We know that open approaches to learning change the experience of learning for students, in ways big and small. Some of these changes are really quite significant. Today I want to highlight a brief selection of the large body of research available.
A finding that remains consistent across time is that OER resources are as effective for learners as their non-open counterparts:
Results across these studies suggest students achieve the same or better learning outcomes when using OER while saving significant amounts of money. The results also indicate that the majority of faculty and students who have used OER had a positive experience and would do so again.
But beyond OER, we know there are learning benefits to open pedagogies more broadly. While open assignments can be both “liberating and terrifying” for the instructor, the payoffs for both instructors and students are huge:
With open pedagogy, on the other hand, both successes and failures with the assignment are much more public. But while this opens the instructor to more criticism, it is also an opportunity to share, collaborate, and receive constructive feedback. More importantly, it creates a foundation for our students to begin to invest more deeply, think more critically, work more collaboratively, and communicate more accessibly.
Allowing students to take learning out of the classroom changes their own relationship to their learning:
Inviting learners to share their work more widely, demonstrates to them that their work has inherent value beyond the course and can be an opportunity for them to engage directly with their community.
