The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) as an option for learning resources would benefit various student demographics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). To determine faculty and student knowledge and awareness of OER, two surveys were conducted: the “Affordable Resources for Learning” and the “Affordable Resources for Teaching.” The other goal of the “Affordable Resources for Learning” survey was to assess whether faculty are utilizing OER in their teaching and how open they would be to the idea of adopting OER as an option for their teaching resources. The environmental scan encompassed two surveys, one for faculty and another for the students in the Promise Scholars Program. Below are the rationale for the surveys:
- The faculty survey was designed to assess what faculty know about OER, if they already incorporate OER in their teaching. The questions were designed to find out if faculty would consider incorporating OER, especially with the challenges caused by COVID-19.
- The survey for the students in the Promise Scholars Program was designed with a few goals in mind. The first goal was to assess the challenges students faced on textbook acquisition. The second goal was to see if the students were aware of alternative resources like OER. The final and third goal was to determine if they would consider advocating for OER once they know more about them, and the ways this advocacy might take.
The mission statement driving this capstone project was, to inspire a scholarly community that embraces open education as fundamental to research, learning, and knowledge production for all students. Driven by this mission, the research sought to both asses and encourage the uptake for OER.
Surveys for Data Gathering and High Enrollment Data
I utilized two survey instruments to conduct the OER environmental scan. My questions on the instruments were geared towards my desired outcomes for the capstone project. I used Google forms to design the survey questions, which were in multiple-choice and free-text formats. Below are the timeframes and links to the survey instruments with questions.
Here are the steps I took to develop the survey instruments:
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- Consult literature on surveys and environmental scanning.
- Research any available adaptable survey instruments.
- With ideas from literature and some instruments building one from scratch.
- Review my project goals and design my survey instrument to address my goals.
- Consult colleagues to review the survey instrument for feedback.
- Test the survey with colleagues before the final deployment.
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High Enrollment Student Data
- Obtain high enrollment student data from the registrar’s office.
- Request the most recent and also about 3 years worth of data for comparison and trends.
Textbook Cost
- Obtain a list of textbook cost from the campus bookstore. You can ask for the most recent quarter or semester.
- Searching the campus bookstore is also a way to look for textbook costs.
Deploying the Survey
- Craft an introductory email inviting survey participants
Email Call for survey participation
Close the Survey
- Conduct data analysis and present the results.