International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 238

International Journal of Open Educational Resources
would feel more competent and be better
able to pace the work because they
could access the course from any computer
or mobile device. They would,
therefore, be less likely to drop the class.
Before agreeing to join the grant
proposal, the potential participants
were charged with asking the chairs of
their departments whether or not they
would encourage a faculty member to
create the OER and whether they would
schedule it every semester once it was
certified. Support from all departments
was obtained, and faculty members
enthusiastically promised to develop
courses.
One of the key components to
this work was the partnership between
library faculty and teaching faculty
from the different academic content
areas. For each course, a specific library
faculty member was assigned to
serve as a co-researcher, helping to sift
through available OER material and researching
for resources when what is
needed is not easily located. This collegial
approach served to reduce any apprehension
about delving into an unfamiliar
means of delivering instructional
information.
Two additional goals for this
OER grant existed. Besides creating an
entire degree program that would be
offered free of any cost for textbooks,
workbooks, or supplemental materials,
additional goals were (a) to expand
the number of sections offered and (b)
to use existing OER sections in liberal
arts courses as a springboard to the development
of additional OER degrees.
Students began taking the first OER
sections in Spring 2017. Three sections
(one each from Education, English, and
Mathematics) were offered with the attribute
ZERO, signifying no textbook
costs.
During this college’s initiative, it
became apparent that the actual development
of OER-based content was not
going to be the only part of moving toward
open materials that would impact
student success. The initiative would
need to support (1) reviewing and revising
OERs after their initial implementation;
(2) training students to be
actively engaged in their learning; (3)
partnering library and academic faculty
to grow, sustain, and expand an OER
initiative; and (4) defining academic
freedom and accessibility through an
OER lens.
Review of the Literature
The existing literature most frequently
addresses the use of
OERs and its impact on academic
achievement; however, studies
have been conducted that discuss
non-financial benefits of using OERs.
Among these non-financial benefits are
andragogy, creating confident learners,
student engagement, and accessibility.
Andragogy
The term andragogy is described as the
art of instruction of adults (Ross-Gordon,
2003). A recommendation for
classroom practice for adult learners in
higher education is to foster relationships
between academic learning and
learning in the larger world (Ross-Gordon,
2003). Thus, an approach that fac-
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