OER are the next High Impact Practice

[Iowa OER]

Good morning, Iowa OER friends!

For those who have not seen the news already, we are excited to share that a new study, Open Educational Resources: A New High-Impact Practice, was recently published by the American Association of Colleges and Universities on the efficacy of OER. This report formally recognizes OER as a high-impact practice (HIP), placing it alongside well-established approaches like undergraduate research, service learning, and learning communities.

A few of the major of the study findings include:

• OER implementation was associated with lower course withdrawal rates, though the magnitude of the effect varied by institutional context.
• The number of students earning A grades increased following OER implementation across all institutional contexts.
• Students who completed at least one OER-supported course showed improved time-to-completion outcomes, particularly those taking longer than four years to earn a credential.

We will be including some information about this announcement in Iowa OER's annual report later this month.

If you would like to share this news with your institution, the Open Education Association has developed a template letter for sharing the good news, which you can find here: Outreach Email Template

Thank you for supporting OER in Iowa!

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Iowa Open Education Action Team

www.iowaoer.com

@IowaOER