Implementing open educational resources: Lessons learned

Background

Open educational resources (OER) are associated with several positive outcomes for undergraduate and graduate students, both financially and academically. Financial benefits include a reduction in student debt and costs of attending college. Academic benefits include improved academic success, especially for students from populations historically underserved by higher education.

Purpose

This article reviews strategies and lessons learned from an academic multi-campus school of nursing (SON) initiative on implementing OER.

Approach

A team representing undergraduate and graduate nursing faculty, the library, and the Teaching and Learning Center set forth to improve faculty awareness of and interest in adopting OER and develop resource sites for disseminating information about OER. The team collaborated with partners within the university and with external academic partners to achieve our goals.

Outcomes

Presentations to SON faculty on OER identified faculty interested in adopting these resources. Two Masters of Nursing Education (MNE) students identified and shared resources; completed a student textbook survey; and, reported results and recommendations to SON faculty. A university resource site was created on OER. Further collaboration with university librarians to identify and implement OER for specific courses is ongoing.

Conclusions

Students identified cost as one barrier for pursuing higher education. Efforts to reduce cost through utilizing OER may eliminate this barrier, thus enhancing student enrollment and persistence in higher education. Adopting OER is a social justice action that has the potential to address educational inequities by allowing students to attend to their basic human needs such as housing and food.