Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate | The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Home About About the Journal Submissions Evidence of Student Achievement Editorial Team Privacy Statement Contact Current Archives Resources Conferences Search Register Search Search Register Login Home / Archives / Vol. 17 No. 6 (2016) / Research Articles Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate John Levi Hilton III Brigham Young University Lane Fischer Brigham Young University David Wiley Brigham Young University Linda William Tidewater Community College DOI: https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i6.2686 Keywords: open educational resources, computers in education, textbooks, financing education Abstract Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to replace traditional textbooks in higher education.  Previous studies indicate that use of OER results in high student and faculty satisfaction, lower costs, and similar or better educational outcomes. In this case study, we compared students using traditional textbooks with those using OER at Tidewater Community College to compare their performance on what we call course throughput rates, which is an aggregate of three variables – drop rates, withdrawal rates, and C or better rates. Two self-selecting cohorts were compared over four semesters, with statistically significant results. The study found that, subject to the limitations discussed, students who use OER perform significantly better on the course throughput rate than their peers who use traditional textbooks, in both face-to-face and online courses that use OER. This suggests that OER are a promising avenue for reducing the costs of higher education while increasing academic success. Author Biographies John Levi Hilton III, Brigham Young University John Hilton III is a an Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University. Lane Fischer, Brigham Young University Lane Fischer is an Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology and Special Education at Brigham Young University. David Wiley, Brigham Young University David Wiley is an adjunct faculty member at Brigham Young University and the Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning Linda William, Tidewater Community College Linda Williams is a professor of business at Tidewater Community College. HTML PDF MP3 EPUB Published 2016-12-06 How to Cite Hilton III, J. L., Fischer, L., Wiley, D., & William, L. (2016). Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(6). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i6.2686 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 17 No. 6 (2016) Section Research Articles Copyright (c) 2016 John Levi Hilton III, Lane Fischer, David Wiley, Linda William This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. The copyright of all content published in IRRODL is retained by the authors. This copyright agreement and use license ensures, among other things, that an article will be as widely distributed as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific and/or scholarly archive. 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