In this action research project, the benefits and challenges of using Open Educational
Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) were examined for the CS120 Digital
Literacy course at the LinnBenton Community College (LBCC) in Albany, Oregon. Two types of
research data were gathered, quantitative and qualitative.
The quantitative data were based on the end-of-quarter metrics for the six established
CS120 course outcomes (see appendix A). The participants for the quantitative data are the
students from the eighteen CS120 sections which were taught during the 2016 calendar year
(winter, spring, and fall). While the ten winter and spring CS120 sections used a publisher
textbook and companion website material, the eight fall CS120 sections used OER material.
For the qualitative data, a student questionnaire was used (see appendix B). The
participants of the qualitative data are the twenty-eight students in my two fall CS120 sections
which read and signed the Student Consent Form (See appendix D).
The findings of this study indicated:
1) The quantitative data, based on course outcomes, were very positive. The data revealed
that all six course outcomes improved in the fall quarter and each student saved $162 on
textbooks.
2) The qualitative data, based on a questionnaire, were also positive. The majority of the
students stated that the OER-based course is well structured, accessible, easy to use, and
the content covers all six course outcomes. One concern is that 57% of the students stated
they missed having a physical textbook.