Unveiling usage: the role of open monographs in Australasian higher education teaching and learning

Abstract:  This talk describes a study into the use of open monographs in teaching and learning, specifically those in the OAPEN global open access book library or listed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). The presenters will also share their methodology, which can be used by others to gather data with which to analyse their own context. The study initially considered whether OAPEN books – which, by definition, are not textbooks – were being used for the purpose of teaching and learning in Australia and New Zealand. The work originally considered the types of data available to the research team to understand this question. Studying usage of open teaching material is challenging because of the variability of data sources and because organisations deliberately do not track users. The OAPEN and DOAB metadata can be ingested into university library catalogues, and ExLibris provides download data of usage out of the catalogue. OAPEN provides dashboard statistics for supporting libraries based on IP addresses and the physical location of the primary campus. Analysis of these two sets of data indicate that the ExLibris information represented approximately a tenth of the download information, which in itself speaks to where students and staff are sourcing their links. Analysis of the Open Syllabus Analytics service identified that open resources are currently a small proportion of texts prescribed in syllabi (less than 5% overall). Within that proportion, the open resources originating from DOAB are almost equivalent to those originating from Open Textbook Library. This clearly answered the original question: open monographs *are* being used for the purposes of teaching and learning. However it does reinforce the broader question: what are we talking about when we talk about an open educational resource in an educational setting? A closer analysis of the download data uncovered some interesting observations. In one research intensive institution, it became clear that a significant proportion of the top 25 downloads in 2023 were related in topic and likely all part of a single course. This laid open a secondary consideration which is now being pursued – how much can the uptake of OERs in an institution be attributed to individual practice as opposed to institutional policy? This prompted a secondary research question: is it possible to detect a discernible difference in uptake of OERs in institutions? At the time of submission, this work is only beginning, but by the conference the research team will have some results to share. This study is intended to provide a method that is reproducible in other geographical settings, to allow comparisons. The team is eager to hear feedback on the approach, and any suggestions for data that could be shared with the community to further shed light on this topic.