Keywords

textbooks, open educational resources, lived experience, phenomenology

Description

The cost of textbooks has continued to increase, and the financial effect on students in higher education is significant. Numerous studies have been done to learn more about student and faculty perceptions toward Open Educational Resources (OER) use. Recent studies confirm that most instructors would use OER in order to alleviate the financial burden placed on students; however, OER adoption rates do not reflect this belief. In my study I sought to better understand what instructors experience when they search for OER. In this phenomenological study, I interviewed faculty who expressed a desire to use OER and to capture their lived experiences of adopting and adapting OER. I would like to better understand what is working well for these faculty and what challenges exist as they seek to find and adopt OER and identify possible solutions that could improve OER adoption rates. I learned that there is a desire to use OER to reduce the financial burden that textbooks impose on students, but that there is very little understanding on where to find quality OER and tools that are needed to adapt it. Future research may focus on ways to improve the process of finding and customizing OER so that it can be an alternative to expensive textbooks.