8 Data on Adoptions, Adaptations, and Creations

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this chapter, learners will:

• Understand the kinds of data on adoption, adaptation, and creation that can be gathered
• Reflect on their goals for collecting data and determine appropriate metrics that achieve these goals
• Develop strategies for data collection

Introduction

Data on adoption, adaptation, and creation can take several forms:

• Gathering data on which instructors at your institution have adopted or adapted already-existing OER
• Gathering data on OERs created at your institution (and potentially subsequently adopted or adapted by others)

Both types of data can be valuable to collect because they each show a different kind of impact. The first can illustrate the impact that OER is having on students at your institution, while the second can help to highlight both the impact of OER at your institution and the potential impact of a given OER beyond a single course.

Before you collect any data, it is important to consider the following:

• What metrics am I hoping to measure?
• How will I collect the data? What are my methods?

Metrics

There are several metrics that can show the impact of adoption, adaptation, and creation.

If you are gathering data on courses at your institution using OER, you might consider:

• The number of courses using a new, adopted or adapted OER (which can be broken down by subject area or level of study)
• The number of undergraduate students impacted by OER across campus
• The estimated savings generated

These metrics require the following data points:

• Course information, including course code and course title
• Approximate enrollment in a course each year
• The cost of any course materials that the OER have replaced
• The number of years the OER in question has been used

If you are gathering data on adoptions or adaptations of OER created at your institution, you might consider:

• Geographic reach
• Peer review
• Number of adoptions and adaptations
• Number of students impacted by OER
• Savings generated

A full list of different impact data points can be found in the Illinois Library’s Measuring Impact guide.

These metrics require the following data points:

• Institutional affiliation (where applicable)
• Approximate enrollment in the course each year
• The cost of any course materials that the adopted or adapted OER have replaced
• The number of years the OER in question has been used

Some individuals who are adopting an OER may not have an institutional affiliation. This could be because the OER in question is not being used in an academic setting. It can be valuable to track this kind of impact as well, and this can be achieved by asking for institutional affiliation or the name of the organization using the OER.

Gathering Data

Data can be challenging to acquire. Conducting a thorough search can be time intensive and may not yield all results. For example, consulting the course outlines at an institution to see what course materials (and OER) have been assigned is time intensive. Many of the course syllabi may not be available as well.

In many cases, it is best to set up mechanisms for self-reporting. This means creating fillable forms where instructors can report if they have used an OER for a course. Both eCampus Ontario and BCCampus use this method. Their forms can be replicated for use at your institution.

The key components of a self-reporting form are:

• Course code
• Course title
• Enrollment/Year
• URL and creator of the OER
• Cost of any course materials the OER has replaced
• Year/semester that the OER was implemented

The form can also be adjusted to include data points such as institutional affiliation.

Making Forms Visible

The drawback of this method is that the accuracy of the data is completely dependent on the visibility of the form. If instructors do not know the form exists, they are not going to provide the data.

When attempting to collect data about adaptations or adoptions of OER created at your institution, it is possible to link to the form from the OER itself. For example, in Pressbooks you can use HTML coding to embed a link into the short description of a book. This means you can advertise a form, link to it, and encourage anyone who is adopting or adapting the book to fill it out.

Pressbooks Analytics

Pressbooks Analytics features can provide several methods that could help identify potential adoptions and adaptations of Pressbooks created at your institution. One particularly useful tool is the Referrers tool. This part of Pressbooks Analytics will show the most frequent websites from which a given book is accessed. For example, a book can be accessed from Google, the Learning Management System at your institution, or even from web addresses belonging to other institutions. In the case of the latter, this could be an indication that the book has been adopted there.

Conclusion

The data collection process can be time intensive, and it can be difficult to seek out this data. There are several questions you can ask yourself when determining the best method to proceed. eCampusOntario and BCCampus provide strong examples of forms that can be used to gather this kind of data.

Resources

• BCCampus Open Textbook Adoption Form
• BCCampus Adoption Finder
• ECampusOntario Share an Adoption
• Illinois Library’s Measuring Impact Guide
• Pressbooks Analytics

References

BCCampus (2023). Tell Us You’re Using Open Course Materials. BCCampus OpenEd. https://open.bccampus.ca/use-open-textbooks/tell-us-youre-using-open-course-material/

ECampusOntario (2023). Share an Adoption. ECampusOntario Open Library. https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/share-an-adoption/