AUTHOR=Flowers Sharleen , Hazlett Zachary S. , Ramirez Marie , Treibergs Kira , Vinson Erin , Smith Michelle K. , Knight Jennifer K. TITLE=Understanding how professional development opportunities affect open educational resource sharing JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education VOLUME=9 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1422383 DOI=10.3389/feduc.2024.1422383 ISSN=2504-284X ABSTRACT=Background

Open Educational Resources (OERs) help instructors create innovative lessons and foster cost-effective and equitable access to educational materials. As more instructors turn to OERs to enhance their courses, there is a growing demand for the creation of more lesson plans.

Methods

To increase the number of high-quality OERs in undergraduate biology and physics, the journal CourseSource introduced Writing Studios to assist educators in writing and publishing OERs. Over a period of 5 years, 188 attendees participated in one of 11 different Writing Studios in which they followed a scaffolded worksheet to help draft their OER and engaged in peer review with partners. Attendees completed surveys before and after participation, and we tracked whether or not they published their manuscripts.

Results

We found that 38.8% of attendees shared their OERs through a CourseSource publication. Several characteristics predicted OER sharing through publication such as format of the workshop and attendee’s type of institution. Participants also described a variety of supports and barriers that impacted their ability to publish as well as possible long-term supports that would help bring resources to publication.

Discussion

This study highlights the importance of ongoing support and tailored strategies to facilitate the sharing of OERs. The findings can benefit instructors and professional development leaders who are committed to increasing the number of high-quality resources that are available.