Open educational resources (OER) learning materials are openly licensed digital educational materials that can be used instead of traditional textbooks and other courseware. The concept has been available for some time but is emerging now as a viable option to reduce the cost of learning materials while still providing rich, up-to-date content.
A recent study finds that one in nine students currently uses OER materials, and of that group, more than half use it to supplement print or digital textbooks. Instructors that consider price when selecting course materials may achieve the goal of reducing costs by assigning more OER. Professors can design courses on their own by building on available content from OER aggregators that host large collections of open resources. The process requires careful vetting to ensure the materials are high quality, peer reviewed and formatted properly.
Another option is to adopt OER content curated by a third party. For example, Lumen Learning reviews content from a variety of sources, selects the best available OER and adds timely updates, learning design and technical support to produce effective courseware for introductory courses, general education and developmental education available through an LMS. Working with Follett, students are charged only $10 to $25, which represents a significant savings compared to the cost of traditional learning materials. OER have already proven to increase student success measured by course completions and grades earned of a C or better. Students using OER enjoy an average of 83 percent savings with the same or better learning outcomes.
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