1.10 OER & Student Success

OER speaks to all three of the great challenges facing higher education today: affordability, retention and completion, and quality of student learning...OER is an equity strategy for higher education: providing all students with access to course materials on the first day of class serves to level the academic playing field in course settings.

-Colvard, Watson, & Park,
The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics

The University of Georgia Study

In July 2018, a large-scale study Links to an external site. was published that examined the impact of OER on student success metrics. The study evaluated the academic performance of 22,137 students in nine different courses at the University of Georgia. Each of these courses was taught by a professor who switched from a commercial textbook costing $100 or more to a free, open textbook from OpenStax.

Key Findings

The results demonstrate that OER adoption does much more than save students money. OER also impact student learning, completion, and attainment gaps by improving end-of-course grades and decreasing DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal letter grades) rates. More specifically:

  • OER improve end-of-course grades for all students
  • OER improve course grades at greater rates for non-white and Pell-eligible students, part-time students, and populations historically underserved by higher education
  • OER decrease DFW rates for all students
  • OER decrease DFW rates at greater rates for non-white and Pell-eligible students, part-time students, and populations historically underserved by higher education

Data on course grades and DFW rates, described in link below

Accessible text equivalent of data table

Nicole Allen, Director of Open Education for SPARC, noted that “the most important finding of this study is that it directly links OER with equity. The greatest gains from using OER accrued to the students most likely to be underserved for traditional models" (McKenzie, 2018 Links to an external site.).

Attributions:

Page adopted from "OER & Student Success" "Zero Textbook Cost Pathways: OER & Equity" by Aloha Sargent is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.

Colvard, N., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018). The impact of open educational resources on various student success metrics Links to an external site.. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2).

Data table graphic: " Download Choosing to Create an Equity-Minded College? The Case for Open Education and Zero Textbook Cost Degrees

" by James Glapa-Grossklag, licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.

McKenzie, L. (2018, July 16). Free digital textbooks vs. purchased commercial textbooks Links to an external site..