Yes! At least 13 national, peer-reviewed studies have been conducted on OER use in higher education over the past five years. None of these studies showed results in which students who utilized OER performed worse than their peers who used traditional textbooks or course materials. In fact, all studies showed that students who had unlimited access to their course materials and were engaged in open pedagogy assignments performed better or the same as their peers with traditional course materials and more limited access.
Since 2012, Bay View Analytics (formerly the Babson Survey Research Group), with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, has surveyed faculty at colleges and universities on an annual basis to learn more about the selection process for course materials.
