#OpenEd21

Given the rise of textbook costs and the resulting trend toward implementing Open Educational Resources (OER), the need to understand OER’s impact on academic performance continues to increase. For that reason, this session discusses results from two different sections of the same undergraduate Health Sciences class. One course section used a traditional textbook (n=32), while the other used OER (n=32). Student performance was statistically analyzed using grades from four written assessments, five discussion board activities, and five online quizzes, as well as the students’ final overall grades. Students in both sections performed comparably well on the written assignments (p=0.053), discussion boards (p=0.478), and quizzes (p=0.053); however, students in the OER section received significantly higher overall grades: 84.8% ± 7.1 versus 78.3% ± 16.1 (p=0.042). Furthermore, data also revealed that 9.4% of students in the traditional textbook course never obtained a copy of their required readings. With the students in this study completing the same assignments during the same semester in the same class at the same university with the same instructor, this presentation offers one of the most rigorous examinations to date of OER’s impact on students' academic performance.

After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:

• Acquire knowledge on the impact of OER on students’ academic performance
• Learn to implement strategies for selecting/implementing OER to meet student learning outcomes
• Increase awareness of OER’s perception among historically underserved college students (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, low-income students, and first-generation college students)