OER benefits & advocacy

Making the case for OER

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

• Ozdemir and Hendricks (2017) find that open textbooks offer quality material and improved learning at lower cost.
• Wiley, Williams, DeMarte, and Hilton (2016) demonstrate that OER in universities "pays for itself" by increasing student retention.
• Fischer, Hilton, Robinson, and Wiley (2015) also find that classes using OER performed as well as or better than on key success measures compared to those with commercial textbooks.

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

• The 2018 NMC Horizon Report identifies OER as a trend that will drive adoption of educational technology in higher ed for years (see "Proliferation of Open Educational Resources").
• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (2015) has invested in OER as a means to democratize education around the world.
• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2015) highlights OER as a tool for innovation in teaching.

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

• The Open Education Research Hub is a project of the Open University that provides extensive data on the effect of OER in education.
• Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) release reports highlighting the potential cost savings of OER (as featured on the New York Times), the negative impacts of high textbook prices, and how education costs drag down student success.
• Lumen Learning (as featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education) provides links to published materials documenting the cost savings, learning gains, and other impacts of adopting open educational resources.

Advancing the use of OER

There is plenty of opportunity for us to do more! The Babston Survey Research Group (2018) surveyed over 4,000 faculty and found that faculty awareness of OER is increasing but still remains below 50%. Efforts are also ongoing to encourage open textbooks through legislation. Meanwhile, The Affordable College Textbook Act has been introduced in Congress in 2013, 2015, and most recently in 2017 (as H.R.3840 and S.1864). It's expected to be reintroduced in early 2019.

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.

• Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups) offer Textbook Campaign Resources (in particular, see the Organizing Toolkit) and "Make Textbooks Affordable" resources.
• BCcampus provides a student toolkit explaining the benefits of OER and providing guidance on promoting OER adoption.
• The Student Government Resource Center toolkit offers advice for increasing OER adoption on campus.

Learning more about OER

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

• The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) discusses Open Education.
• The Open Education Consortium provides an information center on all aspects of open education.
• Jisc provides a guide that explains OER for a variety of audiences, including managers and technical staff.

Library and library organizations also guide and track OER efforts.

• The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) explores how its members support OER initiatives.
• The University of Oklahoma Libraries offers a guide to exploring OER resources. 
• The University of Massachusetts - Amherst Libraries also provides a guide on OER resources.

Books on OER compile longer readings on open education.

• Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science (2017) shares the stories, motives, insights, and practical tips from global leaders in the open movement.
• Open Education: International Perspectives in Higher Education (2016) collects essays on how OER can democratize education access worldwide.
• An Open Education Reader compiles additional works on open education. The author, David Wiley, also blogs at Iterating Toward Openness.

You can find many more resources online! The following are a few examples.

• Wikipedia also hosts an article on open educational resources.
• OpenStax College released a 2013 update video on the progress and adoption of its program so far.

OER handouts and PowerPoint slides

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

• "Getting Started with OER," 2020 Open Education Week for Open Oregon [PowerPoint slides]
• "Overcoming Obstacles to OER Adoption," 2020 Arizona Regional OER Conference [PowerPoint slides]
• "OER Toolkit," 2020 Arizona Regional OER Conference [Word document, updated 2/27/20]
• “Building & Sustaining a Textbook Affordability Program,” 2019 Arizona Library Association Conference [PowerPoint slides]
• "Ways to Lower the Cost of Course Materials" [Word document]
• "Selected Resources from the Certificate in OER Librarianship" with Olivia Reinauer, 2019 OpenEd Conference [Word document]
• "Increasing Student Success with OER," OCLC Library Futures Conference 2019 [PowerPoint slides]
• "OER Toolkit," OCLC Library Futures Conference 2019 [Word document, updated 9/16/19]
• "OER Toolkit," DEFF Conference, April 2019 [Word document]
• "Copyright Basics & Where to Find Free Resources," 2019 Arizona Library Association Virtual Conference [PowerPoint slides]
• "OER & the Affordability Spectrum for Course Materials," 2019 Open Education Week brown bag [PowerPoint slides]
• "Finding & Using Free Images, Videos, Songs, & Readings," 2019 Open Education Week workshop [PowerPoint slides]
• "Creative Commons Licenses" handout, 2019 [Word document]
• "OER 101" handout, 2019 [Word document]
• "OER 101 Workshop," 2019 Arizona OER Conference [PowerPoint slides]
• "With Open Textbooks, Access = Opportunity," 2018 Arizona Library Association Conference [PowerPoint slides]
• "Getting Started with OER," 2018 OpenEd Conference [PowerPoint slides]
• "Overcoming Objections to OER from Faculty & Administrators," 2018 Digital Initiatives Symposium [PowerPoint slides]
• "Creative Commons Workshop," 2018 UA workshop [PowerPoint slides]
• "Open Educational Resources (OER) 101" handout, 2018 [Word document]
• "Ways to Lower the Cost of Course Materials" handout, 2018 [Word document]
• "Collaborating with Your Campus Bookstore," 2017 OpenEd Conference [PowerPoint slides]

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

• Creative Commons Workshop [Panopto recording]

2017 Open Education Month at the UA

• MOOCs at the UA and ASU: What’s New in the World of Massive Open Online Courses
• The ABC’s of Open Textbooks: What It’s Like to Adopt, Build, or Create a Free Resource