OER outcome studies that lack a hypothesized explanatory mechanism are license comparison studies prone to finding no significant differences¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoreticalr3·q1
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q1 i? Many articles reviewed by Hilton (2016) were undertheorized media/license comparison studies, and without a conceptualized explanatory mechanism such comparative research provides no useful insights and unsurprisingly finds no significant differences. → David A. Wiley 2021
Evidence¶
David A. Wiley 2021¶
David A. Wiley. (2021). Open educational resources: undertheorized research and untapped potential. Education Tech Research Dev. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09907-w
q1 · i? · theoretical · r3
Theoretical argument in the commentary's Limitations section: the author, citing his own involvement in some reviewed articles, argues that OER studies comparing openly licensed with traditionally copyrighted materials without an explanatory mechanism explain the prevalence of "no significant differences" findings.
"They are essentially media comparison studies or, to be more precise, license comparison studies. Without conceptualizing an explanatory mechanism—a reason to believe a difference might exist—they simply compare the outcomes of students whose required course materials are openly licensed with those whose materials are traditionally copyrighted."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Synthesized studies of OER in college courses found academic outcomes comparable to traditional textbooks and positive perceptions among students and instructors — a broader claim this one bears on
- Open textbooks appear to offer financial benefits to students without decreasing learning outcomes in higher education — a broader claim this one bears on
- Substituting OER for traditional textbooks does not appear to decrease student learning outcomes in higher education. — related
- Students achieve the same or better learning outcomes when using OER compared to commercial textbooks, while saving significant amounts of money. — related
- OER efficacy research methodology improved between 2015 and 2018, with more studies controlling for student and teacher variables. — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
oer-license-comparison-studies-undertheorized |
title |
OER outcome studies that lack a hypothesized explanatory mechanism are license comparison studies prone to finding no significant differences |
description |
OER outcome studies that lack a hypothesized explanatory mechanism are license comparison studies prone to finding no significant differences |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2021 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-29 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — david-a-wiley-2021 |
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