Future Of Open Access Educational Materials Is Ripe With Opportunity

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Study shows open educational resources in higher ed could triple over the next five years.

The future of open access educational materials is ripe with opportunity as more higher-education faculty turn to them to help provide quality education at affordable costs, according to a recent Cengage white paper. These open access resources help improve the quality of course materials, boost student engagement, improve graduation rates, and lower overall educational costs. And, since one in five college students report they have skipped or deferred a particular course because of the price of the required learning resources, it means that OERs are a potentially game-changing trend in higher education.

The survey, Open Educational Resources (OER) and the Evolving Higher Education Landscape, was given to more than 500 faculty members and found open educational resources (OER) in higher education could grow to become the primary digital learning resource in the next five years, tripling from 4 to 12 percent. Further, the use of OER for supplemental learning materials is anticipated to nearly quadruple, from 5 to 19 percent.

The study also found more than three-quarters of faculty members not currently using OER said they expect to adopt or learn how to use the materials in the future. One former CEO of a non-profit technology company told Cengage, “The longer game with OER is really in the adaptive and customization capabilities to spur learning outcomes.” The report explains, “As new non-profit and for-profit organizations seek to carve out market niches, education and technology companies — with proven technology platforms suited to OER integration as well as expertise in content curation and quality content development — have an important role to play in adding value to the OER experience.”

STEM courses, such as computing and mathematics, yielded the highest use of the technology and associated supplemental materials, while English and psychology saw the lowest use numbers. OER is used for supplemental materials by 5 percent of total respondents, 18 percent in computing, 13 percent in mathematics, 8 percent in English, and 4 percent in psychology.

One reason for the escalation in OER use is an effort to keep educational costs down while providing quality materials to students. While 60 percent of users in the Cengage survey were highly satisfied with the OER materials they were using, obstacles to adoption still persist. These include difficulty in finding resources, concerns about unknown permissions and quality, and difficulty in integrating resources. The most significant barrier remains faculty perceptions regarding the time and effort required to locate and evaluate appropriate materials. The most often cited barriers were the lack of a comprehensive catalog (51.5 percent) and difficulty in finding what they needed (42 percent).

The future holds tremendous potential for OER providers, though the report cautions it must be done right. “If OER is to become truly mainstream,” it reads, “it will need to be integrated with personalized and adaptive learning technologies – including assessment and analytics — that help to improve student performance by mapping objectives to outcomes. Quality content can only go so far; it must be ‘wrapped’ in an instructionally designed framework that creates a cohesive and effective learning space.”