While open educational resources have gained steam over the past decade, colleges and universities lack clear and definable metrics to share with other institutions on how much money they’re helping save students. A new whitepaper from the Midwestern Higher Education Compact believes its “course marking” strategy can help institutions communicate the value of OER to each other, their students and broader higher education systems.
The Higher Ed Compact, along with three other organizations involved in the National Consortium of Open Educational Resources, released a report last year helping institutions calculate OER’s cost savings and student ROI to internal stakeholders. Course marking, however, helps legitimize the OER movement more broadly, the organization attests.
Course marking is how institutions designate which courses are “low cost” or “no cost” and use OER.
“This work provides guidelines that contribute to the consistency of course marking efforts across the United States,” the report reads. “Such consistency contributes to the ability to aggregate data from many institutions and conduct studies of how OER saves students money and contributes to enhanced student outcomes.”
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In the following four steps, the Midwestern compact hopes to lead a national effort to guide institutions and systems in developing a process for more affordable college courses.
1. Define your goals and purposes
Colleges interested in course marking OER should intentionally communicate what they are doing to, for instance, save costs, strengthen equity measures and or comply with state or system requirements. “Articulating goals will serve as a guidepost for the work, motivating sometimes skeptical colleagues that it is a worthwhile endeavor,” the report reads.
Forty percent of respondents in a previous Midwestern compact survey indicated that there was a state-level policy related to course marking impacting their OER efforts.
2. Create a committee or working group
The key to successful course marking lies in extending the work beyond the OER coordinator and bringing together different staff members whose roles resonate with the core of the process. Other potential members include the registrar, faculty, scheduling office, IT, the campus store and more.
3. Identify and develop terms
Colleges participating in OER course marking initiatives must share clear objectives and standardize terminology, the report contends.
For example, stakeholders must find a consensus on what defines “low cost” course materials and settle on “OER” as the official term for public domain resources. Such a uniform understanding will help researchers and policymakers assess the effectiveness of OER and develop new strategies.
Faculty, schedulers and administrative assistants choosing OER and marking the courses must ensure the information is comprehensible to students when they are selecting classes.
“Course marking can give students agency,” the report reads. “When students can readily identify course sections that use specific types of materials, they can make registration decisions based on characteristics of importance to them.”
4. Develop and document course marking policy
Once defined at the institutional level, relevant stakeholders must adhere to established policy-making protocols and develop language that aligns with governance standards. The report suggests the Idaho State Board of Education and University of Nebraska System as great examples.
Clear assignment of responsibilities and regular documentation updates are crucial for maintaining process transparency and efficacy.
