Articles

OER State Policy Discourse: Adding Equity to the Cost Savings Conversation

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Abstract

In response to rising tuition, state disinvestment, and financial uncertainty over the years, open educational resources (OER) have been introduced as a solution to address the college affordability crisis (Colvard et al., 2018). The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) sees OER as not just a way to lift the financial burden of educational materials, but also as a path to improving teaching and learning, strengthening the economy, advancing societal goals, and breaking down barriers to education (SPARC, n.d.-b). State policymakers have created grant programs or other initiatives to incentivize the creation, use, or expansion of OER in an effort to decrease costs associated with postsecondary education. This raises the question of how state policy discourse defines the problem that then informs the solutions addressed in OER legislation and how introducing an equity discourse into OER policy making can strengthen efforts to remove barriers to higher education.

Keywords: Open Education Resources, higher education, public policy, discourse analysis

How to Cite:

McCoy-Simmons, C., (2022) “OER State Policy Discourse: Adding Equity to the Cost Savings Conversation”, Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education 1(1), 117-136. doi: https://doi.org/10.13001/joerhe.v1i1.7183

Rights: © 2022 Casey McCoy-Simmons. Published under a CC-BY license.