The Fall 2020 term served as a litmus test of how well the evolving course material distribution and selection process works for U.S. higher education. More faculty than ever before had to select and adapt their course materials, with less time than previous years to explore their options and make decisions.

Faculty were overwhelmingly teaching the same course in Fall 2020 as previously, but the proportion teaching online jumped from 34% to 71%; those teaching face-to-face fell from 96% to only 14%.
- Moving online forced faculty to modify their courses: one-quarter of faculty said the Fall 2020 version of their course was considerably different than the version taught before.

The pattern of required course materials showed little change from last year’s academic term. The primary change for textbooks was a move to digital as an alternative or sole delivery mechanism.
- Seventy percent of faculty retained textbooks as a course requirement; 87% of faculty report using the same textbooks as previous terms.

Despite increased reliance on digital materials, faculty satisfaction with their required textbooks remained high.
- Faculty using commercial textbooks reported levels of satisfaction equal to those reported last year.
- Faculty satisfaction with OER textbooks improved over last year, now slightly higher than for those using commercial textbooks.

A majority of faculty now report some level of awareness of Open Educational Resource (OER), the fifth straight year of growth. A stricter measure requiring awareness of OER and licensing also showed the same pattern of continued growth.

The level of adoption of OER as required course material did not increase, marking the first time that growth in awareness was not coupled with growth in adoption. Adoption of OER supplemental materials continued its year-over-year growth, however.

Faculty who are aware of an OER initiative are far more likely to adopt OER.
- Faculty teaching introductory-level courses were three times as likely to have adopted an OER textbook (47%, compared to 15%) if they were aware of an OER initiative. The ratio among all faculty was four to one (36%, compared to 9%).

Keywords

digital texts · covid · inclusive access