International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 239

Beyond Saving Money: Engaging Multiple Stakeholders is a Key to OER Success
ulty can use to facilitate adult learning
is to create “opportunities within the
classroom for students to make linkages
between course content and knowledge
gained in the contexts of work, family,
and community living” (Ross-Gordon,
2003, p. 50), thereby training students
to be actively engaged in their learning.
Adult learner access to OERs provides
the content to help post-secondary students
build these connections, especially
when faculty bring the rationale for
selecting items for inclusion in the content
into the classroom dialogue.
Another benefit of OER featured
as an advantage was its usage as a tool
in a flipped classroom using teambased
learning instructional strategies
(Jakobsen & Knetemann, 2017). In the
flipped classroom, students engage in
the course material (i.e., OER) outside
of the classroom permitting them to
study the OER data at their personal
speed (Jakobsen & Knetemann, 2017).
“Rather than spending class time laying
down the foundation, students are able
to delve into a deeper understanding of
the material” (Jakobsen & Knetemann,
2017, p. 177). During this institution’s
OER initiative, faculty members are
encouraged to make the OER content
available via the online learning platform
advance of the first week of class.
Confidence building
Another major benefit of OER is that it
advances student learning. In a study of
the impact of OER use on teaching and
learning, one conclusion drawn from
the project was that “implementation of
OER can improve student performance,
but often indirectly through increased
confidence, satisfaction and enthusiasm
for the subject” (Farrow et al, 2015,
p. 972). Other research on encounters
with OER referenced the identification
of improved learning as a potential
benefit of OER (Hatzipanagos, 2015).
A student participant in research conducted
by Brandle et al. (2019) shared
that the strong sense of direct involvement
of an instructor with OER content
benefited students because the instructor
was more aware of the materials students
were using.
Feldstein et al. (2012) and
Fischer et al. (2015) both discussed the
non-financial benefits of OERs, which
can lead to increased confidence. Feldstein
et al. (2012) found that students
indicated a preference for non-paper
OER materials compared with traditional
printed textbooks based on
their “ease of use” and their belief that
the content would be revised thereby
remaining accurate and relevant. Although
there were inherent flaws in the
study, primarily because of its scope,
Fischer et al. (2015) determined that
there was a higher likelihood that students
completed more credits in a semester
when enrolled in OER-based
courses compared with for-pay textbooks.
This particular finding supports
the initiative discussed herein as this
campus is involved in a university-wide
drive to increase retention and graduation
rates.
Student engagement
OERs have the potential to expand access
to learning mostly for non-tradi-
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