The news is full of reports about digital learning and
open educational resources (OER), and yet faculty members don’t seem to be on
board. Nearly a quarter of faculty members responding to a new survey said digital
will never be used in their classes and 27% said if it did happen it wouldn’t
be for another couple of years, according to a report in Campus Technology.
When it comes to OER, 75% said they either never heard
of them or know little about them. Another 10% said they have reviewed OER content
and decided against using it.
The survey, conducted for the Independent College
Bookstore Association, also found that 97% of faculty members said they
consider their own assessment of course materials as either important or very
important, with 86% specifying cost of the material as important. However, just
36% said course materials in digital format were important.
Most faculty members (79%) said they believed digital
content “generally costs less,” but just 44% said they thought students
preferred it. Fewer than 30% said digital could have a “beneficial impact” on
learning when compared to print.
“While
the transition from print to digital course materials may be inevitable, these
new survey data make two things clear: First is that the pace of this change is
much slower than anticipated by publishers, administrators, and campus IT
professionals,” Kenneth Green, head of the Campus Computing Project, said in
his report Going Digital: Faculty Perspectives on Digital and OER Course Materials.
“And, second, most faculty are not convinced that digital products have a
positive impact on student learning outcomes.”
