OER benefits & advocacy

UNESCO logo for open educational resources

    Making the case for OER

    Academics cite benefits of OER ranging from student satisfaction to better learning outcomes.

    Other reports and resources highlight the promise of OER in innovating and democratizing education.

    Various organizations also dedicate themselves to communicating OER benefits from financial impact to learning gains.

    Advancing the use of OER

    There is plenty of opportunity for us to do more! Bay View Analytics (2020) surveyed more than 3,200 faculty and found that faculty awareness of OER is increasing but still remains around 60%. Efforts are also ongoing to encourage open textbooks through legislation. Meanwhile, The Affordable College Textbook Act has been introduced in Congress in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019 (as H.R.2107 and S.1036). 

    Here are tools to visualize the impact of OER both on campus and around the world.

    • The OER Adoption Impact Explorer is an interactive calculator for estimating the impact of OER adoption on a campus.
    • The OER World Map is a visualization of OER projects around the world and will support a range of widgets and tools, including powerful statistical analysis.

    Student can also get involved with the following resources.

    Learning more about OER

    Some organizations dedicate areas of their site to discussing open education and OER.

    Library and library organizations also guide and track OER efforts.

    Books on OER compile longer readings on open education.

    OER handouts and PowerPoint slides

    These were created by Cheryl (Cuillier) Casey and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY). Stand by for more links!

    Materials from past OER events

    The following are materials from other OER events held at the University of Arizona.

    2018 Open Ed Week at the UA

    2017 Open Education Month at the UA