article thumbnail

On the Relationship Between Adopting OER and Improving Student Outcomes

Iterating Toward Openness

This article started out with my being bothered by the fact that ‘OER adoption reliably saves students money but does not reliably improve their outcomes.’ ’ For many years OER advocates have told faculty, “When you adopt OER your students save money and get the same or better outcomes!”

OER 147
article thumbnail

Thoughts on Continuous Improvement and OER

Iterating Toward Openness

Recently I’ve been doing both more thinking and more roll-up-your-sleeves working on continuous improvement of OER. And this process of making OER more effective every semester – also known as “continuous improvement” – is where we see some of the most exciting opportunities to collaborate with faculty.

OER 114
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Open Educational Practice: Unleashing the Potential of OER

Edsurge

It’s been a good year for open educational resources (OER). made commitments this year to establish entire degree programs based solely on OER. Governor Jerry Brown set aside $5 million for OER degree programs in California community colleges. But “free” is not the only important characteristic of OER.

OER 60
article thumbnail

More College Students Are Downloading Course Materials for Free—Or Skipping Them Entirely

Edsurge

That figure includes texts procured legally, like open educational resources (known as OER), and illegally, such as pirated files shared through torrent websites. The decrease follows a trend of near-steady spending decline going back at least 10 years to 2007-2008, when students reported spending an average of $701 on course materials.

Course 148
article thumbnail

Wiley to Acquire Knewton’s Assets, Marking an End to an Expensive Startup Journey

Edsurge

Founded in 2008, Knewton blazed its way into the edtech industry with bold proclamations about its adaptive-learning technology, which it then licensed to digital curriculum providers. Knewton’s Alta, by contrast, is tapping into openly-licensed, or OER, materials.

Knewton 141
article thumbnail

Can Technology in the Classroom Replace Expensive Textbooks

Kitaboo on EdTech

Decrease in State Funding: The government has been scaling back on the funding on college education since the great recession of 2008. Post the recession, states cut inflation-adjusted spending on K–12 education by approximately 4% between 2008 and 2013. This way, students get to access unlimited resources without spending a dime.

article thumbnail

Knewton’s New Business Attracts New $25M in Funding. But Some Things Don’t Change.

Edsurge

Knewton has raised $25 million in a new funding round—the eighth since it launched in 2008. Alta at a Glance With Alta, Knewton aims to combine third-party open educational resources (OER) with assessments and the adaptive-learning technology created by the company to inform how students progress through the content.

Knewton 66