OER Landscape

Open Educational Resources (OER) have gained significant traction as a promising approach to education in recent years, with the goal of providing access to quality learning materials while reducing barriers to education. The effectiveness and impact of OER have become an increasingly popular subject in educational research as their usage spreads across platforms and educational institutions around the globe. Examining the themes in OER efficacy studies offer valuable insights into understanding the real advantages and potential negative consequences of using these open resources. We want to explore these issues in order to show the diverse impacts of OER on education, as well as how effective they are in various settings and where they might be improved.

Current measures of impact typically offer a valuable but limited perspective on the effectiveness and significance of OER. While student savings, retention rates, and faculty attitudes toward OER are unquestionably crucial indicators, there is a broader and more complex terrain of impact that deserves investigation. Student satisfaction, perceptions of DEI measures in OER development, labour costs associated with developing, adapting, and implementing OER, and external factors that influence the impact of OER (such as institutional policies, programs, funding, government buy-in, state legislation, etc.) are just a few examples. This widening of the focus can provide insightful information on the multiple benefits and implications of OER.