May 2025 Scholarly Activity Grant:
Open Educational Resource Adoption at Yukon University
This research is an analysis of required and supplemental readings from published YukonU course outlines to document OER vs non-OER adoption across all courses. The objective of the project is to document how much and in what ways YukonU faculty are using OER for teaching.
Background
“OER are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others” (UNESCO, 2022, p. 5). OER often take the form of educational resources such as textbooks that have been developed by scholars and legally licensed for unlimited sharing and modification by everyone. As noted by OERCommons.org (n.d.), “Open Educational Resources (OER) are guided by the idea that high-quality educational materials should be available to everyone” (para. 1). UNESCO (2022) identifies OER use as “essential to build inclusive knowledge societies and to achieve the [UN’s] Sustainable Development Goals” (p. 4).
Yukon University has long recognized OER as an option that can provide benefits to faculty, students, our institution, and both our local and global communities. Faculty may adopt and share resources created by other scholars and/or publish new/adapted works for others to use. Some instructors and schools have adopted OER textbooks or readings as primary resources for courses, adapting them as required and making them available to learners on unrestricted terms (e.g. ENGL 100, Math 030). YukonU’s strategic plan makes a strong commitment to academic excellence, reconciliation, equity, and justice, each of which can be strengthened by use of OER. With advancing educational technologies such as online and distance learning, multimedia, and artificial intelligence encouraging extensive use of novel educational resources, questions about OER are more relevant than they have ever been.
Methods/Activities/Resources
This research will use summative content analysis as its primary method. The content analysis of course outlines will include both quantitative (e.g. how many courses/instructors use OER) and qualitative elements (e.g. ways in which OER are used, influence on course design). The YukonU resources to be used include published course outlines, researcher time, and student researchers for the content coding. The number of current course outlines available for inclusion is estimated to be approximately two hundred.
This initial phase of research will include several activities:
-Data Preparation: Gather and organize the course outlines; determine best time span to examine;
-Coding and Categorization: design meaningful categories for OER adoption (e.g. primary, supplemental, textbook, reading, all OER, some OER, no OER) – this will be performed by student research assistants
-Analysis: Examine results and look for patterns or relationships;
-Reporting: Present findings (see outcomes section below).
Timeline
-May 2025: submit Scholarly Activity Grant application
-May-July 2025: develop research criteria and coding
-August-October 2025: collect course outlines and analyze contents
-November-December 2025: documentation of results
-January-March 2026: present findings
Outcomes
Findings will be presented at a YukonU faculty gathering (lunch and learn, poster session, communities inservice, and/or faculty retreat). I will apply to present for BC Campus Open Education Week March 2026.
References
OERCommons.org. (n.d.). “Open Educational Resources: The Future of Education, Co-Created With You.” https://oercommons.org/oer-101
UNESCO. (2022). The 2019 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER): supporting universal access to information through quality open learning materials. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000383205