{"id":118,"date":"2022-02-28T16:04:57","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T16:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integrations.pressbooks.network\/oerstarterkit\/chapter\/chapter-21-data-collection-and-strategies-for-oer-programs\/"},"modified":"2022-05-19T20:07:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T20:07:20","slug":"chapter-21-data-collection-and-strategies-for-oer-programs","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/integrations.pressbooks.network\/oerstarterkit\/chapter\/chapter-21-data-collection-and-strategies-for-oer-programs\/","title":{"raw":"Data Collection and Strategies for OER Programs","rendered":"Data Collection and Strategies for OER Programs"},"content":{"raw":"
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Why Collect Data?<\/h2>\nWhen running an OER program, time can often be scarce, and a program manager may wonder why data collection needs to occupy a significant portion of this always-limited resource. Besides extrinsic motivators such as a demand for data in a report to stakeholders, data is also the peripheral nervous system of your program\u2019s organization; it is the way a program can assess successes, failures, emergent ideas, and urgent issues to address.\n

How Can Data Help?<\/h3>\nData collection, analysis, and reporting can yield multiple benefits for your OER program. Data can guide strategic decision-making when a program wants to adjust, adapt, and move forward. A report based on collected and analyzed data can help tell the story of why your program has the potential to, or already is, making a difference in your institution or system. Data can also indicate a need for targeted open education programming and funding, such as data on high textbook costs, students\u2019 financial needs, or faculty awareness of OER.\n

Data Collection and Ethics<\/h2>\nBefore collecting data, be sure to keep some basic ethical guidelines in mind:\n

Privacy<\/h3>\nData privacy may be a priority at your institution already, given the potential for cybercrime and the existence of legal requirements for data privacy, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in the United States. Alongside these, be sure that you have a reason to collect and\/or report any personal identifiable information (PII) before doing so. For example, if an awarded grant proposal requires an institutional email address (which is likely already displayed on their campus website), this is likely enough contact information; including a phone number or a physical address may not be necessary.\n

Consent<\/h3>\nAnyone who is submitting data to you, or getting data collected passively via web or platform analytics, should know who this data will be submitted to and why it\u2019s being collected. When someone has informed consent in submitting data to you, not only do they acknowledge that their data is being collected, but they know your intent in collecting and using this data. Transparency in your data needs pre-collection and your reporting post-collection will help.\n

Anonymity<\/h3>\nAlongside data privacy, be sure to anonymize, or \u201cde-identify,\u201d the data you collect whenever necessary. For example, in the United States, institutions often meet FERPA guidelines in collecting student data by replacing PII with an anonymized identifier with no meaning to anyone except the data collectors and analyzers (OECD 2016).\n

Equity<\/h3>\nEquity is often an implicit goal in OER programs; any program that attempts to close the gap in educational materials costs and barriers to access is essentially addressing educational equity (DOERS3 2021). Therefore, be sure to collect, analyze, and report your data through the lens of educational equity; if you can analyze how the implementation of OER affects marginalized demographic groups at your institution, that analysis will help your initiative tell a more focused and comprehensive story of how your program works. See the Disaggregating Your Data section later in the chapter for more details.\n
Data Collection and Institutional Review Boards (IRB)<\/header>\n
\n\nInstitutional Review Boards are essential for ensuring that research taking place complies with both legal and institutional guidelines. In the United States, institutional review boards are built into federal regulations and ensure protections for all human research subjects. In the United States regulations, educational research on the effectiveness of instructional strategies, curriculum changes, and classroom management methods are typically exempt, so long as the research does not impact students\u2019 ability to learn and instructors\u2019 ability to teach (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2018).\n\nSurveys, interviews, and focus groups can be exempt, but the more easily identifiable the subjects are on a personal level, the more likely that this research will not be exempt. Keeping privacy, consent, and anonymity in mind will help with this, as will awareness and transparency of any third parties that may be responsible for the collection and\/or protection of your data.\n\nThis will likely cover most open education research, but it is still good to do due diligence with your IRB; there may be an outstanding issue with a particular study or further institutional guidelines which need to be met. Once you have a plan for a research study or a large data collection effort, contact your IRB for your institution\u2019s own details and guidelines.\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

An OER Data Workflow, From Strategy to Collection<\/h2>\nWhen you are starting your OER program\u2019s data collection, don\u2019t start at the collecting part: instead, start with figuring out exactly why you need data and how you\u2019ll use it once it\u2019s collected. Then, move to the what<\/em> with actual data collection. To model this process, this chapter will work in chronological order and discuss data collection at the end<\/em> of the chapter. You may encounter some data-specific terminology in the examples that you\u2019re unsure of at first, and this is okay; data terminology is discussed in the Data Collection section at the end.\n

Step 1: Creating a Critical Questions List<\/h3>\nBecause the needs of your stakeholders should drive your decision-making in an OER program, start with these needs when determining what type of data you want to collect. You can do this by looking at each stakeholder group for the program and determining a list of critical questions that your key stakeholders will ask, therefore determining a need to collect the necessary data to answer these questions (see Step 3).\n\nPlease note that you first need to know<\/em> your stakeholders and their environments. See Chapter 8, Building Familiarity on Campus<\/a>, for ways to familiarize yourself with the needs of diverse stakeholders at your institution. This familiarity will also help you know how to obtain data from different departments or offices at your institution, and possibly how easy or difficult that process will be.\n

Stakeholder Example: Executive Administration<\/h4>\n