OpenStax, Rice University, Houston, Texas, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Mar 6;14(3):e0212508. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212508. eCollection 2019.
Open Educational Resources (OER) have been lauded for their ability to reduce student costs and improve equity in higher education. Research examining whether OER provides learning benefits have produced mixed results, with most studies showing null effects. We argue that the common methods used to examine OER efficacy are unlikely to detect positive effects based on predictions of the access hypothesis. The access hypothesis states that OER benefits learning by providing access to critical course materials, and therefore predicts that OER should only benefit students who would not otherwise have access to the materials. Through the use of simulation analysis, we demonstrate that even if there is a learning benefit of OER, standard research methods are unlikely to detect it.
开放教育资源 (OER) 因其能够降低学生成本和提高高等教育公平性而受到赞誉。研究考察了 OER 是否提供学习收益，但结果喜忧参半，大多数研究显示无显著效果。我们认为，基于访问假设的预测，用于检查 OER 功效的常用方法不太可能检测到积极效果。访问假设指出，OER 通过提供关键课程材料来促进学习，因此预测 OER 仅有益于那些原本无法获得材料的学生。通过使用模拟分析，我们证明即使 OER 具有学习收益，标准研究方法也不太可能检测到它。
