Learning synthetic biology is often seen as a far distant possibility, restricted to those who have the privilege of an academic career. We propose a student-centered discussion group around synthetic biology, aimed at people from high school onwards with different backgrounds to interact and learn about synthetic biology. We developed a 14-week…

This basic qualitative study assessed students' perceptions of affordable learning materials in an asynchronous master's level research methods course at a regional university. Students preferred instructor-created mini-lectures (45%) more than required readings (39%), supplementary items concerning a specific topic (7%), sample studies (5%), CITI…

Open education resource (OER) has become an increasingly important topic for consideration in the open distance learning (ODL) context. ODL students' education should be learner-centered based on intrinsic motivation and OER usage. The purpose of this study was to explore the student teachers' experiences in using open education resource in ODL.…

Over the years, the Spanish education authorities have proposed various measures, such as the creation of Open Educational Resources (OERs), to guarantee the inclusion of all students in the education system. However, the literature on this topic indicates the persistence of certain challenges relating to the accessibility of OERs. In this regard,…

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) received a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in 2020 to explore the potential of open educational resources (OER) to reduce textbook costs for students at smaller and mid-sized independent colleges and universities, especially Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other…

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perceptions of the Illustrative Mathematics (IM) using data from teacher interviews from year 1 and year 3 of their implementation of IM. In year 1, 22 Algebra 1 teachers were interviewed; in year 3, 13 teachers participated. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured protocol that included…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to understand the needs of European users for successful development and uptake of a digital land-based knowledge platform. Methodology: The "discover and define" phases of the design thinking double diamond framework were applied to inform the construction of 16 user-personas and journeys. Qualitative…

This is the 13th report in a series of surveys tracking curricula discovery, selection, and adoption processes in U.S. higher education. The surveys have tracked the growth of digital materials and OER in higher education classrooms since 2009, providing trends on adoption and sentiments. The results also covered the abrupt transitions to remote…

This study compared traditional methods of college-level instruction, including lecture and class discussion followed by assessment via course content exams, with a variety of other instructional techniques. The intent was to evaluate whether more contemporary instructional techniques are significantly correlated with improved average exam scores…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused some serious setbacks in primary and secondary education wordlwide. In 2021, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (MoER) contracted a group of researchers and expert teachers to design and validate of a set of innovative digital learning resources that support personalized learning paths to meet the needs of…

Instructors are steadily incorporating collaborative learning technology into their online classes to help promote effective learning strategies. A learning management system (LMS), such as Blackboard, offers their own collaborative technologies, but some instructors are turning to free and open source system (FOSS) to conduct these collaborative…

This report summarises the findings of the 2022 EUA Thematic Peer Group which explored collaborative teaching practice (CTP) in higher education in detail. Based on a shared understanding of the theme agreed on by the group members, it outlines the key opportunities and potential challenges higher education institutions face in embedding CTP and…

Open educational resource (OER) as free teaching and learning materials can contribute to the collaborative design and development of teaching. To support higher education teachers in their work with teaching in general and OER in particular and to encourage their use of OER, it is necessary to pay attention to their needs and requirements. This…

Open Educational Resources aim to offer learning to all, yet the language level used in resources could be a barrier to many potential learners. This paper examines the readability of 200 OER courses in English from two major OER course platforms. We compared the means of readability metrics between these OER courses at different educational…

From 2017-2020, 15 universities collaborated to create and share OER for a bachelor nursing program. A study was undertaken to analyse the impact of the project activities leading to the commitment to work towards sustaining the initiative. The project was described using the ESH model (Weggeman, 2000). Two sub-studies provided the results on the…