So why the OER adoption gap between the US and UK? Clearly each nation's education system is based on very different models. But as Andrea Eastman-Mullins, founder and CEO of US-based West End Learning, points out: 'I think the UK has been a little more forward thinking in terms of recognising teaching and the tenure promotion process, so now the US is feeling the pain of student affordability more which has resulted in more [OER] advocacy.' Indeed, according to Eastman-Mullins, the early adopters of OERs in the US, have been largely motivated by student affordability. ‘They really see the pain of the average college student paying $1200 on textbooks every year,’ she says. ‘In the US, deciding between buying a textbook or buying food is a real issue for some students.’ Despite advocacy, numerous OER repositories and early adopters, issues exist. For example, an ongoing survey on OERs from the Babson Survey Research Group recently put faculty awareness at less than 50 per cent.
https://www.researchinformation.info/feature/oers-future-education
