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Open Textbooks and Resources for Faculty

A guide to exploring open textbook options as well as other open education resources for GW faculty

David Wiley, BYU Scholar, Explains How Faculty/Students Benefit By Using OERs

Research Studies

Colvard, N., Watson, C. & Park, H. (2018). The impact of open educational resources on various student success metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 262-276
Reports a one-third reduction in DFW rate among minority and Pell-eligible students in courses which switched to OER.
Fischer, L., Hilton III, J., Robinson, T. J., & Wiley, D. A. (2015). A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 27(3), 159-172.
Hilton, J. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development, 1-18.
Article synthesizes the results of 16 studies that examine either (1) the influence of OER on student learning outcomes or (2) the perceptions of college students and instructors of OER.
Seaman, Julia E. and Seaman, Jeff. (2018). Freeing the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2018. Babson Survey Research Group
Study results show that there has been a slow but steady growth in OER awareness and use for the past four years: barriers include a lack of awareness of OER and a perceived lack of offerings.
Senack, E. (2014). Open textbooks: The billion-dollar solution. Center for Public Interest Research, Inc. Retrieved from http://www. studentpirgs. org/reports/sp/open-textbooksbillion-dollar-solution.
In a survey of 2,039 students from more than 150 different university campuses across the country, 65% of all respondents said that they had decided against buying a textbook because it was expensive.

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