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Equity gaps exist in degree completions in U.S. higher education and the high cost of higher education is a major contributor to these inequitable outcomes. Specifically, textbook costs are rising faster than college tuition, which is disproportionately affecting certain populations. A viable alternative to traditional textbooks is the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). OER have been proven to result in equal or higher student outcomes when used as textbook replacement, yet their diffusion as an educational innovation has not been largely successful. Using Roger’s Diffusion Theory, this study’s purpose was to address the differential access to learning materials by examining student and faculty ratings of OER gains, along with the student demographic and enrollment characteristics that have a relationship with student ratings of OER gains. This quantitative study utilized the secondary analysis of an OER Hub dataset from 2015 to gain insight into the ratings of OER gains by early adopters of OER, who are opinion leaders according to Diffusion Theory. Causal Comparative design was used to compare the OER gains ratings from different groups: students and instructors, and students by the following group characteristics:full-time/part-time, online/in-person, employment, ESL, age, ability, and gender. Overall, instructors rated student OER gains significantly lower than students did, reflecting a clear misalignment and misunderstanding of student OER gains by instructors. Additionally, the following student characteristics did not diminish student OER gains: full-time/part-time enrollment status, online/in-person modality, ESL, Employment status, ability, and gender. This study found that OER equitably serves traditionally underserved groups in U.S. higher education. |
