Strategic Initiatives

Open Educational Resources

Overview

The Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative grew out of recommendations from the Commissioner’s OER Work Group and aims to expand OER use on campuses and provide advice and counsel to the DHE for statewide implementation.

Contact

Robert J. Awkward, Ph.D.,
Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness
(617) 994-6908
rawkward@dhe.mass.edu

Duration

2018 – Present

Related Data

 

 

Student Identities
Focus Areas
Partnerships

Multiple Campuses

Related Initiatives

 

Background

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium—digital or otherwise—that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.

These freely accessible text, media, and other digital assets are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes—this collaboration offers direct benefits to faculty and students at the 29 public higher education institutions in the Commonwealth.

In 2018–2019, UMass Amherst, Worcester State University, Holyoke Community College, and Northern Essex Community College led a collaborative project called “Massachusetts Open Education: Achieving Access for All,” funded by a Higher Education Innovation Fund grant. The project helped build OER capacity across the state and assessed the OER landscape at all public higher education institutions in Massachusetts. By gathering and analyzing data about current OER usage from each college to determine regional training needs, we were able to assist the project in achieving its goal of lowering overall costs for students, increasing student and faculty engagement, and ultimately improving college completion rates.

On October 22, 2019, the Board of Higher Education accepted the Final OER Report & Recommendations, Fall 2019 from the Commissioner’s OER Work Group and endorsed implementation of its recommendations, which are time-based (short-term, mid-term, and long-term), to address:

  1. The growing legislative interest in lowering the cost of educational resources;
  2. The issues of achieving equity for under-served, low-income, and first-generation students; and
  3. The enhancement of instructional effectiveness.

This effort was accomplished due to the strong and consistent advocacy of the Student Advisory Council.

Latest News & Events

  •  

    $15.6+ million in Student Textbook Savings in FY23!

    September 20, 2024—During a recent presentation to the State University and Community College Chief Academic Officers at their respective meetings on September 20, 2024, Dr. Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness reported that public institutions of higher education had saved their students $15,629,677 in textbook costs through the use of no and low-cost textbooks in FY23. This was based on 26 out of 28 undergraduate-serving institutions reporting. This resulted in an almost $53:1 Return on Investment by public higher education for these 26 institutions over the last two academic years of investment. Of the 26 institutions, 19.7% of all textbooks were no and low-cost of which 71% were no cost. No cost textbooks include Open Educational Resources (OER), library and free resources. Low-cost textbooks are those that cost $50 or less. For more information, see the section Resources and item no. 9 for the detailed presentation slides.

  •  

    Open Access Week: Oct. 21 - 25

    Each year, the Marketing & Education Committee of the OER Advisory Council has produced OER webinars to celebrate Open Access Week conducted by local talent. This year was no different. We offered four webinars from across the Commonwealth to discuss different elements of OER. The attached flyer lists the four webinars we offered. Although you may not have attended the sessions, you may still avail yourself of this treasure trove of high-quality educational material.

    Open Access Week Events →

  •  

    OER Faculty Award Winners on May 20, 2024

    Faculty Award Gold Winner ($1,000):
    Professor Kisha G. Tracy
    of Fitchburg State University

    Faculty Award Silver Winner ($750):
    Professor Andrew Miller
    of Bridgewater State University

    Faculty Award Bronze Winner ($500):
    Professor Yvonne Anthony
    of Framingham State University

    New Post - 6/17/2024

    The OER Course Marking Implementation Guide, Version 2.0 is a revision of the original guide developed in 2022. It has been revised to reflect current practices and accessibility standards, and to align with the OER Assessment Implementation Guide. It may be accessed below in Resources, no. 7

  •  

    Open Education Week Events: March 4 - 8, 2024

    Panel Discussion: Using Open Educational Resources (OER)
    Tuesday, March 5 from 2-3pm

    Panel Discussion →

    What's the 'Open' in Open Educational Resources and Why Does It Matter?
    Wednesday, March 6 from 2:30-3pm

    UMass Dartmouth Open Education Week Event →

    OER Creators Virtual Panel: Free the Textbook
    Wednesday, March 8 from 1:30-2:30pm

    Open Education Week Events Flyer →

  •  

    OER Faculty Award Winners on May 22, 2023:

    Rebecca Dowgiert
    Awards Selection Committee Chair, Framingham State

    Faculty Award Gold Winner ($1,000):
    Professor Patricia Lynne
    of Framingham State

    Faculty Award Silver Winner ($750):
    Professors Eileen Cusick and Renee Tetrault
    of Springfield Technical Community College

    Faculty Award Bronze Winner ($500):
    Librarian Lauren Weiss
    of University of Massachusetts Amherst

    Robert Awkward
    Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness, Mass. DHE

  •  

    $7.6+ million in Student Textbook Savings in FY22

    April 25, 2023—During a recent Academic Affairs & Student Success Advisory Council meeting on April 25, 2023, Dr. Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness reported that public institutions of higher education had saved their students $7,621,994 in textbook costs through the use of no and low-cost textbooks in FY22. This was based on 17 out of 28 undergraduate-serving institutions reporting. This resulted in a $123:1 Return on Investment by public higher education for these 17 institutions and a FTE textbook cost savings of $164.06. Of the 17 institutions, 15.5% of all textbooks were no and low-cost of which 65% were no cost. No cost textbooks include Open Educational Resources (OER), library and free resources. Low cost textbooks are those that cost $50 or less. For more information, see the section Resources and item no. 13 for the detailed presentation slides.

Student Impact

Reducing costs and increasing affordability
  • The U.S. Department of Education projected that cost would keep 2.4 million low and moderate-college-qualified high school graduates from completing college.
  • The top three biggest cost challenges facing college students are tuition (61.65%), course materials (39.56%), and housing costs (38.1%).
  • College textbook prices have increased faster than tuition, health care, and housing, rising 1,041% since 1977!
  • Not being able to purchase required textbooks have cause students to:
    • Not purchase the required textbook (64.2%)
    • Take fewer courses (42.8%)
    • Not register for a specific course (40.5%)
    • Earn a poor grade (35.6%)
    • Drop a course (22.9%)
    • Withdraw from a course (18.1%)
    • Fail a course (17.2%)
Increasing student persistence and success

The development and use of OER can create more equitable learning experiences for all students. In addition, OER closes equity gaps because it provides students who cannot afford required course materials access to the resources they need. Moreover, several studies affirm that OER use also improves student success outcomes.

  1. Students were able to use their textbooks on the first day of class rather than waiting to buy the textbooks – if they bought them at all - until they could afford them.
  2. Students learned and performed better academically when they had immediate access to their educational materials.
  3. Research has also shown the OER initiative addresses and improves the performance of all students, but especially the most under-represented students in the United States.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of Georgia (UGA) began to encourage the use of OER in the summer of 2013. A study of faculty who taught large enrollment courses and were currently using an expensive textbook or textbook/technology package was conducted. For the more than 21,000 students involved in this study, not only did they enjoy significant savings using work mostly created by OpenStax, but there was also a positive impact on their learning. The study at the University of Georgia also showed a significant and positive impact on under-represented students:

 

When considering Federal Pell eligibility, we observed an increase in A through B+ letter grades and a decrease in B though DFW grades. A significant decrease in DFW rates for Pell-eligible students was found (a 4.43 percent change) when OER was adopted as the textbook for the class. This research [also] revealed significant differences in academic performance (average final grade) for both White and non-White students enrolled in OER courses. However, the magnitude in which non-White students’ grades improved is very compelling (Colvard, Watson, & Park, 2018, p. 272.)

These types of findings were echoed in the Achieving the Dream community college study where 48 percent of Pell Grant recipients and 52 percent of under-represented minorities said OER courses had a significant impact on their ability to afford college compared to 41 percent for other students (Ashford, 2018). When students have access to course learning materials, it positively affects their in-class performance leading to student success, persistence, and completion.

The results from the 2018 study were echoed again in the 2020 Achieving the Dream study conducted by their partners SRI Education and rpk GROUP (2020). This study involved eleven community colleges across the country. The average age of the study participants was 20. At least a third or more of the participating students were eligible for or had received a Pell grant. The proportion of students from historically under-represented ethnic minority groups ranged from 25 percent to 88 percent. “In 6 of the 11 colleges, treatment students1 taking OER courses accumulated significantly more course credits than those who had not taken any OER courses” (SRI International, 2020, p. 20). While the study did not find a significant impact on GPA by students taking OER courses, students maintained their GPAs despite taking more courses. Finally, “the number of credits earned by Pell students taking OER courses relative to their Pell-eligible peers was significantly higher than the number of credits earned by non-Pell-eligible students taking OER courses relative to their non-Pell-eligible peers” (SRI International, 2020, p. 23-24).

Additionally, the benefits for part-time students were equally compelling. Part-time students are often overlooked in higher education, and 71 percent are self-financing their education (Bombardieri, 2017). This population contains many of our under-represented students and tends to be concentrated at community colleges. The UGA study found a 53.12 percent increase in average course grades and a 29.54 percent decrease in DFW rates for part-time students (Colvard, Watson, & Park, 2018).


Open Education Network

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education joined the Open Education Network (OEN), a consortium of colleges and universities working to advance open textbook initiatives. OEN supports the Open Textbook Library, a searchable online catalog of complete textbooks available for faculty and students to freely use, adapt, and distribute to best meet the needs of their courses.

One of the benefits of OEN membership is that the DHE, in conjunction with OEN, will coordinate full-day “train-the-trainer” workshops that will be offered to OER Advisory Council members and their respective institutional OER faculty.

Upcoming Training Dates and Locations

There will be two Faculty OER training sessions to be held on May 23 and May 24.

These workshops focused on:

  1. Identifying obstacles to open textbook adoptions
  2. An in-depth look into OEN membership
  3. Making the case on your campus
  4. Developing an effective program on your campus
  5. Strategies for addressing common challenges

Details about the faculty OER training may be found here.

Review an Open Textbook

Faculty who attend an institutional training event will have the opportunity to review an open textbook and receive a $200 stipend. Faculty will have five to six weeks to complete the open textbook review. Details to be provided. 

Faculty OER 101 Training from May 24, 2024:

Other benefits include attendance at the OEN Summer Institute for statewide OER leaders, participation in their Google group, access to their Open Textbook Library, discounted institutional membership, and their data dashboard. We are excited about this continuing partnership for all our public institutions.

Statewide OER Advisory Council

The OER Work Group was co-chaired by Marilyn Billings, Head, Scholarly Communications, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Susan Tashjian, Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Northern Essex Community College, who led a team of 21 individuals—comprised of librarians, faculty, administrators, students, and external representatives—from the UMass System, state universities, and community colleges. Their work resulted in a Final OER Report & Recommendations. Among those ten recommendations was the creation of a statewide OER Advisory Council and an OER Statewide Coordinator.

As a result of the October 2019 BHE vote, Dr. Robert J. Awkward from the DHE was designated the OER Statewide Coordinator and the statewide OER Advisory Council was convened, consisting of one representative from each of the 29 public institutions. The advisory council serves to expand OER use on campuses and to provide advice and counsel for OER implementation throughout Massachusetts. The statewide OER Advisory Council and the OER Statewide Coordinator will be responsible for implementing the short-term recommendations of the OER Work Group and developing plans, after conducting additional research, for how to implement the mid and long-term recommendations. The OER Advisory Council is co-chaired by Millie Gonzalez, Dean of Library, Framingham State University and Susan Tashjian, Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Northern Essex Community College.

Members

The following are the members of the statewide OER Advisory Council, recommended by their respective chancellor or president to serve to advance OER across the state and within their own campuses.

*Names in bold are from the OER Working Group

Department of Higher Education & Other Representatives
OER Statewide Coordinator Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness rawkward@dhe.mass.edu
DHE Executive Sponsor Dr. Richard Riccardi, Deputy Commissioner for Academic Affairs & Student Success rriccardi@dhe.mass.edu
Student Advisory Council Vacant
Student Advisory Council Vacant
Student Advisory Council Niki Nguyen, SAC Chair, UMass Boston Niki.Nguyen001@umb.edu
Employer Representative Cherie Comeau, Director, Leadership & Org. Development ccomeau@consigli.com
Ex-Officio Marilyn Billings, UMass Amherst (retired), Emeritus Marilyn.billings@comcast.net
Ex-Officio Alex Demou, Director of Constituent & Legislative Affairs ADemou@dhe.mass.edu
Ex-Officio Sarah Hutton, Education & Clinical Studies Librarian, UMass medical School Sarah.Hutton1@umassmed.edu
Ex-Officio Nicole Johnson, Director of Educational Equity & Justice nicjohnson@dhe.mass.edu
Ex-Officio Christine Moynihan, Scholarly Communications, Data & Affordable learning Librarian, UMass Boston christine.moynihan@umb.edu
Ex-Officio Suzanne Smith, Director of Research & Evaluation, DHE Ssmith2@dhe.mass.edu
Ex-Officio Rachel Oleaga, Open Mass. Public Higher Education Repository Coordinator roleaga@necc.mass.edu
Community College Staff and Faculty
Berkshire Community College Meghan Callaghan, Dean Teaching & Learning Innovation mcallaghan@berkshirecc.edu
Matt Martin, Coordinator of Learning Experience Design msmartin@berkshirecc.edu
Bristol Community College Susan Souza-Mort, Research & Instruction Librarian Susan.Souza-Mort@bristolcc.edu
Bunker Hill Community College John Brittingham, Associate Director, Teaching, Learning & Instructional Design
John.brittingham@bhcc.edu
Ceit De Vitto, AIDE Senior Special Programs Coordinator kmdevitt@bhcc.edu
Cape Cod Community College Timothy Gerolami, Director of Library Services tgerolami@capecod.edu
Greenfield Community College Tim Dolan, Librarian dolant@gcc.mass.edu
Holyoke Community College Jennifer Adams, Librarian jadams@hcc.edu
MassBay Community College Bernadette Sibuma, Director of Online Learning bsibuma@massbay.edu
Massasoit Community College Jesse Schreier, Coordinator of Institutional Technology jschreier@massasoit.mass.edu
Middlesex Community College Tracy Joyce, Coordinator of Library Services joycet@middlesex.mass.edu
Mount Wachusett Community College Kim Colangelo, Director of Learning Design & Technology kcolangelo@mwcc.mass.edu
North Shore Community College Andrea Milligan, Director, Center for Teaching & Learning amilliga@northshore.edu
Northern Essex Community College Kelly Faulkner, Assistant Dean of Library Services kfaulkner@necc.mass.edu
Susan Tashjian, Coordinator of Instructional Technology,
OER Advisory Council Co-chair
stashjian@necc.mass.edu
Quinsigamond Community College Brooks Winchell, Executive Director for Distance/Online Learning bwinchell@qcc.mass.edu
Cary Morse, Dean of Library & Academic Support Services csmorse@qcc.mass.edu
Roxbury Community College William Hoag, Library Director whoag@rcc.mass.edu
Springfield Techincal Community College Emily Butler, Outreach & OER Librarian efbutler@stcc.edu
State University Staff and Faculty
Bridgewater State University Cynthia Svoboda, Interim Dean of the Library csvoboda@bridgew.edu
Fitchburg State University Connie Strittmatter, Associate Librarian cstrittm@fitchburgstate.edu
Framingham State University Millie Gonzalez, Library Dean, OER Advisory Council Co-Chair vgonzalez@framingham.edu
Rebecca Dowgiert, Scholarly Communications Librarian rdowgiert@framingham.edu
MassArt Rachel Resnik, Technical Services Librarian rresnik@massart.edu
MCLA Emily Alling, Associate Dean for Library Services Emily.Alling@mcla.edu
Mass Maritime Carolyn Michaud, Director of Library Services cmichaud@maritime.edu
Salem State University Elizabeth McKeigue, Dean of the Library elizabeth.mckeigue@salemstate.edu
Westfield State University Tom Raffensperger, Library Director traff@westfield.ma.edu
Worcester State University Victoria Gruzynski, Teaching & Learning Librarian vgruzynski@worcester.edu
University of Massachusetts Staff and Faculty
UMass Amherst Theresa Dooley, Open Education Librarian in Scholarly Communications
tdooley@library.umass.edu
UMass Boston Apurva Mehta, Associate Chief Information Officer Apurva.Mehta@umb.edu
Stephanie Walker, Dean of University Libraries Stephanie.Walker@umb.edu
UMass Dartmouth Emma Wood, Scholarly Communications Librarian Emma.wood@umassd.edu
UMass Lowell Donna Mellen, Associate Director of Academic Technology Donna_Mellen@uml.edu
UMass Medical Regina Raboin, Associate Library Director Regina.Raboin@umassmed.edu

 

OER Faculty Fellows
Fitchburg State University Kisha Tracy, Professor, English Studies & Chair, General Education ktracy3@fitchburgstate.edu
Framingham State University Patricia Lynne, Professor, English & Chair, General Education plynne@framingham.edu
Amanda Simons, Professor & Chair, Biology asimons@framingham.edu
Northern Essex Community College Devan Walton, Associate Professor, Computer Science dwalton@necc.mass.edu
UMass Amherst Brokk Toggerson, Senior Lecturer, Physics toggerson@umass.edu

Meeting Materials

The advisory council generally meets monthly during the academic year (September—May), but may meet more or less frequently as determined by the OER Statewide Coordinator.

2024

November 18, 2024
Download: Agenda

October 21, 2024
Download: Agenda OER Advisory Council FY24 Review Strengthening Your Campus Program Presentation

May 20, 2024
Download: Agenda

April 8, 2024
Download: Agenda

March 11, 2024
Download: Agenda

February 12, 2024
Download: Agenda

2023
2022

December 12, 2022
Download: Agenda

October 24, 2022
Download: Agenda

September 26, 2022
Download: Agenda OER Inclusive Access Survey OER Inclusive Access Survey Presentation OER FY22 Advisory Council Review

May 16, 2022
Download: Agenda

March 21, 2022
Download: Agenda OER Assessment MA Guide

January 24, 2022
Download: Agenda OER KPI Guide Present SPARC Inclusive Access

2021
2020