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An Accidental, Systematic Attack on OER Sustainability Models

Iterating Toward Openness

However, inclusive access and equitable access aren’t the only models that automatically charge students a fee for their course materials. Many institutions charge students a fee associated with their OER courses as a way of funding the institutions’ OER efforts.

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Does OER Actually Improve Learning?

Edsurge

Regardless of where you stand on the debate over open educational resources, you’re probably wondering: Does OER actually improve learning outcomes? This question came up in a handful of discussions this week at the OpenEd conference in Niagara Falls, NY. Then they randomly assigned the entire class to OER or non-OER materials.

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OER Cost Savings and Adoption Rates: New Methodologies, New Data, and New Results

Iterating Toward Openness

At the OpenEd Conference in 2013, Nicole Allen and I challenged the OER community to save students one billion dollars. The overall average price for “OER Only” (Open Educational Resources in all formats, including new print, used print, rental, loose-leaf, and digital) is $10.69. The adoption rate of OER is 6.3%.

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OER is Growing at Religious Colleges, But Raises Unique Challenges

Edsurge

One popular draw to open educational resources is that these openly-licensed learning materials can—and are often encouraged to—be tailored for a particular professor or course. Communications librarian Kristen Hoffman oversees much of the OER work at Seattle Pacific University, a Christian university in Washington.

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Is Open Content Enough? Where OER Advocates Say the Movement Must Go Next

Edsurge

It’s not uncommon to stumble upon headlines about students spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on course materials. In response, open educational materials, or OER, have emerged as an alternative to expensive textbooks that disproportionately affect low-income students. Where is “free” falling short for students?

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Open Educational Resources Are ‘Moving Up the Adoption Ladder’ Around the World

Edsurge

OER was one of six “emerging technologies and practices” the panelists highlighted as most likely to significantly influence postsecondary teaching and learning in the future. “It It is moving up the adoption ladder,” says Susan Grajek, vice president of communities and research for Educause, of OER. “It In the U.S.,

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How to sort the good from the bad in OER

The Hechinger Report

These OER – open educational resources – may be good, bad or indifferent. There’s more bad OER out there than good; that’s a fact,” said Rebecca Kockler, assistant superintendent of academic instruction for the state of Louisiana, at the annual SXSWedu conference last week in Austin, Texas. Quality was our goal.”.

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