The benefits of OER may seem obvious and easily measurable to Open Education advocates. However, producing reliable and valid results that that can convince a skeptic of OER’s contribution to student success, academic or financial, is a long and complex process. The variety of OER research questions, methods, and findings often results in “research” that cannot be compared or contrasted to any other OER implementation. This is problematic for two reasons: it hampers any generalizable conclusions and casts doubt on all (even legitimate) OER research. Without reliable and valid data, anyone can legitimately question whether there are any transformative capabilities of OER, suggesting it may be just like prior ‘breakthroughs’ that never scaled past pilot studies.
Thankfully, as OER continues to be implemented among the ever-growing number of SUNY based efforts, there presents an opportunity to minimize the aforementioned challenge through inter-researcher collaboration and discussion. More specifically, if SUNY OER efforts can coordinate to generate and compare similar data sets, not only can we generate reliable and valid results, but also learn where and how OER design and implementation can be improved.
To accomplish this, we will suggest using a survey tool for instructors that was originally designed by the presenters and piloted in the CUNY system. Research results, including some surprising findings (!), will be shared. The revamped tool (Version 2) will be provided for all SUNY systems, including guidance on how it can be adapted and implemented for maximum success. Finally, attendees will be asked for feedback and thoughts as to how SUNY OER research efforts can be supported and unified, furthering both local and system level goals.