OER Awareness and Adoption on the Rise - SPARC

"Key results:

• Faculty awareness continues to rise, with 46% percent of faculty now aware of OER, up from 34% three years ago.
• The percent of faculty who use OER as a required course material in at least one course has more than doubled to 13% this year, up from 6% last year.
• More than a fifth (22%) of faculty who teach introductory courses use OER as a required material in at least one course.
• Of the faculty who do not use OER, nearly three-quarters (74%) were open to considering it.
• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of department chairpersons and most (61%) of all faculty “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” that the cost of course materials is a serious problem for their students.
• For the first time, more faculty expressed a preference for digital course materials (40%) than print (25%). While faculty earlier in their careers tend to have a stronger preference for digital, all career stages showed an increase.
• The majority of faculty report making changes to their textbooks, most commonly presenting material in a different order (70%), skipping sections (68%), and replacing content with their own (45%)...."