The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department

Keywords

Open educational resources, open textbooks, electronic textbooks, open access, sustainability, Mathematics education

Abstract

The high cost of textbooks is of concern not only to college students but also to society as a whole. Open textbooks promise the same educational benefits as traditional textbooks; however, their efficacy remains largely untested. We report on one community college’s adoption of a collection of open resources across five different mathematics classes. During the 2012 fall semester, 2,043 students in five different courses used these open access resources. We present a comparison between the previous two years in terms of the number of students who withdrew from the courses and the number that completed the courses with a C grade or better. Our analysis suggests that while there was likely no change in these educational outcomes, students who have access to open access materials collectively saved a significant amount of money. Students and faculty were surveyed as to their perceptions of these materials and the results were generally favorable.

Original Publication Citation

John Hilton III, Donna Gaudet, Phil Clark, Jared Robinson, and David Wiley. "The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department." The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 14 (4): 37-50. (2013)

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2013

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6180

Publisher

IRRODL

Language

English

College

Religious Education

Department

Ancient Scripture

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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