An Investigation of the Impact of Open Education Resources (OER) in Higher Education: The Case of Franklin University and its Use of OER

Many stakeholders in the educational sector have voiced and advocated in the use of OER as a panacea to the skyrocketing costs of instructional and learning materials including textbooks, software, videos, and research articles among others. However, little effort in terms of research has been devoted to exploring and understanding the cost, benefits, and impact of OER on learning and/or education,. More specifically, a framework that can answer critical questions about the OER and its impact on learning is needed. It is against this background that this poster session will articulate the need for more robust research on the impact of OER and how best to implement its adoption and use considering the amount of distance that needs to be covered to mainstream OER. In particular, using Franklin University as an example, the poster will seek to answer the following questions: What is the cost and benefit of OER? Has its adoption in higher education transformed learning by creating efficiencies in accessing quality and effective learning materials that assist in improving performance while lowering costs to learners? What are the barriers that hamper the adoption and/or use OER? What framework can be deployed to aid adoption of OER while at the same time help in assessing the impact? *Outstanding Instructional Designer Poster Winnerhttps://fuse.franklin.edu/ss2014/1035/thumbnail.jp