My personal opinion is that this kind of use should be considered as part of students benefiting from OER. It may not properly apply if you are calculating something like textbook cost savings for students. But OER are supposed to provide benefits beyond savings on textbook costs and this would be an example of some of those benefits.

I know why the financial ROI gets lots of attention, but we shouldn't let that one part of "selling" OER drive the proverbial bus all the time.

Brad Doerksen,

Student Success Librarian

Acting Library Contact for the Faculty of Science

University of Regina

Dr. John Archer Library

The University of Regina is situated on Treaty 4 lands with a presence in Treaty 6. These are the territories of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation. Today, these lands continue to be the shared Territory of many diverse peoples from near and far.

>>> "Ross, Heather" <heather.ross@usask.ca> 2022-08-26 10:01 AM >>>

I have a question related to tracking OER usage. We have a few courses where students aren't required to buy texts because of the way the course was designed but have started using open textbooks to provide students with a resource they may find useful. One example is one of our Engineering courses. There is no book required, but the instructor is going to include the new Guide to using MATLAB open textbook so students have a resource they may find useful in that course.

My question is, would you count the students in those courses in your "students benefitting from OER" numbers or do you limit those numbers to only cases where a commercial textbook is being replaced thus saving students money?

Thank you.

Heather M. Ross, BA BEd MEd

Educational Development Specialist
University of Saskatchewan
Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning
Ph: 306-966-5327
Find open textbooks and other open educational resources on:
http://open.usask.ca