scholarly journals On the Efficacy of Open Educational Resources

Author(s):  
Huimei Delgado ◽  
Michael Delgado ◽  
John Hilton III

Open educational resources (OER), which are free and openly licensed educational materials, have been a widely discussed topic in response to high textbook costs, the need for more pedagogical flexibility, and inequality in access to educational materials. In this study we examine the efficacy of OER through a quantitative analysis of the impact of OER on student final exam performance in a large calculus course. Our dataset affords us a relatively large sample size, allows us to classify students in both treatment and control groups, and includes a variety of covariates that allow us to control for multiple correlated factors. We estimate causal treatment effects using several econometric approaches. Our study adds the following insights into the research on OER efficacy: (i) OER materials do not, in general, lead to any significant change in student final exam performance; and (ii) OER materials have a significantly positive impact on both international students and Pell Grant eligible students.

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 789-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohail Iqbal Malik ◽  
Jo Coldwell-Neilson

High failure and dropout rates are reported in introductory programming (IP) courses in different studies despite extensive research attempting to address the issue. In this study, we introduced an ADRI (Approach, Deployment, Result, Improvement) approach in the teaching and learning process of an IP course to improve learning and success rates. All three entities of the didactic triangle (student, instructor, and content) were involved in the research to better understand and execute the proposed approach. The IP course materials were redesigned based on the ADRI approach, and an editor was developed to promote the new approach and encourage students to complete the various stages required in the approach. Two surveys were conducted, and final exam grades over four semesters were compared with determine the impact of including the ADRI approach in the course. We concluded that the ADRI approach provides a positive impact on outcomes that the students achieved during the course. It engages students in practicing their programming skills and provides a new presentation style for examples and exercises which discourages students from taking programming shortcuts. It not only helps to reduce the failure and, significantly, the dropout rates from the IP course but also impacts positively on all students who passed the IP course.


Open Praxis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Urbančič ◽  
Anja Polajnar ◽  
Mitja Jermol

An international online mentoring programme Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW) has been developed to unlock the potential of open education in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The programme provides an innovative approach to building Open Educational Resources, connecting developers of educational materials with experts volunteering as mentors. The model of the programme has been carefully designed and tested in two subsequent implementations in years 2018 and 2019. Results have proved the model to be useful for building capacities in open education, while producing concrete educational materials with great potential for social impact. Analysis of results has been used to suggest further improvements needed for enabling the program to be used on an even larger scale. The paper presents the development of the OE4BW model, its main characteristics, implementation results and guidelines for the future.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Horlacher

The thesis examines the Creative Commons Licenses 4.0 and the CC Zero 1.0 license using the example of granting rights of use for university teaching. It analyses to what extent these model license agreements are compatible with the requirements of German copyright and contract law and whether they create suitable framework conditions for rights of use materials for educational materials that meet the goals of the Open Educational Resources movement. Open Educational Resources are seen by education policy actors as a tool to facilitate access to high-quality educational materials and thus contribute to educational equity.


Author(s):  
Marta R. Ariza ◽  
Antonio Quesada ◽  
Ana María Abril ◽  
Pilar Rodríguez

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-125
Author(s):  
Judy Clegg ◽  
Carla Rohde ◽  
Henrietta McLachlan ◽  
Liz Elks ◽  
Alex Hall

Training early years practitioners to facilitate the language development of young children is a widely used intervention. Evidence to support the effectiveness of training in terms of the impact of children’s language development is limited. The Elklan Talking Matters programme is an accredited training programme for early years practitioners. Practitioners train to be Lead Communication Practitioners (LCPs) who cascade training across early years settings or Key Communication Practitioners (KCPs) who are embedded into these settings. The aim of this study was to identify if the Talking Matters Programme is effective in facilitating the language development of pre-school children. One hundred and twenty-six children from 13 early years settings were recruited (mean age 27.81 months; SD 4.90). Thirteen settings participated in the Talking Matters Programme (five LCP+KCP settings, four LCP settings and four control settings). At time 1, prior to practitioners participating in the programme, children completed the Pre-School Language Scales 5th Edition (PLS-5), a standardized assessment of receptive and expressive language. At time 1, 126 children completed the baseline assessment ( n = 43 in the LCP+KCP settings, n = 43 in the LCP settings and n = 40 in the control settings). Children then completed the post intervention (time 2) assessment approximately six months later. Children in the intervention groups (LCP+KCP settings and LCP settings) made more progress in their language development from time 1 to time 2 compared to the control. The children in the LCP+KCP settings made more gains than the children in the LCP settings. A significant main effect of groups and time was found but not an interaction of group scores with time, meaning the increases in scores were not statistically significant between the intervention and control groups. The study provides tentative evidence that the Talking Matters programme has a positive impact on pre-school children’s language development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-358
Author(s):  
Reneta P. Barneva ◽  
Valentin E. Brimkov ◽  
Federico Gelsomini ◽  
Kamen Kanev ◽  
Lisa Walters

Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials with an open license so that they can be freely copied, modified, and reused. While the rising cost of textbooks is a concern in higher education, over 50% of the surveyed educators stated that they are unaware of the OER and how they could replace the traditional textbooks. In addition, not many instructors understand the Creative Commons licenses under which OER can be used. In this work, we consider the types of OER and outline the sources of OER for business courses. We describe our experience of using such resources for innovative business courses and discuss the choices we made and the lessons learned. Finally, we share the results of surveys about OER we conducted with students and reflect on them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quazi K. Hassan ◽  
Khan R. Rahaman ◽  
Kazi Z. Sumon ◽  
Ashraf Dewan

Open educational resources (OER) have become increasingly popular in recent times. Here, the aim was to synthesise the lessons learned through the development of OER materials for a university-level course called “environmental modelling”. Consequently, the topics of discussion included: (i) how to choose an appropriate creative commons license; (ii) ways of incorporating materials from other sources, such as publicly available sources, other open access materials, and an author’s own published materials if not published under a creative commons license; (iii) the impact of the developed OER in the field of environmental modelling; and (iv) the challenges in developing OER material. Upon developing the materials, we observed the following: (i) students enrolled in the course did not purchase textbooks; (ii) our OER materials ranked as one of the most accessed (i.e., number 7) materials according to the usage data that summed the number of file downloads and item views from PRISM (i.e., the hosting platform maintained by the University of Calgary); (iii) the students learned relatively better as per the data acquired by the University of Calgary’s universal student ratings of instruction (USRI) instrument; and (iv) other universities expressed interest in adopting the materials.


Author(s):  
Oleksandr Malykhin ◽  
Nataliia Aristova ◽  
Vasyl Kovalchuk

The authors present the results of the research carried out in the 2016/2018 academic years among 338 students earning BA in the English language and literature regarded in our study as future philologists. Experimental work was conducted at four higher educational institutions in Ukraine. The aim of the study was to find out the influence of open educational resources for learning English on the development of future philologists’ instrumental values. We used methods of mathematical statistics, computer data processing and a descriptive method for interpreting experimental data. The authors theoretically substantiate and practically prove the efficiency of the use of open educational resources for learning English which influence the development of future philologists’ instrumental values necessary for adequate evaluating own activity and meeting various real-life and professional challenges. These open educational resources are The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Encyclopedia Britannica, The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Learn English. The results obtained in the experimental and control groups are compared and conclusions on the efficiency of the use of open educational resources for learning English in the educational process of higher education institutions in the context of development of future philologists’ instrumental values are drawn. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rufai Danmusa Gambo ◽  
Sani Masanawa Aliyu

<p align="center">This research work investigates the usage of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Print Educational Materials by the students of Federal College of Education Katsina, Nigeria. Using descriptive survey, 358 students were sampled as respondents. The research find out that while print section still remain relevant, an alarming negative attitudes by the students toward print educational materials have been found. Factors including students’ learning needs and interest, infrastructural decay, outdated books stocks, under equipped nature of the print sections and the unfriendly attitudes of the librarians toward clients are responsible this attitudes. However, OER enjoy an overwhelming patronage of students. The unrestricted nature of open educational resources coupled with its ease of access, freeness, proximity, relevance and IT infrastructural advancements are what make it an educational hotcake of the time. Better funding of education, inculcation of reading culture in younger generation, massive development of print materials into open educational resources and in-service training of library staff has been recommended. </p><p> </p>


Author(s):  
Sonia Valladares Rodriguez ◽  
Roberto Rodriguez Perez ◽  
Manuel J. Fernandez Iglesias ◽  
Luis Anido Rifon ◽  
Martin Llamas Nistal ◽  
...  

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