What is the Cost of Free? Effects and Costs of Open Educational Resources

• In Event: College Affordability and Student Success: Evidence on Policies to Address Non-Tuition Costs and Student Basic Needs

Abstract

Despite their ubiquity, textbook costs pose a significant barrier for many community college students (Jenkins et al., 2020). For students facing basic needs insecurities, textbook costs can make the difference between persisting in college or not (Nix et al., 2021). Open educational resources (OER) offer a free alternative to commercial textbooks. Yet, critics question OER quality and potential negative impacts on students (Seaman & Seaman, 2018). Although prior research generally supports OER use, small samples and designs that fail to account for student and instructor differences across OER and non-OER courses limit the policy relevance of prior studies (Clinton & Khan, 2019). Additionally, very few studies examine what OER costs institutions (Griffiths et al., 2020). While free for students and instructors to use, OER are not without cost to develop. We provide some of the first rigorous evidence on both impacts and costs of OER adoption using a decade of data from Michigan community colleges. 

We estimate the impacts of OER adoption using a difference-in-differences design that compares outcomes in courses before and after adopting OER to those in courses that never adopted OER (Athey & Imbens, 2022). Additionally, for the same courses and study period that we assessed effects, we estimated the cost of developing OER programs. Following the ingredients method (Levin et al., 2018), we systematically identified resources—particularly personnel time—and assigned monetary values. The analysis took a societal perspective, estimating costs to all stakeholders (Hollands et al., 2021). Because colleges adopt OER to save students money, we also report on the average textbook savings per student in courses that adopt OER. 

Our impact results indicate that students achieved the same academic outcomes in OER courses as they did in courses that used traditional materials. Outcomes in later terms were also unchanged with no impacts on persistence or grades in subsequent terms. Exploratory analyses showed that OER had a small effect on credit intensity and course composition, suggesting that OER may support academically less-prepared students in staying enrolled while enabling others to take more credits overall. While we hypothesized that OER may have larger effects for low-income students or in certain course subjects or levels, we found OER had consistently null effects across colleges, course levels, subjects, and student income. 

The cost analysis shows that startup costs per college averaged $124,960, which translated to $1,960 per OER course and $13 per student. Ongoing costs were far lower: $13,800 per year per college, or just $220 per course and $1 per student. These one‑time startup costs are remarkably small relative to other student‑support interventions. 

Together, the findings from this study support a straightforward conclusion: OER is a low-cost affordability strategy that removes a meaningful non-tuition barrier with no detectable changes in student academic outcomes. For community colleges seeking scalable ways to reduce barriers to persistence and success, OER offers a promising, cost-effective approach to expanding equitable access to course materials.

Authors

• Huong Nguyen, Wayne State University
  Presenting Author

• Stacey Lee Brockman, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author