Education Commons^™

Open Educational Resources And Equity: Lived Experiences Of Minoritized Educators, Jacob Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Open educational resources (OER) have been heralded for their ability to provide educational equality amongst learners worldwide. While this possibility offers to transform the availability of educational materials with only very specific limitations (devices, bandwidth, and ability to engage), it is seriously noted that the production of OER is typically sourced from the same homogenous sources as traditionally published texts (e.g., white males at elite universities in the U.S.). Additionally, while there are emboldened strides towards equality (equal access to materials), there remains an educational gap providing educational equity (equal opportunity to succeed) in the design as well as the …

Localization Of Open Educational Resources By Facilitators Of A Human Rights Course In Ghana, Emily Durham Bradshaw

Theses and Dissertations

Research on the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) often notes the potential benefits for users to revise, reuse, and remix OER to localize it for specific learners. However, a gap in the literature exists in terms of research that explores how this localization occurs in practice. This is a significant gap given the current flow of OER from higher-income countries in the Global North to lower-income countries in the Global South (King et al., 2018). This study explores how OER from one area of the world is localized when it is used in a different cultural context. As part …

A Mixed Methods Study Of Special Education Families' Experiences At An Online Charter School, Delaina Cales Tonks

Theses and Dissertations

Student well-being (as opposed to an overemphasis on learning outcomes or technologies) should serve as the central component of a successful online model for students with disabilities. Historically, research on online schools for students with disabilities has focused on outcomes. One online charter schools growth of the students with disabilities population has outpaced the growth of the general education student population over the past eight years, which is an unusual trend that warrants additional scrutiny. Using anonymous parent and student surveys coupled with in-depth phenomenological interviews, this explanatory mixed-methods study investigates the reasons families of students with disabilities chose online …

Faculty Members' Lived Experiences With Open Educational Resources, M. Troy Martin

Theses and Dissertations

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 …

Oer Adoption In Higher Education: A Case Study Of Stakeholders’ Perceptions At A Florida State College, Rebekah Elisabeth Wright

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to document stakeholders’ perceptions of adopting and integrating OER materials in higher education. Specifically, this study sought to understand the perceptions of institutional faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and students with the adoption and use of OER at a state college in east Florida. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with institutional faculty, librarians, and instructional designers. A survey was distributed to students enrolled in OER integrated courses during the Spring semester. Theoretical perspectives on the adoption and diffusion of OER as an innovation were grounded in Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation theory.

An analysis of the …

Faculty Perceptions Of Open Educational Resources Quality By Peer Review, Olga Maria Belikov

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, 936 faculty free response reviews of open textbooks from the Open Textbook Library were analyzed for content and themes. The reviews were completed by faculty members at institutions in the United States and Canada. The textbooks were evaluated regarding their comprehensiveness, content accuracy, relevance longevity, clarity, consistency, modularity, organization structure flow, interface, grammatical errors, and cultural relevance. The results of the reviews found that the across 9360 comments regarding the quality of open textbooks, of these comments 97.3% reflected adequate or exceptional reviews of the textbooks. Faculty often compared the texts to traditional textbooks and in all …

The Effects Of Open Educational Resource Adoption On Measures Of Post-Secondary Student Success, Thomas J. Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the adoption of Open Educational Resources had a significant effect on student learning outcomes in seven courses taught at seven post-secondary institutions. The use of open educational resources (OER) is increasing in the United States. Initiatives focusing on expanding the use of OER as a replacement for traditional textbooks at the post-secondary level include OpenStax, Project Kaleidoscope, Open Course Library, and others. While researchers have begun to explore OER, few have sought to evaluate the quality of OER as a function of student academic success. In this dissertation, I examined measures …

A Model Of Digital Textbook Quality From The Perspective Of College Students, Tj Bliss

Theses and Dissertations

The cost of textbooks is a financial burden on many college students. Fortunately the advent of open educational resources (OER) has allowed for the development of textbooks and other materials at significantly reduced costs to students. Many faculty are using OER to develop customized textbooks for their students, usually published digitally online. These faculty desire high fidelity feedback from their students to help them improve their texts. However, there is no general model of what digital textbook quality means to college students. Such a model would allow for the development of a measure of digital textbook quality that could provide …

Textbook Bling: An Evaluation Of Textbook Quality And Usability In Open Educational Resources Versus Traditionally Published Textbooks, Jennifer Lynn Price

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods study evaluated quality, usage, and perceptions of open educational resources compared to traditionally published textbooks. Because textbooks and other related materials make up a significant portion of educational costs, open educational resources have been explored for potential cost savings at all levels of education. These resources use public domain or open-licensed materials as the content component of free eTextbooks or low-cost printed textbooks. This evaluation explores how teachers and students use textbook resources both in and out of the classroom and the degree to which the content and design of open textbooks compares in quality and value to …

Freely Ye Have Received, Freely Give (Matthew 10:8): How Giving Away Religious Digital Books Influences The Print Sales Of Those Books, John L. Hilton Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Lack of access prevents many from benefiting from educational resources. Digital technologies now enable educational resources, such as books, to be openly available to those with access to the Internet. This study examined the financial viability of a religious publisher's putting free digital versions of eight of its books on the Internet. The total cost of putting these books online was $940.00. Over a 10-week period these books were downloaded 102,256 times and print sales of these books increased 26%. Comparisons with historical book sales and sales of comparable titles suggest a positive but modest connection between this increase and …