E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

OER Research Hub has released it first dissemination report, The ‘OER Evidence Report 2013-2014′ brings together a range of evidence around the research hypotheses of the product and provides an overview of the impact OER is having on a range of teaching and learning practices.

There is some interesting data in the report:

• 37.6% of educators and 55.7% of formal learners say that using OER improves student satisfaction
• 27.5% of educators and 31.9% of formal learners agree that OER use results in better test scores
• 79.4% of OER users adapt resources to fit their needs
• 79.5% of educators use OER to get new ideas and inspiration
• 88.4% of learners say that the opportunity to study at no cost influenced their decision to use OER
• 74.9% of informal learners use OER to have a learning experience
• Knowing where to find resources is one of the biggest challenges to using OER
• General knowledge of well-established OER repositories is low
• Only 5% of educators say they don’t share information about OER
• The more educators use OER, the more they are willing to share
• Only 12.4% of educators create resources and publish them on a Creative Commons license
• Videos are the most common type of OER used.
• Cost of and access to materials can have an effect on student retention
• 40.9% of all formal learners in our sample consider that OER have a positive impact in helping them complete their course of study
• 79.6% of formal students think they save money by using OER
• 31.5% of informal learners say that their interest in using OER is a chance to try university-level content before signing up for a paid-for course
• 31.3% say their use of OER influenced their decision to register for their current course.
• 83.2% of informal learners say they are more likely to take another free course or study a free open educational resource, and 24.2% say that they would go on to take a paid for course as a result of using OER
• Informal learners choose OER that are relevant to their particular needs, have a good description of learning objectives and outcomes, and are easy to download
• Only 15.5% of informal learners select OER with an open license allowing adaptation despite the fact that 84.7% say they adapt the resources they find to fit their needs