Name: Cross-Institutional Assessment of Student Outcomes Associated with Course Material Cost in Massachusetts Public Higher Education
Start: 2026-10-08T15:35:00-0400
End: 2026-10-08T16:05:00-0400

All sessions are available online except round tables, special activities, and workshops.

Cross-Institutional Assessment of Student Outcomes Associated with Course Material Cost in Massachusetts Public Higher Education

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT

5 DR3

ID: 34006

Beginning in the 2021-2022 academic year, the Massachusetts Open and Low-Cost Educational Resource Advisory Committee (MA OLERAC) implemented a statewide process to collect and standardize data on no- and low-cost course materials. OLERAC coordinated with institutional research offices at each of the twenty-eight undergraduate-serving public institutions of higher education in Massachusetts to collect data. Institutions included community colleges, state universities, and the University of Massachusetts System.The first year was a slow roll out with traditional data collection like cost savings and the number of no- or low-cost course sections offered to students. In subsequent years, data collection was expanded to include a comparison of student academic outcomes in courses with materials cost greater than $50 ("traditional"), less than $50 ("low-cost"), and $0 ("no-cost," including open educational resources, library and other free resources). Productive (ABC) and non-productive (DFW) grades were tracked for each student in every course system-wide, comparing academic outcomes among courses with traditional, low-cost, and no-cost materials. Data were further disaggregated by race, gender, and Pell Grant eligibility.In this session, we describe the process and challenges of large-scale, cross-institutional data collection and present two years of academic outcome data. Among Massachusetts public institutions, courses with no-cost materials are associated with lower DFW rates than courses with either traditional or low-cost materials. When the data are disaggregated, the correlation of improved course outcomes and no-cost course materials is consistent across almost all gender, race, and economic groups.Together with numbers of low-cost and no-cost sections and course materials cost estimates, the system-wide academic outcome data show that the use of no-cost teaching and learning materials represents a cost-savings for students, offers faculty additional tools that may be customized to engage students, and is positively linked with student academic performance. That means students who enroll in such sections are better able to persist, increase enrollment intensity, and ultimately complete their degree at a lower cost.Key takeaways from this session are a description of the types of OER data collected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, strategies for cross-institutional data collection, and assessment of the impact of no- and low-cost course materials on course grades for students from diverse demographic backgrounds. We will also discuss how to identify key partners needed to effectively implement data collection processes within a State’s Department of Higher Education and how to develop strategies to address the data collection challenges experienced when data submission is not mandatory.

Speakers

Connie Strittmatter

Strategic Projects Librarian, Fitchburg State University

Connie Strittmatter is the Strategic Projects Librarian at Fitchburg State University. In her current position, she supports Fitchburg State’s open and affordable education initiative by delivering workshops on OER topics, working individually with faculty to incorporate OER into... Read More →

Amanda Simons

Professor and Chair of Biology, Framingham State University

Amanda Simons is the Chair of Biology at Framingham State University. She is the author of Chromosomes, Genes, and Traits, an OER textbook written with the support from a ROTEL program grant. She is currently serving as a faculty fellow for the Massachusetts Department of Higher... Read More →

Bernadette Sibuma

Director, Online Learning, Massachusetts Bay Community College

Bernadette Sibuma, Ed.D., is the Director of Online Learning at Massachusetts Bay Community College. She serves as a current member of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Open and Low-Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (MA OLERAC) and the OLERAC Assessment... Read More →

Emma Wood

Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Emma Wood is the Scholarly Communication Librarian at the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth. She encourages the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) among faculty and helps students understand and access OER materials. She serves as a member of the Massachusetts Department... Read More →

Robert Awkward

Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Dr. Robert Awkward is an educator and scholar based in Massachusetts whose work explores the intersection of open education, inclusive pedagogy, and emerging technologies in higher education. His interests focus on how open practices—such as OER, collaborative knowledge creation... Read More →

Emily Alling

Associate Dean, Library Services, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Emily Alling is the Associate Dean for Library Services at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts and leads the open and affordable textbook in initiative at her institution. She is a member of the Massachusetts Open and Low Cost Educational Resources... Read More →

Suzanne Smith

Director of Research and Evaluation, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Suzanne Smith is the Director of Research and Evaluation at MA Department of Higher Education. She liaises with the Massachusetts Open and Low Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (OLERAC) Assessment Committee to collect OER key performance indicator data from the 28 public... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
5 DR3 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

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