Citation
Arcos, B. de los, Farrow, R., Perryman, L.-A., McAndrew, P., Pitt, R., & Weller, M. (2014). OER Evidence Report 2013-2014. OER Research Hub. https://oerresearchhub.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/oerrh-evidence-report-2014.pdf
Abstract
The second year of the OER Research Hub project has seen collaboration with 15 projects, the development of the OER Impact Map, and 20 surveys conducted producing more than 6,000 responses about the impact of open educational resources (OER). This document sets out the findings against the eleven hypotheses under investigation in the OER Research Hub project. The picture of OER impact is encouraging, but also mixed. The two main hypotheses under investigation were (A) that OER improves student performance; and (B) that openly licenced material is used differently to other online material. With the first of these we can say that the implementation of OER can improve student performance, but it is often indirectly through increased confidence, satisfaction and enthusiasm for the subject. With the hypothesis on openness, we see that adapting resources is important to all types of users. David Wiley has talked of ‘dark reuse’ in that reuse is rarely observable. We found that reuse does occur on a wide scale, but it should be viewed as a continuum of adaptation, from finding inspiration to a full ‘reversioning’ of content. Openness has been shown to be a key factor in facilitating this. Other interesting findings include the extent to which OER use causes reflection by educators on their own practice. This came across more strongly than anticipated and should be promoted more widely as a benefit of OER. Similarly, there is currently not enough emphasis given to the use of OER by formal students. Students are using OER to trial subjects prior to engaging in formal study and then supplementing their formal education with a wide range of OER. There is also evidence for the ‘viral’ effects of openness in that exposure to OER tends to cause users to seek it elsewhere. Most OER users reported being very satisfied and would continue to use and recommend open resources. Many educators were keen to encourage colleagues to use OER and to make more of their practice open. This would suggest that finding ways to implement OER and make them easy to use will have long term benefits for open education in general, if the open aspect is foregrounded. Awareness of OER and Creative Commons is growing, but OER repositories remain relatively unused and unknown compared with the main three educational resource sites of YouTube, Khan Academy and TED. This suggests that brand awareness of OER and easy location is a major obstacle to overcome for the next generation of OER projects.
Themes: Access, Assessment/Assessment OER, Empirical, Affective, Empirical, Outcomes, Faculty/Admin Perceptions, Instructional Design, OER, Pedagogy, Policy, Student Perceptions