After its
first year, Achieving the Dream’s Open Educational Resource (OER) Degree
Initiative appears to be on track for success, according to the 38 community
colleges taking part in the project.
The
initiative intended to boost the use of OER for community-college courses as a
means to reduce the cost for students. A new report released by Achieving the
Dream said that “faculty at colleges participating in ATD's OER Degree
Initiative are changing their teaching and that students are at least as or
more engaged using OER courses than students in non-OER classrooms.”
The report
estimated students saved an average of $134 on textbooks per course, although
it also noted a more in-depth study was underway to determine true savings
“given that not all students purchase textbooks at full price, and some OER
savings may be offset by other costs.”
Among the
strategies deployed by the initiative was targeting faculty who had experience
using digital resources as part of online or hybrid courses and encouraging
them to build on that experience in developing and selecting course materials
for regular classes. The quality of the materials was the main factor for
faculty; cost to students ranked second.
The report
also outlined a number of “key actions” to increase faculty use of OER
materials, including providing more training and support, better communication
of the initiative’s long-term goals, enabling faculty to work together on OER
materials to save time, offering incentives, getting noninstructional staff to
assist with OER, and “getting students involved in evangelization.”
