Instructors now have more ways than ever to use open materials to mitigate resource limitations and address student skill gaps.
- Open educational resources can be integrated into college courses to make higher education more engaging, accessible, and affordable for students.
- The advent of generative artificial intelligence provides instructors with new, more efficient ways to develop and update OER so that these materials stay aligned with evolving trends and course objectives.
- Many micro-credentialing courses now use OER, which allows students to develop in-demand skills without paying the high cost of traditional higher education.
The past few years have brought drastic changes to higher education, in both how students learn and how instructors teach. Whether due to increases in remote and hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic or the growing prominence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), business educators have had to adapt to change quickly, often without much institutional support.
Even through all this upheaval, textbooks have remained the most popular course material in higher education, according to a survey conducted by the research firm Bay View Analytics. However, increasingly instructors are replacing print materials such as hardcopy textbooks and homework handouts with digital options such as online textbooks and homework assistance platforms. Instructors also have embraced open educational resources (OER). Bay View’s data also show that the percentage of educators using OER as required course materials nearly doubled between the 2019–20 and 2022–23 academic years, from 15 percent to 29 percent.
Creative Commons defines OER as “teaching, learning, and research materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.” Lacking traditional copyright restrictions, these materials permit instructors to engage more easily in the 5 Rs: remixing, retaining, revising, reusing, and redistributing the materials.
These materials offer many benefits for instructors and students, addressing both existing and emerging challenges. But today, the versatility of OER is evolving with the advent of GenAI and the increasing popularity of alternative, skills-based educational paths. The latest developments in OER are allowing instructors and business programs to create and use these resources to make the educational experience more engaging, accessible, and relevant to all learners.
The Challenges of Print
Regardless of institution size or course level, business instructors and students collectively face several common challenges when using traditional print-based course materials:
Cost—Most faculty responding to Bay View’s survey view the cost of educational materials as “a serious problem” for their students. Postsecondary students spend, on average, between 628 USD & 1200 USD annually on textbooks and related resources. In some cases, students have reported that they take fewer classes, withdraw from courses, change their majors, or even drop out of college entirely because they cannot afford required materials. Others have reported that they slip meals or take on additional part-time jobs and shifts at work to afford their textbooks.