouraging, studies also clearly acknowledge limitations within the research. In some cases, results are inconclusive and occasionally contradictory. Two factors that contribute to the complexity of studying OER are the nascency of this area of research and the difficulty of identifying causal relationship between OER and student learning and success outcomes.



While the literature shows the spectrum of benefits of OER, both financially at the institutional and student levels as well as facilitating access and student academic success, there is still a need for more research into the relationship between OER and student learning and success outcomes. The benefits of OER are not necessarily seen consistently across courses and institutions. This is confounded by the ever growing concerns around college completion.



This session provides a brief summary of current studies, focusing on methodologies and frameworks for research and identifies areas where more studies are needed. The rest of the session is set up like a workshop. It shares the developing research plan at SF State and includes interactive, hands-on time for participants to discuss their own research interests around OER. The workshop utilizes frameworks, guided questions, and templates to facilitate participant research plan development. Attendees will leave the session with tools to further develop and implement research at their own institutions.