Check Here for details to access Peralta's Canvas course on the Open Textbook Network and OER.
This is a great introduction to some of the benefits of Open Educational Resources. Watch this concise one minute introductory video about OER produced by Education Week. Read to read the accompanying article.
The nationally renown Open Textbook Network (OTN) Consortium based at the University of Minnesota is an academic leader in the OER movement. The OTN supports its membership of more than 600 campuses with a proven program of training methods & materials, a database of faculty textbook reviews, data collection tools, and a vibrant and accessible OER community of practice.
The Open Textbook Network (OTN) Consortium offers member institutions training designed to help develop strategies and collectively organize to increase and sustain OER adoption. Topics included: identifying and overcoming obstacles to OER adoption, examples and strategies for building successful OER campus programs, -"making the case" for OER in your discipline and to your colleagues, and student academic success and OER.
A recent Florida Virtual Campus report underscores these possible benefits by reporting via survey data the negative impacts of on students when the use of commercially published textbooks is the only choice available to students. This report said,
Colvard, N. B., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018). The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 262–276.
From the author abstract: "This article reports the results of a large-scale study (21,822 students) regarding the impact of course-level faculty adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER). Results indicate that OER adoption does much more than simply save students money and address student debt concerns. OER improve end-of-course grades and decrease DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal letter grades) rates for all students. "
Vojtech, G., & Grissett, J. (2017). Student Perceptions of College Faculty Who Use OER. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4), 155–171.
From the author abstract: “Participants rated faculty using an open textbook higher on kindness, encouragement, and creativity than faculty using a traditional copyrighted textbook, and were more likely to want to take a class with faculty using an open textbook.”
Ikahihifo, T. K., Spring, K. J., Rosecrans, J., & Watson, J. (2017). Assessing the Savings from Open Educational Resources on Student Academic Goals. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(7), 126–140.
From the author abstract: "Our study found that most students considered OER to be as good or better in terms of quality and engagement as traditional texts, while also allowing them to put saved funds toward their educational pursuits. As rising costs in higher education affect current and potential students, faculty and students are looking for ways to cut costs where possible. Open educational resources (OER) are a viable option to replace expensive traditional textbooks without sacrificing quality."
BLICK, W., & MARCUS, S. (2017). The Brightly Illuminated Path: Facilitating an Oer Program at Community College. College Student Journal, 51(1), 29–32.
Download a pdf for the complete report "Course Materials Adoption: A Faculty Survey and Outlook for the OER Landscape" By Stephen Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University Libraries. 2018. This survey and report are made available by the American Libraries Association. It reports findings from a survey of 1,400 responses from faculty and instructors across the United States.
The entire issue of the OER textbooks movement has been presented holistically in a number of recent reports based on good-sized surveys.
The Florida Virtual Campus Office of Distance Learning and Student Services, 2016 report "2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey: Results and Findings" found that,
"The high cost of textbooks is negatively impacting student access, success, and completion.
The findings suggest that the cost of textbooks is negatively impacting student access to required materials (66.6% did not purchase the required textbook) and learning (37.6% earn a poor grade; 19.8% fail a course). Time to graduation and/or access is also impacted by cost. Students reported that they occasionally or frequently take fewer courses (47.6%); do not register for a course (45.5%); drop a course (26.1%), or withdraw from courses (20.7%)."
