Incentivizing the Production and Use of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education Institutions
Open accessAbstract
Substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercially-produced textbooks results in demonstrable cost savings for students in most higher education institutions. Yet OER are still not widely used, and progress toward large-scale adoption in most colleges and universities has been slow. This article reviews the literature informing financial and other issues that affect OER adoption. It describes the outcome of an ongoing, financially self-sustaining project at Athabasca University that has produced significant cost savings for the institution, maintained equivalent student learning outcomes and persistence rates, and enhanced aspects of the student learning experience. Based on the success of the project to date, broadly-applicable recommendations are suggested to reduce organizational impediments to the adoption of OER in higher education institutions.
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Literature confirms the need for adoption of open education resources as replacements for items whose cost are normally paid by the students, such as textbooks.
“This is confirmed by literature, highlighting the need for adoption of open education resources as replacements for items whose cost are normally paid by the students, such as textbooks [3].”
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Paterson, J., Oyelere, S. S., Dubay, C., & Izu, C. (2025) · Working Group Reports of the ACM Global Computing Education Conference 2025 · doi:10.1145/3815397.3815774
- Authors
- Annand, D., & Jensen, T.
- Affiliations
- Athabasca University (CA)
- Venue
- The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
- Publisher
- Athabasca University Press
- Published
- 2017-06-16
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 4
- ISSN
- 1492-3831 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2625716738
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 4.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Érudit (Université de Montréal) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Open Education and E-Learning
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Publishing and Scholarly Communication
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Library Collection Development and Digital Resources
- Keywords
- open educational resources, OER adoption, financial incentives, higher education institutions, Athabasca University, learning outcomes, student persistence, organizational barriers
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