The evolution of OER: Creating learning experiences with impact

Open Educational Resources continue to lessen the financial burden for many of our students while simultaneously helping to promote student completion. But the industry itself is in need of support as it works to provide free, high-quality learning materials to both students and educators.

They're attractive to educators, students, and institutions alike. And that appeal transcends the obvious - cost.

Open Educational Resources or OER as they're commonly referred, are freely accessible, openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, research, and other purposes.

Aside from the cost-savings benefit, OER can be customized and adapted. Educators can tailor them to align with their teaching objectives and update content to reflect the latest research and developments in their field. Said another way, OER can be used to create more engaging and relevant learning experiences for their students.

"With OER, instructors have the flexibility to design and organize high-quality course content that meets the needs of their course and students," said Heather Blicher, director, Community College Consortium for OER. "Instead of waiting until a student submits a request for accessible content (captions in videos, alt text for images, etc.), this can be done in the course design right from the start."

As for cost-efficiency, OER has been shown to increase student learning while breaking down barriers of affordability and accessibility. Advocates point to the 2021 Virginia Course Materials Survey, which found that 81% of students are worried about the cost of course materials, leading 55% to take fewer courses, and 46% have to avoid making a textbook purchase altogether.

OER has helped mitigate those concerns while promoting both student success and completion.

Steve Litherland, Associate Vice President Libraries at Tidewater Community College, says the OER landscape has been transformed in recent years by the work of dedicated faculty, librarians, instructional designers, students, and academic leaders.

"When we were building courses for the original Z-degree pilot at TCC, OER content was scarce, so our faculty had to create most of the course materials needed to support the degree," he said. "Fast forward to today and you can access a curated collection of OER for VCCS transfer courses in the VIVA Open repository."

Speaking of VIVA, Online Virginia Coordinator Holly Whistler, who sits on the research and impact committee for the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources or CCCOER, describes Virginia's Academic Library Consortium as a great partner.

"They (VIVA) provide us with funding and communities where faculty can co-build materials and provide them to faculty at other institutions," she said.

Even though OER is free to the end-user, Blicher, says the industry is not without its share of challenges. Chief among them, funding.

"Many projects are funded solely on grants and when the grant funding runs out, so does the project," she said. "Identifying, supporting, and promoting sustainable funding models to support OER is crucial."

While OER continues to evolve, Litherland says another survey is in the pipeline, one that just like the original, will measure student sentiment.

"VIVA is developing an updated and expanded Virginia Course Materials Survey," he said, adding, "We would love to see participation from all 23 VCCS Institutions when we roll it out."

If you'd like to learn more about OER, please visit https://libguides.tcc.edu/oer

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