Student Perceptions of an Open Educational Resource for an Introduction to Criminal Justice Course

Abstract

Open Educational Resources (OER) are revolutionizing the delivery and access of learning in higher education around the world. This, in part, is in response to the outcry from students. That is– one of the main concerns that students have when attending higher education is the increasing cost of textbooks. Additionally, faculty want students to engage in high-quality learning materials, which has added to and possibly accelerated the use of OER(s) in higher education. Much of the prior research has focused on the faculty perception of these advances within the classroom, but fewer have focused on how students perceive their value. To this end, this paper examines students' perceptions of using an OER in an introductory criminal justice course over the course of one year. Using qualitative coding methodology, we found two core themes across these student perceptions - Accessibility and Relief. Results are discussed.

Keywords:

• Open education resource
• student perception

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.