In addition to cost savings, OER have been shown to improve student learning. Learn more about the impact of OER from these resources:
“I discovered over six years ago that I could make my courses more accessible to students if I used OER materials and removed the onus of purchasing an expensive textbook. ... As an OER early adopter, I got the chance to review College Physics while it was still in production. It was the best physics textbook I’d seen, and better than some $300 books, in my opinion. Since adopting College Physics, my class enrollments have increased and my students’ scores on the national physics benchmark exam have improved by 30 percent.”
– Erik Christensen, professor of physics at South Florida State College and OpenStax College’s first user
“I am very pleased with my adoption of the OpenStax textbook Introduction to Sociology. ... For a long time, I have been wanting a quality e-book which would not separate those who could afford the textbook from those who could not. ... For academicians who, like me, teach from a perspective of social justice and environmental sustainability, textbooks from OpenStax College provide an ethical and conscientious option.”
– William Rose, assistant professor of sociology at the State University of New York, Oswego, whose course was the 1,000th for which an OpenStax College textbook was adopted
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Doan, Tomalee. "Why Not OER?" portal: Libraries and the Academyc 17.4 (2017): 665-669.
Fischer, Lane, Hilton, John, III, Robinson, T. Jared, and Wiley, David A. "A Multi-Institutional Study of the Impact of Open Textbook Adoption on the Learning Outcomes of Post-Secondary Students." Journal of Computing in Higher Education 27.3 (2015): 159-72.
Scanlon, Eileen, McAndrew, Patrick, and O'Shea, Tim. "Designing for Educational Technology to Enhance the Experience of Learners in Distance Education: How Open Educational Resources, Learning Design and MOOCs Are Influencing Learning." Journal of Interactive Media in Education 1 (2015).
Wiley, David, Linda Williams, Daniel Demarte, and John Hilton. "The Tidewater Z-Degree and the INTRO Model for Sustaining OER Adoption." Education Policy Analysis Archives 24 (2016): 41.