Leveraging Remote Learning to Implement Open Educational Resources (OER) in Engineering Technology

Access to educational programs in Engineering Technology can be limited by the high cost of textbooks, software, and other proprietary materials. The use of Open Education Resources (OER), which are materials that have low or no cost for academic use, can help address the issue of access. Engineering Technology courses can realize this benefit relatively easily, as the needed resources may often be accessed or created based on materials available from public agencies at all levels of government. There are several goals other than reduced cost that should be addressed by OER use in Engineering Technology. These include: (1) meeting required student learning outcomes, (2) improving student attitudes regarding educational access, and (3) fostering adaptation of the material to enhance student learning and provide current information. Previous work with this consideration by the presenter includes the establishment of a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of implementing OER in an Engineering Technology course, and comparison of the performance of OER use in a cost estimating course compared to a non-OER "control" section of the course also being offered in the same semester. The current work tracks continued implementation of OER in later offerings of the same course. It also considers the effect of offering the OER implementation of the course for the first time in a remote learning environment, as was done during the Fall 2020 semester. Class assessment measures, as well as survey data, were used to consider how well the three goals outlined above were addressed. The preliminary results point to a successful implementation of OER in the remote learning environment.