Cengage Learning, a Boston-based global; provider of textbooks, educational services and technology, has published a White Paper on open educational resources in higher education.

Cengage interviewed industry experts and surveyed OER primary adopters, supplemental adopters and non-adopters. Overall, just 4% of the higher education respondents use OER as primary materials. The subjects of mathematics (13%) and computing (11%) had the highest usage, while English (2%) and psychology (1%) had the lowest, according to the survey. For supplemental materials, OER is used by 5% of the respondents overall: 18% in computing, 13% in mathematics, 8% in English and 4% in psychology. Of the academic who are not yet using OER, more than 75% said they expected they would do so or at least consider it in the next 3 years. Still, about 75% of academics had never used or (39%) never heard of it. Among faculty members who are not current users of OER, more than 77 percent said they either expected to use OER or would consider using OER.

CENGAGE Learning