Digital OER Impact on Learning Outcomes for Social Inclusion

The Information Systems field has long been positioned globally as a particularly powerful instrument to promote social inclusion. While individual identity characteristics have been the primary research focus on social inclusion, our research study directly investigates an external environmental influence in social inclusion, course materials cost, and its impact on learning outcomes. General theories of student motivation and cognition in educational outcomes and social inclusion theory were used as a starting point to identify a significant positive difference in the learning outcomes of students who used open text materials contrasted with those who used proprietary text materials. Our research with 198 participants found support for student motivation and open instructional materials as positive influences on student learning outcomes. Implications for theory and future research on social inclusion in education at the environmental level are recommended based on the results.