The importance of textbooks and other materials to the educational process cannot be overstated. Unfortunately, the prices on these vital learning materials have continued to grow steadily year over year (Hanson, 2021). Open educational resources (OER), which are "teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public…

As teaching and learning experiences broaden to include more technological innovations, methods of instruction and resource flexibility are becoming increasingly important for educators and students. Open educational resources (OER) have gained international appeal for such flexibility, and post-secondary institutions are at the forefront of…

This qualitative study explored the emotional trajectories students experienced when faced with open educational resources (OER) that expanded the learning available from a required textbook. Data included students' reflections, group discussions, and interviews, along with field notes which were collected in a classroom at a Chinese university in…

Students desire free textbooks that incorporate multimedia and interactive experiences. Although there is an increased production of e-textbooks, these resources tend to replicate hard copy books and do not take advantage of the functions that technology offers. There is also a shift to creating e-textbooks that are considered open educational…

As the affordability of higher education dominates the spotlight, open educational resources (OER), low cost, and free-to-student materials are widely offered as a solution. This paper outlines the experiences of course developers who contributed to a large-scale OER initiative, including training, knowledge, effort, and satisfaction of course…

Open educational resources (OER) are increasingly attractive options for reducing educational costs, yet controlled studies of their efficacy are lacking. The current study addressed many criticisms of past research by accounting for course and instructor characteristics in comparing objective student learning outcomes across multiple sections of…

This study is one of a series using consistent definitions of key concepts to support analysis of changes over time. The studies are designed to explore the process by which faculty members select and use the educational materials that they employ in their courses. The most common of these is the required textbook: faculty members typically select…

The objective of this study is to better understand the process by which faculty members select the educational materials that they employ in their courses. The educational resource that people are most familiar with is the required textbook: faculty members select one or more books that all students are required to use through the duration of the…