Research Briefs

OER Adoption Linked to Cost Saving Initiatives and Institutional Support

Awareness remains a key barrier to the adoption of open educational resources (OER). Two-thirds of faculty respondents reported some level of awareness of OER, and 41% of that number first heard about OER from an institution-level program or initiative. These institution-driven initiatives represent a unique opportunity to reach educators right on campus, and influence perspectives on OER. In this research brief, we present our findings, and explore how best to reach faculty and administrators.

Growing OER Awareness in K-12 – Introduction Methods for OER

OER awareness is generally lower amongst K-12 teachers — in our most recent study, just 17% of respondents report some level of awareness. In this research brief we take a look at how these educators first learned about OER, to better understand how to reach them. OER awareness in K-12 educators is growing slowly, lagging considerably behind higher education faculty. Teachers most commonly cited doing their own research as the source of their knowledge on OER, while administrators appear receptive to professional conferences, meetings, and webinars. In order to bolster the spread of OER awareness in the K-12 segment, OER advocates will need to devise methods to reach unaware faculty who are potentially seeking resources to help meet their teaching goals.

Two-thirds of Faculty are aware of OER — let's explore how and why

The most common source of information on OER is right on campus, from colleagues or institutional-level programs. Nearly half (47%) of faculty report first hearing about OER from a peer. We call these "one-on-one" discoveries, which might result from casual conversation — "Hey, look what I found" — or to help fill a specific request, such as looking for a resource to help cover a topic.

Digital and OER Textbook Adoption

The global COVID-19 pandemic changed how faculty teach, and resulted in a large rise in digital curricula use. We partnered with the Brian Murphy Group to investigate how the digital adoption trend varied across different course disciplines. The study examines selected large-enrollment introductory-level courses for the Fall 2020, Fall 2021, and Fall 2022 terms. The shifts in perspectives on digital learning is part a growing acceptance of digital materials that we've been monitoring for years. During the 2018-2019 academic year, 44% of faculty agreed with the statement "Students learn better form print materials than they do from digital." By the 2021 - 2022 academic year, that figure dropped to 33%. In the same academic year, the majority of faculty and administrators expressed agreement with the statement "Digital materials provide greater flexibility for students." Only a small number disagree with the statement (5% faculty, 4% administrators), with only 1% of faculty strongly disagreeing.

The results show that print textbooks remain a dominant form factor. But the growing demand for digital textbooks speaks to where demand may be heading.

Faculty Satisfaction with Course Materials varies by Publisher

As part of our research into faculty satisfaction with curricula, we took a look at how satisfaction varies by publisher type, comparing major commercial publishers, smaller commercial publishers, and OER, and measured how OER fares across several factors. The study examines multiple aspects: overall, accuracy, scope of content, included instructor materials, and cost to student.

K-12 Teacher Demographics are strongly correlated to OER Awareness

Bay View Analytics, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, conducts annual, national surveys of K-12 teachers and administrators on topics related to curricula adoption, and tracking awareness levels of Open Educational Resources (OER). To compare our results with those from similar K-12 teacher panels we participated as a researcher in the Rand Organization’s Fall 2022 Omnibus Survey, submitting questions for its American Teacher Panel. This panel is a nationally representative sample of educators who regularly provide feedback on important issues of educational policy and practice. The Rand organization’s dataset allowed us to explore further, gathering more details on how specific school and teacher variables are related to OER awareness levels.

What Makes a STEM Student

Use of print and digital classroom materials

Are there unique attributes to the one-third of students who are studying STEM, compared to non-STEM students? We can start to answer this question using data from the Digital Learning Pulse Survey. We investigated the demographics of current STEM students using the representative sample of 2,358 college students collected during the Fall of 2022. Indeed, we found that there are differences in the underlying attributes of STEM and non-STEM students.

Digital curricula acceptance and use in Higher Education varies by region

Online learning and digital tools and materials have seen increased acceptance and adoption in the US, spurred in part by online teaching experiences during the pandemic. But not all faculty agree, and opinions seem to fall along a geographic divide: acceptance of online learning is highest on the west coast, and lowest in the east.

Teachers believe the future of K-12 classroom materials is digital

Five charts that predict a digital-first future for K-12 classrooms in the United States.

The pandemic required K-12 teachers to adopt and use digital materials as many traditional options did not work in this new remote-classroom setting. For the 2021-22 school year there was a vast return to the classroom, however, these teachers now had experience with digital tools. Will they incorporate their new digital materials with their traditional physical in-person classroom materials? Was the pandemic switch to digital a one-time blip, or does it predict more long-term adoption of digital?

Open Educational Resources: Becoming Mainstream

Bay View Analytics has been tracking awareness, adoption, use, and attitudes toward open educational resources in U.S. Higher Education since 2009. A lot has changed.

OER Awareness amongst US. Higher Education faculty and administrators went from almost nonexistent in 2009, to 57% “Somewhat Aware,” “Aware,” or “Very Aware” in 2022
The number of respondents who use OER materials as required courseware lags behind the metric for OER Awareness, but these levels also grew year over year
OpenStax has become a viable alternative to commercial publishers
Faculty give OER materials higher marks for quality than they do for commercial alternatives

Perceptions of the Future of STEM Education

A Fall 2020 survey of STEM faculty found differing levels of optimism for the future of post-secondary STEM education. The results show that, while the majority of all respondents are optimistic, some subgroups are significantly more optimistic about the future of post-secondary STEM education overall and are also more optimistic about their personal role in higher education in the future.

Perspectives: COVID-19, and the future of higher education

A survey of U.S. higher education’s immediate priorities and response to the global COVID-19 pandemic highlights the concerns and insights faced by academic institutions while deploying emergency distance education during the Spring 2020 academic term.