Report on Open Educational Resources in Texas Higher Education

As part of my continuing series on Open Educational Resources (OER), I wanted to bring your attention to a new report released by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), Advancing an Ecosystem for Open Educational Resources - OER in Texas Higher Education. The biennial report was commissioned by a partnership of the Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas (DigiTex) and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and is the result of a 2021 survey of all two- and four-year public and private colleges and universities in Texas. I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the survey results and what they could mean for the future.

The previous survey, administered in 2019, showed that 51% of Texas institutions had, or planned to have, programs that would support the use of OER. The goal of the 2021 survey was to answer three questions:

• How and to what extent institutions across Texas are using OER
• What OER-related policies and practices are currently in place to advance OER
• What supports are needed to enable increased adoption and use of OER

Let’s take a look at some of the results for each question.

For the first question, “How and to what extent institutions across Texas are using OER,” the most common responses were to make course materials more affordable and ensure student access. Other answers included increasing student engagement, supporting open pedagogy, and supporting faculty academic freedom. As to what extent OER is being used in Texas, the results show the number of schools using (or planning to use) OER is 62%, an increase of 11%. Additionally, 29% state that they are interested in implementing OER in the future. A further 9% percent claim that while they have no plans in place, they do have faculty using OER in some capacity. Of all the institutions responding to the survey, only two are not currently using OER and have no plans to in the future.

For the second question, “What OER-related policies and practices are currently in place to advance OER,” responses show that 50% of institutions utilize a central or committee to lead OER utilization. The results also show that libraries most often lead OER support, followed by “Faculty Excellence Centers” and “Digital Learning” departments. Often the work is a partnership between departments, and results show that when all three departments work together, the institutions have more fully OER-based courses, more formal policies, and dedicated funding.

Finally, as to the third question, “What Supports are needed to enable increased adoption and use of OER,” THECB and DigiTex are examining the feasibility of several initiatives to support OER implementation. These include the development of an OER “playbook,” change management support, and OER curriculum development support.

This article is a very brief summary of the overall report. I encourage anyone interested in OER and how other institutions are using them to read the entire report at the link above.