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The Benefits of Open Education: Why it Matters for Students and Institutions
A balanced summary of the case for open education from the student and institution sides, plus the measures that show whether the benefits are real.
Foundations and Future
Outcomes and Evidence
How the effects of open education are studied and measured.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Online Learning: A Review of the Literature
What research generally finds when online and in-person learning are compared, and how to read these studies carefully without overstating the results.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Open Education: A Review of the Literature
How to read published effectiveness research on open education, including common study designs and the reasons results are so often mixed.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Open Education Initiatives
Which indicators an open education initiative can track, such as completion, reuse and cost saved, and the pitfalls that make each one easy to misread.
Open Education and Student Retention: A Review of the Research
What research suggests about open education and students staying enrolled, including how cost can matter and why retention studies have real limits.
Open Education and Student Success
A learner-side look at persistence in open and online study: the habits, motivation and support that help people keep going, with realistic expectations.
Open Education and Student Success: A Review of the Research
How completion rates and grades are measured in open education research, and why comparing them across courses, platforms and studies is so tricky.
The Benefits of Open Education: A Study of Institutional Outcomes
Which institution-level measures matter when judging open education, such as cost, enrollment and retention, and how to design a fair comparison.
The Benefits of Open Education: A Study of Institutional Outcomes and Student Success
How institutional measures connect to student success, and why correlation and causation are so easily confused in studies of open material adoption.
The Benefits of Open Education: A Study of Student Outcomes
How student outcomes such as grades, completion and satisfaction are measured, which kinds of studies exist, and the limits that apply to each.
The Benefits of Open Education: A Study of Student Outcomes and Institutional Impact
How student results may add up to wider institutional impact over several years, and why attributing that impact to open education is difficult.
Related topics
More in foundations and future
Open Education Models What open education is and how its core ideas work. AI and Open Education How artificial intelligence meets open learning resources. Culture and Ethics The shared habits and moral questions around open learning. Open Scholarship Publishing, research and ownership in an open setting. The Open Education Movement What the movement is, where it came from and where it is heading. Open Research and Innovation Where open education meets open science, open research and open innovation. Platforms and Assessment The technology, platforms and evaluation methods behind open learning. Learning Approaches Teaching and study approaches that open resources make easier to try. Technology and Engagement Tools, games and design choices that shape online learning. Impact Reviews Literature reviews on attainment, policy and quality. Open Resources by Subject Subject by subject reviews of open educational resource collections. Open Resource Landscape Reviews of the state, research and business side of open educational resources. Open Tools and Standards Open-source software, open data, standards, badges and courses that support open education. The Power of Open Education The wider promise of open education for learners, classrooms, assessment and community.