What is Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grants

The open educational resources movement in higher education has largely been driven by concerns over increasing textbook costs and the resulting barriers to access. As the movement has gained traction in sectors of higher education, research has focused on achievement of student learning outcomes. Advocates of OERs point to research indicating that students do as well, and sometimes better, with OERs as with traditionally published textbooks. A study of 10 grant-funded OER projects in a Southeastern access public college found comparable results with the adoption of OERs but not the same level of improvement found in other studies. A deeper investigation into the work involved in the creation of an OER for a multi-section communication course found interesting patterns of use by students as well as a set of lessons learned for the creators.