Faculty Survey Finds Awareness of Open Educational Resources Low

WELLESLEY, Mass., Oct. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teaching faculty at institutions of higher education remain largely unaware of open educational resources (OER), but the potential exists for much wider adoption, according to a new report from Babson Survey Research Group (BSRG) and Pearson.

The project, funded by a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, surveyed a national sample of over 2,000 faculty members and found that OER status is not yet a driving force in adoption decisions for educational material.

Key findings from the report include:

• Similar to BSRG's previous findings for Chief Academic Officers, faculty have little awareness of open educational resources. Depending on the strictness of the awareness measure, between two-thirds and three quarters of faculty classify themselves as unaware of OER.
• Faculty appreciate the concepts of OER. When presented with the concept of OER most state they are willing to give it a try.
• Awareness of OER is not a requirement for adoption of OER. Resource adoption, including OER materials, is often made without any awareness of the specific licensing of the material or its OER status.
• Faculty judge the quality of OER to be roughly equivalent to that of traditional educational resources.
• The most significant barrier to wider adoption of OER remains a faculty perception of the time and effort required to find and evaluate it.
• Faculty are the key decision-makers in the OER adoption process.

Dr. Jeff Seaman, Co-Director of the Babson Survey Research Group, said, "While awareness of OER remains low among teaching faculty, it is not the critical barrier to wider adoption.  The time and effort required to find, evaluate, and adopt these materials is the critical factor for faculty."

John Tweeddale, SVP of Efficacy & Quality, Pearson, said, "With increasing demand for effective course content that keeps students engaged and improves learner outcomes, it's anticipated that more educators will require proven OER material that demonstrates measurable results."

The complete report, Opening the Curriculum: Open Educational Resources in Higher Education, 2014 is released under a Creative Commons BY license and is available for download at http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/oer.html.  An infographic of the report's findings is available at http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/Opening_the_Curriculum_infographic.pdf.

About Pearson
Pearson is the world's leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through learning. For more information about Pearson, visit www.pearson.com.

About Babson Survey Research Group
The Babson Survey Research Group at Babson College (http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com) conducts regional, national, and international research projects, including survey design, sampling methodology, data integrity, statistical analyses and reporting.

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SOURCE Babson Survey Research Group