JISU SURVEY - OER

3. Survey Results

2. JISU Survey

1. The Story

OER SURVEY

By JIBC Student Union

6. Student Experience

4. OER Champion

5. Final Word

This survey ran for a week since February 3, 2022, and targeted both domestic and international students who are from 9 different programs at JIBC:

ACP

LESD

PBDDM

PBDLES

PCP

BLES

ESM

Among students who participated in the survey:

VIEW

SPENT OVER $300

46.18%

Students' opinion on using OERS as an alternative to traditional academic materials:

Opinion

onOER

+66.67%

Very Good

+13%

Good

+24%

Neutral

View

If there was an OER alternative available for their course, would they use it?

84.62 %

Said YES

Using OERs:

View

Lief Garrett

JISU Director of External Relations; LESD Cohort leader 62

Last semester I spent close to $300 on three textbooks; we only used one book all semester, one text we used occasionally, and one textbook we never used at all. Many of my classmates in the LESD program either never bought the textbooks or found "alternative" websites to purchase the texts online for free or for a much lower price. Students already have to pay thousands of dollars for higher education; On top of the tuition, additional cost ($150-$180) for traditional academic materials is another barrier that student is currently facing. It is quite terrifying and draconian when students have to pay for those materials, but the level of usage is not worth it at all. In the last two years of the pandemic, one's budget on housing/ rent, food, personal necessities, has become tight, especially for students paying other thousands of dollars for education. In the era of technology, when everything can be reached by doing a couple of strokes on a keyboard, there is an option to make those traditional academic materials free and more accessible for students; even having access through the school's library. It should be up to the instructor to communicate to the library materials/ textbooks needed for their classes; so that the library can assist them to find and access those materials for free. Not having to pay the unpredictable cost of textbooks is quite a luxury dream of students. But it's one of the students' dreams besides having an accessible and affordable education.