Tonight it snowed… and we watched the Open Ed 2021 session entitled “An Analysis of the OER Feedback Survey from Students: Impact, Implications, and Lessons Learned.” Regina Gong and Jason Almerigi from Michigan State University (MSU) presented an overview of their study and results. Gong is the OER & Student Success Librarian… and I have watched Gong present on OER before. Almerigi is the Director of Assessment. The OER Program at MSU is in its third year and includes a full-time librarian leading the program, a publishing assistant for print-on-demand services, a copy editor, an accessibility coordinator, and a student employee. In their OER program, they also provide technical support for the implementation of OER. Since fall 2019, they have tracked the number of courses and instructors adopting OER. The OER student survey they distributed had the goal of asking several questions, including: “does OER adoption improve student success?” The protocol for the study included a 12-item survey in Qualtrics along with MSU institutional data (demographics and course outcome). The survey contains questions about traditional textbook costs and purchase behavior; and they also ask about OER quality, accuracy, clarity, and learning. For both traditional textbooks and OER, the survey asks about use and preference. Almerigi shared data from fall 2020. The response rate was low, and Almerigi thinks it has to do with burnout due to remote teaching and survey fatigue. Moving forward, Almerigi is considering ways to improve the response rate and include more student voices. The sample results were intriguing, with a large number of students not purchasing textbooks! Student quotes expressed that not having to purchase the textbook reduced stress. Students shared their preferences and concerns for traditional textbooks (expenses, widgets… Almerigi also mentioned that they will continue implementing surveys for students as well as a survey for instructors.
