Dive Brief:
- A new report, Opening the Curriculum: Open Educational Resources in Higher Education, 2014, released Wednesday by Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson found that awareness of open educational resources is low for most higher ed faculty.
- With funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2,000 faculty members from institutions across the U.S. were surveyed.
- Despite the lack of awareness among 66% to 75% of faculty, the report found that there's still plenty of potential for OER adoption.
Dive Insight:
That last bullet is definitely good news for OER proponents. The potential for widespread adoption exists largely because of the fairly equivalent quality when compared to traditional resources, the fact that resource adoption is often made without licensing awareness, and the willingness of those surveyed to try OER resources after receiving an explanation.
Still, the report found that the perceived amount of time and effort required to find and review these resources could still hinder adoption. Addressing this will be critical, since faculty are perhaps the most important part of the decision-making process when it comes to resource adoption. For a closer look at the report's findings, check out Pearson's infographic.