Giving Compass' Take:

• Lindsay McKenzie explains how a large study from the University of Georgia found that college classes using free digital resources had better results than those using commercial textbooks. 

• How can further studies determine what about the free digital resources produced the results? 

• Learn more about the high price of textbooks. 

A large-scale study at the University of Georgia has found that college students provided with free course materials at the beginning of a class get significantly better academic results than those that do not.

The Georgia study compared the final grades of students enrolled in eight large undergraduate courses between 2010 and 2016. Each of these courses was taught by a professor who switched from a commercial textbook costing $100 or more to a free digital textbook, or open educational resource, at some point during that six-year period.

By comparing the before and after results of these eight courses, the study found that switching to OER increased the number of A and A-minus grades students received by 5.50 percent and 7.73 percent, respectively. The number of students who withdrew or were awarded D or F grades (known as the DFW rate) fell by 2.68 percent.

Read the full article about free digital resources by Lindsay McKenzie at Inside Higher Ed.