scholarly journals Cost-savings achieved in two semesters through the adoption of open educational resources

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Levi Hilton III ◽  
T. Jared Robinson ◽  
David Wiley ◽  
J. Dale Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Loans ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
The United States ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
High Quality ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Quality Learning ◽  
To Receive

<p>Textbooks represent a significant portion of the overall cost of higher education in the United States. The burden of these costs is typically shouldered by students, those who support them, and the taxpayers who fund the grants and student loans which pay for textbooks. Open educational resources (OER) provide students a way to receive high-quality learning materials at little or no cost to students. We report on the cost savings achieved by students at eight colleges when these colleges began utilizing OER in place of traditional commercial textbooks.</p>

Innovative Use of Open Educational Resources in the Higher Education Libraries

2020 ◽  
pp. 179-189
Author(s):  
Prince G. ◽  
Hariharan G.
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Digital Libraries ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Information Requirements ◽  
Parent Institution ◽  
Open Education Resources ◽  
The Cost

Advancement in Science and Technology has made a tremendous impact on library and information centers. It has changed the traditional libraries and information centers into digital libraries, and library services are oriented towards ICT. As an outcome, e-resources are becoming more common among the libraries of higher educational institutions. They have gradually replaced the traditional print resources. Unfortunately, most of the libraries in the higher education sector except reputed institutions are facing a financial crunch situation. These institutions due to the limitation in the budget, find it hard to fulfill the information requirements of its users in the electronic environment. The cost of subscription to electronic resources goes beyond the purchasing capacity of the parent institution. Funding agencies at the institutions adopt consortia-based approach rather than individual institutional funding. In this context, open education resources fulfill the information requirements of the higher education institution. This chapter analyzes these open educational resources.

scholarly journals Cost, Outcomes, Use, and Perceptions of Open Educational Resources in Psychology: A Narrative Review of the Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Clinton
Keyword(s):  
Cost Savings ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Cost Outcomes

Open educational resources (OER) have been developed to free students from the expense and instructors from the restrictions of commercial materials. There has been a wealth of empirical examination on numerous aspects of OER. The purpose of this narrative review is to synthesize and integrate the findings on OER in psychology to assist instructors in making informed decisions about course materials. Topics in this review were organized according to the Cost, Outcomes, Usage, and Perceptions framework. Results indicated that OER adoption yielded cost savings while generally having similar or better outcomes in terms of grades. Students typically reported similar use and perceptions of OER compared to commercial course materials. Resources for instructors interested in OER are described. Criticisms of OER, such as concerns about quality, are addressed as well as limitations of reviewed research and future directions for research and development of OER.

scholarly journals Incentivizing the Production and Use of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education Institutions

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Annand ◽  
Tilly Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Persistence Rates

<p class="3">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.</p>

scholarly journals Developing a Sustainable Financial Model in Higher Education for Open Educational Resources

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Annand
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Student Needs ◽  
Financial Model ◽  
Financial Interests ◽  
Financial Issues

<p>Financial issues regarding the sustainable production, dissemination, and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education are reviewed and proposed solutions critiqued. Use of OER produce demonstrable cost savings for students. Yet OER development continues to rely almost completely on government and philanthropic funding. This indicates that a mismatch exists between the financial interests of students and those of higher education institutions. Before OER will be broadly adopted, changes to government policy are required to align institutional objectives with faculty motivations and student needs.</p>

scholarly journals Open Educational Resources in German Higher Education – An International Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
Victoria I. Marín ◽  
Olaf Zawacki-Richter ◽  
Svenja Bedenlier
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Infrastructure Policy

The term Open Educational Resources (OER) is buzzword in education systems around the world and their potential has even been highlighted with the pandemic crisis as an aid in education systems. However, it is still far from reaching the promises that were envisaged for them. This is especially true for Germany, where challenges have been identified in terms of OER infrastructure and adoption at a macro, meso and micro level. In this study, factors such as OER infrastructure, policy, quality and change are considered in German higher education from an international perspective (Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United States). As part of a broader research project, this comparative case study between higher education (HE) systems internationally provides insights into OER that could be useful for other HE systems, institutions and faculty members moving towards OER in these times.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of National Infrastructures for Digital (Open) Educational Resources in Higher Education

Open Praxis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Victoria I. Marín ◽  
Melissa Bond ◽  
Olaf Zawacki-Richter ◽  
Cengiz H. Aydin ◽  
Svenja Bedenlier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
International Comparative

This paper reports on the first stage of an international comparative study for the project “Digital educational architectures: Open learning resources in distributed learning infrastructures–EduArc”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This study reviews the situation of digital educational resources (or (O)ER) framed within the digital transformation of ten different Higher Education (HE) systems (Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United States). Following a comparative case study approach, we investigated issues related to the existence of policies, quality assurance mechanisms and measures for the promotion of change in supporting infrastructure development for (O)ER at the national level in HE in the different countries. The results of this mainly documentary research highlight differences and similarities, which are largely due to variations in these countries’ political structure organisation. The discussion and conclusion point at the importance of understanding each country’s context and culture, in order to understand the differences between them, as well as the challenges they face.

scholarly journals OER Awareness and Use: The Affinity Between Higher Education and K-12

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance Blomgren
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Teaching Culture ◽  
Open Educational Practices ◽  
K 12

Educators within Higher Education (HE) and K-12 share in the need for high quality educational resources to assist in the pursuit of teaching and learning. Although there are numerous differences between the two levels of education, there are commonalties in the perceptions of the purpose, practical uses, and challenges that abide in the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). Observations made while producing podcasts and videos for OER awareness, use, and championing, form an exposition of the merits of OER for HE and K-12. Benefits include cost-savings in acquiring resources for teaching and learning as well as user-generated content, instructor creativity, and contextualized and responsively timely learning opportunities. Additionally, the teaching culture of K-12 has historically supported the sharing of learning activities and learning resources. At all levels of education, OER awareness requires a deeper understanding of the changes to teaching and learning borne by open educational practices.

scholarly journals Surgical instrumentation: the true cost of instrument trays and a potential strategy for optimization

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Mhlaba ◽  
Emily W. Stockert ◽  
Martin Coronel ◽  
Alexander J. Langerman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Waste Reduction ◽  
Significant Cost ◽  
Instrument Type ◽  
Hospital Revenue ◽  
Potential Strategy ◽  
The Cost

Objective: Operating rooms (OR) generate a large portion of hospital revenue and waste. Consequently, improving efficiency and reducing waste is a high priority. Our objective was to quantify waste associated with opened but unused instruments from trays and to compare this with the cost of individually wrapping instruments.Methods: Data was collected from June to November of 2013 in a 550-bed hospital in the United States. We recorded the instrument usage of two commonly-used trays for ten cases each. The time to decontaminate and reassemble instrument trays and peel packs was measured, and the cost to reprocess one instrument was calculated.Results: Average utilization was 14% for the Plastic Soft Tissue Tray and 29% for the Major Laparotomy Tray. Of 98 instruments in the Plastics tray (n = 10), 0% was used in all cases observed and 59% were used in no observed cases. Of 110 instruments in the Major Tray (n = 10), 0% was used in all cases observed and 25% were used in no observed cases. Average cost to reprocess one instrument was $0.34-$0.47 in a tray and $0.81-$0.84 in a peel pack, or individually-wrapped instrument.Conclusions: We estimate that the cost of peel packing an instrument is roughly two times the cost of tray packing. Therefore, it becomes more cost effective from a processing standpoint to package an instrument in a peel pack when there is less than a 42%-56% probability of use depending on instrument type. This study demonstrates an opportunity for reorganization of instrument delivery that could result in a significant cost-savings and waste reduction.

scholarly journals Textbook Alternative Incentive Programs at U.S. Universities: A Review of the Literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
Ashley Lierman
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
The United States ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Impact Measurement ◽  
Grant Programs ◽  
Incentive Programs ◽  
Financial Investments ◽  
Faculty Time ◽  
The Cost

Objective – This article reviews current literature on incentive grant programs for textbook alternatives at universities and their libraries. Of particular interest in this review are common patterns and factors in the design, development, and implementation of these initiatives at the programmatic level, trends in the results of assessment of programs, and unique elements of certain institutions’ programs. Methods – The review was limited in scope to studies in scholarly and professional publications of textbook alternative incentive programs at universities within the United States of America, published within ten years prior to the investigation. A comprehensive literature search was conducted and then subjected to analysis for trends and patterns. Results – Studies of these types of programs have reported substantial total cost savings to affected students compared to the relatively small financial investments that are required to establish them. The majority of incentive programs were led by university libraries, although the most successful efforts appear to have been broadly collaborative in nature. Programs are well-regarded by students and faculty, with benefits to pedagogy and access to materials beyond the cost savings to students. The field of replacing textbooks with alternatives is still evolving, however, and the required investment of faculty time and effort is still a barrier, while inconsistent approaches to impact measurement make it difficult to compare programs or establish best practices. Conclusion – Overall, the literature shows evidence of significant benefits from incentive programs at a relatively low cost. Furthermore, these programs are opportunities to establish cross-campus partnerships and collaborations, and collaboration seems to be effective at helping to reduce barriers and increase impact. Further research is needed on similar programs at community colleges and at higher education institutions internationally.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document