The connection between course materials and teaching approaches

I read an interesting study this morning in the Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning that suggests there is a connection between an instructors choice of learning materials and their choice of teaching practice, and that those who choose to use OER’s over commercial resources tend to use more student-centric teaching practices. 

The study (unfortunately and ironically not open access) analyzed if there were differences in teaching approaches for instructors who use commercial materials compared to those who use OER.

The researches broadly classified teachers into 2 categories based on a tool called Approaches to Teaching Inventory-Revised (ATI-R). The 2 broad categories were those who used a more traditional information transmission/teacher-focused instructional approach (ITTF) and those who use a more student-centric conceptual change/ student-focused (CCSF) teaching.

The study results show that using OER may impact pedagogical decision-making and instructors who used OER scored higher in student-focused teaching (CCSF) than those who used commercial materials.

Instructors who use OER as their course materials scored higher on the CCSF scale. Those who use OER may also engage in open educational practices. Such practices challenge the traditional notion of teachers as knowledge providers and students as passive recipients of information (Paskevicius & Irvine, 2019). Martin and Kimmons (2019) discovered that faculty members believed their course content and classroom practices were more closely aligned when utilising OER since they could customise the materials to fit their specific courses and students. Nascimbeni and Burgos (2019) also found a correlation between familiarity with OER and adopting more engaging and open teaching methods. Less information may be disseminated when the course content is selected with intent.

In addition to training instructors about the option of OER, they should also be informed how its use can lead to more student-focused teaching. The most significant factors that predicted a willingness to modify teaching practices were modifying instructional content and regular discussions with colleagues about teaching (Riihimaki & Viskupic, 2020). Teachers who modify their course content were twice as likely to change their teaching methods.

In addition, instructors who employ CCSF strategies in teaching are more inclined to educate students who exhibit a greater tendency towards deep learning approaches, and also report report greater enjoyment of teaching, which could be due to increased autonomy in teaching due to using OER.

Lazzara, J. (2024). The connection between course materials and teaching approaches. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680513.2024.2415323