Shift to digital perspectives on Hilton (2016) from the perspective of practice
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Shift to digital perspectives on Hilton (2016) from the perspective of practice Charles B. Hodges1 Accepted: 1 October 2020 © Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2020
Abstract This paper offers the authors perspectives from a lens of practice on the paper, Open educational resources and college textbook choices: A review of research on efficacy and perceptions, by John Hilton III published in Educational Technology Research and Development volume 64, pages 573–590 in 2016. The commentary offered is specific to Hilton’s work in the context of the pivot to remote instruction experienced on a massive scale during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Keywords Open educational resources · Computers in education · Textbooks · OER · COVID-19 In the present paper I offer my views on John Hilton’s 2016 paper, Open educational resources and college textbook choices: A review of research on efficacy and perceptions, from the perspective of practice, especially as it relates to practice during the world wide shift to alternate instructional delivery modes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key ideas Hilton’s (2016) review of efficacy and perceptions regarding open educational resources and college textbook choices included 16 studies published prior to October 2015. Hilton’s conclusions were that students in courses utilizing OER materials were able to achieve necessary learning outcomes, and that faculty and students have positive perceptions regarding the OER materials. Based on these findings, Hilton recommended that future work in this area focus more on evaluations of OER textbooks rather than the problematic comparisons between OER and commercial resources observed in the studies included in his review. Hilton also questioned the added value of commercial textbooks in general when OER textbooks appear to serve the same purposes just as well with no cost to students. Research related to Hilton’s 2016 work has continued and has produced similar findings (i.e. Clinton and Khan 2019; Colvard et al. 2018; Hilton 2020). * Charles B. Hodges [email protected] 1
Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA
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C. B. Hodges
Value What is the value of Hilton’s 2016 paper? Recently, Weller (2020) described OER as “something of a success story” (p. 79) compared to many educational technology innovations with funding initiatives and international conferences devoted to OER, as well as several repositories of OER materials available. With the “shift to digital” observed in the recent massive shift to remote teaching resulting from COVID-19, many instructors are redesigning or revising courses, often looking for course texts and materials that are easily accessible online, away from campus. Hilton’s 2016 conclusions offer clear evidence to instructors supporting the inclusion of OER materials in their courses. Instructors should note that “OER does not appear to decrease student learning” (p. 586), students and instructors “generally find that OER are comparable in quality
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