International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 119
Rural Librarians’ Journey to Understanding Students’ Role in OER Outreach
Figure 5. Offline access.
important. This reinforces the fact that
reliable Internet access is a concern for
our students. Many traditional publishers
restrict downloads or other offline
access modes for protection of copyright
and to ensure that students do not
share or distribute the material illegally.
While that is a valid concern, it also
perpetuates information privilege.
Thompson, Cross, Rigling, and
Vickery (2017) posed the theory that
“introductory courses assign materials
that some students would prefer not to
purchase,” in contrast to materials for
higher-level courses that would “be valued
as part of a personal or professional
library” (p. 122). Our data supports that
hypothesis: 38.4% of our respondents
were Master’s students, with 30.2%
classified as “upper classmen” (third,
fourth, or fifth year undergraduates).
This correlates quite closely with 51.5%
of students saying that it was important
or very important to be able to keep
their texts (books, research articles)
after the end of the class/end of term/
after graduation/after leaving the university.
A total of 26.4% said that they
had no feeling of importance, with less
than one-quarter (22.1%) saying that it
was unimportant or not very important.
Most encouraging for our outreach
was the feedback on our last
question: How interested are you in
learning more about affordable/accessible
course material, which can
support your education and financial
needs, and the needs of others (peers,
friends, family)? One student said not
at all interested, three students said not
very interested, eleven students (6.9%)
said neither interested nor disinterested,
27% said interested, and 63.5% stated
that they were very interested in learning
more. We hope that this interest will
translate into partnerships with librarians
and student leadership groups that
will learn about and spread the word regarding
open course material options.
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