Come because it’s Free… Stay because it’s Open

In this chapter, I’ve been reviewing different resources regarding OER’s impact. David Wiley has created several frameworks for measuring the impactfulness of OER. The one that made the most sense to me was the one that relates to the cost of textbooks and the pass rate percentages can equal how effective the resource as per textbook dollar. In the Reading he provided the following example:

• Old model: rg = (48.4% pass rate) / ($180 required textbook cost) = 0.27 percent passing per required textbook dollar
• New model: rg = (68.9% pass rate) / ($5 required textbook cost) = 13.78 percent passing per required textbook dollar

I found this useful and thought about how it could be used to compare the best resource for your buck and could be used to start a conversation of what is the best resource.

Another point I found interesting was as more OER is adopted, publisher textbooks are beginning to drop too. “The success of open textbooks like OpenStax have ignited competition in the textbook market, and textbook prices are actually falling for the first time in 50 years.” Overall, having alternative solutions is helping solve the problem of expensive textbooks.

But then I read David’s post What Difference Does It Make?, I was reminded that while there have been some good advances in OER adoption the focus has been on free/cheap resources instead of the open licensing. It is nice to read articles on cost savings but where is the information on improved student learning. We are quick to jump on the OER bandwagon for the sake of saving dime, but now we need the same energy to describe the benefits to open permissions and the 5R activities.