Beyond student outcomes: How creating Open Educational Resources benefits authors in a research coordination network

Open educational resources (OERs) contain authentic materials that benefit students, but few studies have focused on the benefits to authors of OERs. This gap needs attention considering the challenges that OER authors face, given their commitments to multiple professional activities while also being motivated to take part in OER development. It is critical to understand what benefits authors receive, to help in the continued development of these valuable educational tools. To this end, we investigated what benefits a specific group of researcher-educators perceived from investing their limited time and energy to design, create, and share authentic OERs in the OCELOTS (Online Content for Experiential Learning of Tropical Systems) Research Coordination Network in Undergraduate Biology Education. Our study was based on conceptual frameworks for teaching and learning, communities of practice, and self-determination theory. We used qualitative data from a survey specifically designed to address the question of benefits perceived by OER authors, complemented with quantitative and qualitative data from existing internal evaluations of this network. In a content-analysis framework, we analyzed the open-ended responses to identify broader themes emerging about author benefits. OER authors reported improved pedagogical practice, increased visibility of research and outreach efforts, professional rewards, and increased collaborations. Authors reported gains in pedagogical knowledge and personal fulfillment as benefits that they received, along with satisfaction from contributing to their discipline and society in general. While benefits around improving pedagogical practice was the richest theme, creation of modules also generated new collaborations and helped strengthen and broaden authors’ professional networks. In particular, the sense of belonging to and building the community was a significant benefit, providing implications for how to support future OER development and the critical role of peer networks. We discuss connections across these themes and compare our results with related previous studies. These results indicate that sustained investment in intentionally designed, interdisciplinary networks can generate substantial and diverse benefits for the educators and researchers who create these resources.