The AERC (Affordable Educational Resources Committee) recently completed a research project investigating how OER (Open Educational Resource) adoption is related to student success and equity. We asked the PRIE office to compile data from course sections known to have used OERs to sections of the same courses that did not use OERs. The results showed higher student success rates (73%, N=4,501) in classes using OER, compared with sections of the same course that were not using OER (70%, N=12,303). In addition, OER was associated with a reduction in disproportionate impacts. Students from African-American backgrounds had a 61.9% (N=452) success rate in OER courses compared to a 55.5% (N=1,143) success rate in non-OER courses. Students from Asian backgrounds had an 82.3% (N=690) success rate in OER courses, compared to a 78.0% (N=2,021) success rate in non-OER courses. Students from Filipino backgrounds had a 76.35% (N=141) success rate in OER courses, compared to a 72.3% (N=391) success rate in non-OER courses. Students from Hispanic/Latino backgrounds had a 70.3% (N=1,580) success rate in OER courses, compared to a 66.5% (N=4,484) success rate in non-OER courses. Students from Multi-Race backgrounds had a 69.0% (N=402) success rate in OER courses, compared to a 66.1% (N=896) success rate in non-OER courses. Students from Native American backgrounds had a 78.9% (N=16) success rate in OER courses, compared to a 41.4% (N=27) success rate in non-OER courses. Students from Pacific Islander backgrounds had a 70.6% (N=63) success rate in OER courses, compared to a 57.0% (N=168) success rate in non-OER courses. Students from White backgrounds had a 77.2% (N=1,116) success rate in OER courses, compared to a 76.7% (N=3,081) success rate in non-OER courses. The student success rate was higher in all groups when OER was used. However, the difference was greater than the average of 3% for several of the disproportionately impacted student groups. A particularly noteworthy example is the African-American group, which showed a positive 6.4% percentage point difference in success when OERs were used. This supports the common wisdom that OER adoption is one way that faculty can address equity issues and increase student success in general.
Sent to SCC academic senate, 3/6/2019
Information accessed 3-14-21 at https://inside.scc.losrios.edu/faculty/curriculum/open-educational-resources/oer-graph-sample-course-success-rates-by-ethnicity and https://inside.scc.losrios.edu/scc/inside/img/E2-Faculty/6-Online-and-Distance-Education/OER/OER-All-Course-Success-Rates-by-Ethnicity.jpg