2022 Open Education Conference

We can no longer trust previous assumptions about what factors drive the awareness and adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education. Changes in teaching and learning brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the newly adopted strategies that emerged among higher education institutions, publishers, and teaching faculty as a result of the pandemic, have drastically altered the landscape.

Faculty still seek the most effective materials to use in their courses, and continue to consider the same factors when selecting these materials:
+ Awareness of the resource
+ Cost
+ Coverage and content
+ The range of supplemental materials included
+ Flexibility to adapt to their teaching
+ Format of the materials
+ Ability to integrate into the course LMS

Teaching styles have changed, the availability of non-OER resources is now different, and faculty have far less time to explore and review alternatives. Barriers that previously seemed formidable, such as concerns about OER quality and a distaste for digital materials, have largely been addressed. And institutional pandemic responses often include the adoption of inclusive access agreements with commercial publishers, resolving cost issues in the minds of many faculty.

This presentation uses data from multiple large-scale national surveys of academic administrators and teaching faculty to examine these changes and speculate on what they mean for the future of OER adoption and use. Issues examined include:
+ The changes in faculty teaching and learning
+ The growing awareness of OER among faculty
+ The increasing faculty acceptance of (and preference for) digital materials
+ Changing perceptions of the quality of OER materials
+ Changes in the locus of decision-making for inclusive access agreements
+ Faculty perception of the importance of cost in material selection
Each of these factors will be examined, summarizing the OER awareness and adoption trends. The presentation will then speculate on the future trajectory of OER awareness and adoption and the critical issues to track going forward.

By attending this session, attendees will be able to:

• Understand the trends in OER awareness in U.S. higher education
• Understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the factors driving awareness and adoption of OER
• See how the changes brought about by the pandemic have altered the future, both good and bad, for OER