Clear-eyed review of impact of initiative to create OER degrees

"Project to drive community colleges' use of open educational resources lowered student spending (even using a more conservative formula to judge those costs). But student awareness of the courses remains limited, and the path to sustainability is unclear.

The student success group known as Achieving the Dream had nice, humble ambitions when it rolled out an initiative two years ago aimed at helping spread the use of open educational resources to build affordable degrees at community colleges. The freely accessible and openly licensed learning materials "are valuable for colleges and their students in terms of invigorating teaching and learning, lowering costs and laying the groundwork for degree programs that meet up-to-the-minute student and employer needs,” Karen Stout, president and chief executive officer of Achieving the Dream, said in 2016. Just those few modest goals: revitalizing instructors' teaching and learning, reducing what students spend, and improving the timeliness and value of the colleges' credentials...."