The Impact of Free and Open Educational Resource Adoption on Community College Student Achievement and Course Withdrawal Rates
ally positive and that there were no significant negative or positive changes in educational outcomes . Several studies using surveys of students and faculty at community colleges found that respondents had positive experiences using open textbooks , appreciated the low / no cost of course materials compared to traditional textbooks , and perceived the quality of open textbooks to be the same as , or better than , commercial textbooks (
Bliss , Hilton , Wiley & Thanos , 2013 ; Bliss , Robinson , Hilton & Wiley , 2013 ; Illowsky , Hilton , Whiting & Ackerman , 2016 ; Read , Tang , Dhamija & Bodily , 2020 ).
Moving beyond the perception of OER , researchers have examined OER ’ s impact on grades , persistence , and retention .
Allen , et al . ( 2016 ) compared exam grades of students taking an undergraduate chemistry course using either a traditional textbook or the ChemWiki OER and found no substantial difference in student performance between the two .
Shaw , Irwin and Blanton ( 2019 ) analyzed DFWI ( Drop , Fail , Withdrawal , Incomplete ) rates in undergraduate business courses at an online university . Their data revealed that OER adoptions had a significant impact on both decreasing and increasing DFWI rates . However , no statistical significance was found when comparing DFWI rates across all courses , so they " conclude conversions to OER did not impact the course DFWI rates in online courses in undergraduate online education for the School of Business ” ( p . 13 ).
49
Fischer , Hilton , Robinson and Wiley ( 2015 ) Hilton , Fischer , Wiley and William ( 2016 ) examined the course throughput rates in 67 non-z courses ( traditional textbook ) and z-courses ( OER ) at Tidewater Community College . They found that students in z-courses were less likely to withdraw and more likely to receive the grade of C or higher than their peers in non-z courses . However , the drastic difference in the numbers of students enrolled in non-z versus z-courses is acknowledged by the authors as a study limitation because significantly fewer students were enrolled in the z-courses .
The previously mentioned study by
Colvard , Watson and Park ( 2018 ) is a large-scale study across multiple disciplines to analyze the effect of OER on student grades and to disaggregate data by demographic factors for closer analysis . Their study of 21,822 students determined that the use of OpenStax textbooks in eight courses improved end of course grades and decreased DFWI rates for all students and did so at higher rates for specific populations of ( potentially at-risk ) students .
As the body of OER research has grown , literature reviews and meta-analyses have been published to synthesize the findings of similar studies .
Hilton ( 2016 ) reviewed 16 published studies on OER : nine that analyzed student learning outcomes in courses