Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice

Abstract

The adoption of digital-born, Open Educational Resources (OER) has been proven to improve student retention and learning outcomes, and OER has the flexibly to support multiple modalities of instruction. Institutional Repositories are uniquely situated to act as a platform to support and distribute content that can be created collaboratively between faculty researchers as well as students. However, faculty are still largely hesitant to adopt OER sources for a variety of reasons, not least among them being a lack of exposure and understanding of the potential benefits for both faculty and students in keeping curriculum affordable, up-to-date, and nimble through media-rich, annotated platforms. This study seeks to provide a model for institutions to adopt in using their open-institutional repositories to support broader OER adoption and use across institutions. A mixed-method case study will present results from faculty-student surveys and institutional data to provide a framework for the best practices in raising awareness among faculty, in outlining the benefits for students, and in supporting programs via library services.

Research Highlights

The Problem: Faculty hesitation to adopt Open Educational Resources (OER) stems from a lack of exposure, concerns regarding academic quality, and the time-intensive nature of identifying or creating media-rich, up-to-date curriculum. 

The Method: A mixed-method case study conducted in fall 2021 at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, surveyed 56 faculty members and 354 students across four distinct colleges to assess OER perceptions, usage rates, and barriers to adoption. 

Quantitative Finding: 67.86% of faculty claimed OER usage, yet student awareness was nearly 0%; 76.9% of students purchased textbooks they never used; 17% of students dropped a course due to book costs; 43.75% of faculty are likely to create original OER if supported by course releases or compensation. 

Qualitative Finding: Faculty identify expanded learning access as the primary motivator for OER use, while students prioritize cost savings and reduced reliance on loans; significant adoption barriers include a perceived lack of peer-reviewed quality in certain disciplines and insufficient time for resource adaptation. 

Finding: Institutional repositories serve as a critical infrastructure for democratizing access, as evidenced by [email protected] averaging 1,400 weekly downloads and successfully distributing a collaborative faculty-student OER textbook to 183 countries. 

DOI

https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v22i18.5703

Publication Date

12-2022

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Download

Share

COinS