Essential Questions
Open education changes the way people create, share, and construct knowledge. Open education gives people access to, “high-quality educational experiences and resources” (OpenSource). Proponents of open education work to eliminate the barriers in the way, these barriers may include, the high cost of resources, outdated materials, limited access, and legal obstacles that inhibit collaborative work between scholars and educators (OpenSource). As we are in the digital age, so many resources are accessible online. These resources can be shared and developed collaboratively. This allows individuals “to access, reuse, and change, learning materials, to make them relevant in specific, contexts” (Hegarty, 2015). Open Educational Resources (OER) supports the sharing of resources and alleviates the high monetary cost of textbooks. As resources are a fundamental component in the educational system, educators have often relied on the use of textbooks to support their students learning. The increased price of textbooks has led some educators to, “experiment with substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercial textbooks as their primary class curriculum” (Hilton, 2016). This substitution would allow for increased personalization of resources and the elimination of monetary fees. While OER appears to be the ideal change from traditional educational resources, what are the financial benefits of using OER compared to other traditional resources? Do students prefer using open educational resources or textbooks?
Article Review Number 1
The article, OER Awareness and Use: The Affinity Between Higher Education and K-12by Constance Blomgren explores the commonalities, differences, and challenges with using OER within the Higher Education and the K-12 systems. In both systems, educators need high-quality resources to use with their students. Blomgren took part in a media project, which allowed her to observe and compare the different viewpoints that the professors of higher education and educators in the K-12 system held with regards to OER. In Blomgren’s article, she discusses the observations that were made from “OER scholars, communication exchanges with graduate students, and from a broader K-12 audience who reacted to the ABOER media project at practitioner conference” (Blomgren, 2018). Blomgren brings awareness to the benefits of using OER to deepen the quality of resources within the educational system.
Article Review Number 2
The article, Open Education Resources and Perceptions of Financial Value by Samuel Abramovich and Mark McBride delves into research about whether students recognize the financial benefits of OER, and if they believe that traditional course material assists them in reaching their educational goals. The research they conducted was at “seven different colleges in a public university system in Northeast United States (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). During this study, OER resources were substituted in for the traditional course materials. At the end of the study, the students and instructors were surveyed on the impact OER had on the learning outcomes. The results were mostly positive, however, many of the students and faculty reported that the traditional course materials to have “greater financial value than OER” (Abramovich & McBride, 2018).
Article Review Number 3
The article, Open Educational Resources and College Textbook Choices: A Review of Research on Efficacy and Perceptions by John Hilton, examines the rising cost of higher education and how that has led some of the instructors to test how OER can substitute in for commercial textbooks. In this article, Hilton reviews the results of sixteen studies that examined, “the influence of OER on student learning outcomes in higher education settings [and] the perceptions of college students and instructors of OER” (Hilton, 2016). The studies were indicative that for the most part, students achieved the same learning outcomes what OER was used and that a large quantity of money was saved. Furthermore, the results indicated that both the students and instructors had a generally positive outlook toward OER (Hilton, 2016).
Article Review Number 4
The article, What Impacts do OER Have on Students? Students Share Their Experiences with a Health Psychology OER at New York City College of Technology by Cailean Cooney, reports on the findings of a study that was “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” (Cooney, 2017). In the study, the students were assigned open educational resources that were developed by their instructor. The drive of this study was to learn how the use of OER impacted the students. The research was conducted through one-on-one interviews and short surveys (Cooney, 2017). During these interviews and surveys the students gave responses on the organization of the OER, accessibility, “the methods used to access the OER and complete coursework, benefits and challenges, and differences and similarities to using a traditional print textbook” (Cooney, 2017).
Financial Benefits of OER
One of the predominant benefits of open educational resources is that it is cost-effective, saving students a lot of money. Becoming a cost-effective alternative to traditional course resources. Before the use of OER in post-secondary institutes, most students relied on textbooks as their prime source of educational resources. In today’s digital society textbooks do not hold as much relevance as they once did. Most textbooks are outdated and overpriced, whereas, OER are free and current. Adults who attend post-secondary education are already spending a lot of money to receive a higher education, often “sacrificing time and potential current earnings for a belief in the various benefits of a formal post-secondary-education” (Blomgren, 2018). Most students, want to save money where they can to support themselves through school. However, that is made difficult because a lot of money goes toward purchasing course materials. According to “The National Association of College Stores (2018) claims for 2016—2017, the average student spends $579 on textbooks annually” (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). The increase in textbook cost may deter some students from taking certain courses. This inflation in the price of textbooks thus becomes an obstacle and financial strain for some students. The “currency of OER content compared to a copyright restricted textbook” (Blomgren, 2018) is significantly beneficial to all students. During the study conducted by Cailean Cooney, on OER versus Textbooks, “half of the students… contrasted the OER with textbooks by mentioning the cost savings” (Cooney, 2017).
While the financial benefits of OER don’t go unnoticed there are still some barriers that should be discussed. Most consumers will often use the price of the product to measure its quality (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). When faced with the option to buying two products that are “similar or even exact quality, consumers may choose to pay for something rather than accept the free version” (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). There is a belief that if something is cheap or free it is of lesser quality than the product that is expensive. Abramovich and McBride conducted a study to determine the perceptions educators and students had about the value of OER compared to traditional resources. Furthermore, they wanted educators and students to “evaluate the educative value of the OER compared to traditional course materials” (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). It is important to keep in mind that for many students using OER was new to them, and some of the instructors did express that they did have some knowledge about OER. Most of the students indicated that they had a positive experience with OER and it helped them reach their learning goals in the course. The study revealed that 64% of students thought that OER was easy to use and they “appreciated that the OER could be accessed by digital devices” (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). Furthermore, the majority of instructors believed that OER had helped their students achieve the learning objectives in the course. (Abramovich & McBride, 2018).
The results of the study concerning the student’s belief on the financial value of traditional course materials and OER revealed that “70% of students noted that they liked the low cost of OER” (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). However, “48% of the students noted that they would be willing to pay the same for the OER as what they would pay for materials in other courses, while 31% of students would only be willing to pay a little less, and 12% of students would pay nothing for the OER” (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). This suggested that students felt there was only a slight positive gain between the financial value of using OER compared to traditional course materials, to achieve their learning goals.
Regardless of the financial savings, the study showed that some students may find that OER is inferior to traditional course resources because it is free. This is important for instructors to keep in mind when they want to implement OER in their course. Some students may not opt to choose the less costly route believing that the materials will not be as beneficial because they are free. The findings of the study conducted by Abramovich and McBride concluded that students will either accept or “resent the no-cost OER, but do suggest that further research is merited to determine if the perceived cost of OER is a factor in willingness to use OER” (Abramovich & McBride, 2018). Aside from the financial aspect of OER, there are many other benefits of using it, which include accessibility, personalization of resources, collaboration, and the sharing of knowledge.
 Student Preferences
During a study that John Hilton conducted he surveyed 315 students about how they felt about OER compared to textbooks. The results of the survey concluded that “95% strongly agreed or agreed that the OER was easy to use and 78 % of respondents felt that the OER provided access to more up-to-date material than is available in my print textbooks” (Hilton, 2016). Furthermore, of those participants approximately “two-thirds of students strongly agreed or agreed that the digital OER were more useful than traditional textbooks and that they preferred the OER digital content to traditional textbooks” (Hilton, 2016). From the study that was conducted with those students 315, it appears that open educational resources were more desirable than traditional educational resources.
In a study done by Cailean Cooney regarding how students felt about OER compared to textbooks, the students responded by saying they “liked the features of OER” (Cooney, 2017). Half of the students in the study stated that “the OER was easier to access and more convenient because everything was available in one place” (Cooney, 2017). Some of the students claimed that it was nice because they didn’t have “to worry about transporting a textbook to and from class, to work, and elsewhere” (Cooney, 2017). It is much easier to carry one device around versus a bunch of heavy textbooks, that often do not get used during class time. A student in the survey also shared that OER freed “her from having to borrow the textbook from a library, something that was time-consuming and created stress over worrying when the return date approached” (Cooney, 2017). The individual that took the survey were also asked about their course experience using OER versus traditional textbooks. The majority of the participants in the survey had a positive outlook on OER and shared that OER had increased their engagement in the course lessons in comparison to using a textbook as a resource (Cooney, 2017). While 32% of the participants in the survey reported that OER did not have an impact on their class participation or interest, the majority of the students did have a positive experience using OER.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations: Â
Overall, open educational resources are an excellent alternative to traditional educational resources. If OER is implemented student’s save a great deal of money because they do not have to purchase overly priced textbooks and other course materials. While OER is free and accessible, not everyone will be big proponents of it, preferring traditional resources. However, after researching this topic it has become evident that most people who have experienced using OER in their courses preferred it to textbooks. OER has helped students achieve their learning outcomes and further engage with the course in a way textbooks couldn’t. In this day in age students are more inclined to use their device to complete readings and assignments, which is why I think more post-secondary institutes should push to use OER in place of traditional resources. There are so many open resources out there, once educators have identified the open educational resources that are accessible by all students and that align with their learning objective, I think they will be set up for success if they decide to use OER as a substitute for traditional resources.
References
Abramovich, S., & McBride, M. (2018). Open education resources and perceptions of financial value. The Internet and Higher Education, 39, 33-38. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2018.06.002
Blomgren, C. (2018). OER awareness and use: The affinity between higher education and K-12. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(2) doi:10.19173/irrodl.v19i2.3431
Cooney, C. (2017). What impacts do OER have on students? students share their experiences with a health psychology OER at new york city college of technology. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4) doi:10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3111
Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resources. Educational Technology, 55(4), 3–13. Retrieved from JSTOR.
Hilton, J. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: A review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development, 64(4), 64:4<573–590;573–590;-590. doi:10.1007/s11423-016-9434-9
OpenSource. (2019). What is open education? Retrieved from https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-education
Feature Image: Kimberly Farmer (Unspash) Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/lUaaKCUANVI
