Is It Worth It? Evaluating an Open Educational Resources Awards Program

Awards or grant programs are a common way for higher education institutions to incentivize the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and other affordable course materials. This study evaluates the results of a two-year pilot OER awards program at East Tennessee State University. To assess the awards program, we used data from student savings and program costs, grades, drop-fail-withdrawal (DFW) rates, and survey results compiled within the COUP framework (Cost, Outcomes, Usage, and Perception). The initial monetary return on investment was moderately positive, while the grades and DFW rates remained steady. The faculty and students rated the open and affordable materials as well as the OER awards program favorably but expressed some issues with using and implementing open and affordable resources. Based on these results, we determined that the awards program was worth the costs and efforts but needed improvements specifically to address the faculty’s feedback around the lack of time to implement OER and the absence of OER for their courses.