Giving Compass' Take:

• Last year, New York Governor granted the state $8 million in investments in open educational resources that are high-quality downloadable, learning materials. Ann Fiddler outlines specifically how in the past year OERs have transformed the college environment, opening up opportunities for more accessibility for students. 

• How do these resources benefit both the students and the teachers? How is this model for resources effective?

• Read the results of a survey about how more and more teachers are utilizing open educational resources. 

A year ago, I was thrilled when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an $8 million investment in open educational resources — freely available, high-quality materials that can be downloaded, edited, and shared. As an open education librarian at the City University of New York, I had been working to help faculty integrate OER into their courses to better support their students, and I knew that Cuomo’s investment would help us reach a tipping point in enabling more students and faculty to benefit from these resources.

I was immediately excited that CUNY’s 500,000 students — many of whom can’t afford to spend an average of $1,250 per year on expensive textbooks and other supplies — would be saving money.

But the impacts at CUNY have gone far beyond economics: These open resources are revolutionizing teaching and learning at our institution. Here are four powerful effects that aren’t just about cost savings.

  • Faculty are reinvigorated about teaching. As faculty redesigns their courses to use open educational resources to achieve their objectives for student learning, they’re realizing possibilities for improving their pedagogy, including involving students in the creation of learning materials.
  • All students, regardless of their circumstances, have access to their learning materials from day one.  Students used to tell us that they would often wait until several weeks into a course to purchase a textbook, or wouldn’t purchase it at all, because they didn’t have the funds on hand.
  • There’s evidence that student outcomes are improving. In one math course using OER at CUNY, students scored 10 points higher on the final exam than and were three times as likely to pass the course as students using traditional textbooks.
  • OER is all about collaboration — within and across states. CUNY is collaborating with the State University of New York to launch Open-NYS.

Read the full article about open educational resources by Ann Fiddler at The 74.