Cost Efficiencies
Open resources can help academics save time and in turn can help Universities benefit from cost efficiencies.
With access to a rich source of teaching and learning resources, academics can choose to use or adapt existing materials, rather than starting with a blank piece of paper. For example, they can choose to play some of the video or audio available on the iTunes U site, incorporate reading lists and essay questions or even use the PowerPoint presentations and lecture notes created by their contemporaries at other institutions.
A recent example of this type of cost saving was documented as a case study: ‘a la mode: setting a fashion for practical re-use’ (PDF)
The case study included a survey with 51 students from the School of Geography. The results are available at the blog post ‘It turns out that students do use OER and it does save time’.