Substituting OER for traditional textbooks does not appear to decrease student learning outcomes in higher education.¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr3·q2
Currency · newest study 2016 · 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.
q2 i? Across nine studies, three had results that significantly favored OER, three showed no significant difference, and two did not discuss statistical significance. → Hilton 2016
Evidence¶
Hilton 2016¶
Hilton, J., III. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Education Tech Research Dev. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9434-9
q2 · i? · review · r3
The review's own synthesis of nine OER efficacy studies, reporting that "Three had results that significantly favored OER, three showed no significant difference".
"Three had results that significantly favored OER, three showed no significant difference and two did not discuss the statistical significance of their results."
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
- Students achieve the same or better learning outcomes when using OER compared to commercial textbooks, while saving significant amounts of money. — a broader claim this one bears on
- Across 2002-2018, OER efficacy research consistently shows that OER does not harm student learning, with a small positive impact. — a broader claim this one bears on
- In direct comparisons of OER and commercial textbooks, a strong majority of participants report OER are as good or better. — related
- Open textbooks appear to offer financial benefits to students without decreasing learning outcomes in higher education — a broader claim this one bears on
- In studies comparing ratings from separate groups of OER users and CT users, results were mixed: two studies favored CT, two favored OER, and one showed similar ratings. — related
- Students using OER save significant amounts of money compared to purchasing commercial textbooks. — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
- OER efficacy studies are frequently confounded by simultaneous changes in pedagogy or delivery method. — related
- Concerns about whether OER decrease the effectiveness of student learning remain unsolved — reports the opposite
- OER outcome studies that lack a hypothesized explanatory mechanism are license comparison studies prone to finding no significant differences — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
oer-no-decrease-student-learning |
title |
Substituting OER for traditional textbooks does not appear to decrease student learning outcomes in higher education. |
description |
Substituting OER for traditional textbooks does not appear to decrease student learning outcomes in higher education. |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2016 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-28 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — hilton-2016 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.