Sophia Marshall, an assistant professor in the Business Foundations area at Costello College of Business, recently made a valuable contribution to this discussion with her completed dissertation for her EdD from Marymount University, entitled "Closing the Traditional Textbook to Make Room for Open Material." Marshall surveyed 33 faculty members on their use and perceptions of OER. Marshall's respondents were vaguely familiar with OER as a concept, and their answers indicated positive feeling about using OER as a form of financial relief to students. However, their responses evinced confusion as to the differences between OER and other forms of unlicensed material downloadable from the internet.
