Impact and Research

Something is definitely happening, and I can’t define all the moving pieces, but it’s very different.

-OFAR Student

The fifth year of the Open for Antiracism (OFAR) program (2024-25) yielded strong feedback from both faculty participants and students in their classes, confirming the premise of the program that instructors can use OER and Open Pedagogy as tools to make their teaching practices antiracist.

I joined [OFAR] because I wanted to be part of a community that was committed to something more than surface-level change. I wanted to be in a space where we could dream—and build—something better together.

– OFAR Faculty Participant

As in the fourth year (2023-24), teams of faculty were invited to apply, with the aim of enhancing institutional impact and promoting OER and open pedagogy to make teaching practices antiracist. As part of their applications, teams submitted a letter of support from a supporting administrator and each college agreed to share student outcomes from past, current, and future classes with researchers to better understand how OFAR participation affects students. Participating faculty, students, and administrators also shared program experiences through surveys. Key findings from this research are summarized below.

Faculty Perspectives

Confidence

A highlight of findings from year 5 shows that participants’ confidence increased significantly.

• Before OFAR, only 21% of respondents described themselves as very confident. After completing the program, that number tripled to 66%.
• This 45-point jump significantly exceeds the confidence gains reported by Cohort 4, which saw an increase of approximately 20 percentage points.

Classroom Impact

Faculty noticed not only increased student engagement with course content but also changes in how students connected with one another. By redesigning their learning environments, instructors made space for students to share personal experiences, engage in deeper conversations, and build authentic connections with their peers. 

Survey results show that OFAR faculty made substantial shifts in their teaching, widely expanding curriculum, assignments, and classroom practices to center diversity, social justice, and student voice.

• 96% of participants expanded existing curriculum to include issues of diversity/lack of diversity, social justice and antiracist practices
• 80% of participants embedded antiracism/social justice content into student assignments.
• 74% incorporated student voices—bringing in non-mainstream perspectives and points of view

Impact Beyond the Classroom

OFAR’s impact extends well beyond individual classrooms as faculty share their work beyond the classroom walls, such as presenting at campus-wide training days and research symposia.  

Student Engagement & Perspectives 

Faculty and student data from OFAR classrooms have higher rates of  student engagement, inclusion, and persistence. Faculty report that when they redesign courses to center students’ lived experiences, flexible grading, and shared authority, they see students showing up differently—participating more, thinking more critically, and staying in the course. Student survey results echo these patterns; students say that their OFAR courses are more engaging, community-oriented, and affordable than many of their other classes. 

• Increased engagement reported by faculty and students
• 76% of faculty participants observed that students in their current OFAR-informed classes were more or slightly more engaged than students in past classes.
• 80% of student respondents reported feeling more actively engaged in their OFAR course than in their other classes.
• Stronger sense of community and dialogue reported by students 
• 93% agreed that their instructor actively developed a sense of community.
• 95% felt their instructor kept them engaged in productive dialogue.
• 94% reported that class discussions helped them appreciate different perspectives and gave all students opportunities to express their opinions.
• Lower textbook costs with high perceived quality.
• About 78% of student respondents reported spending no money on textbooks or course materials
• 62% of students rated their OFAR course textbook as the same quality as other courses

Administrator Perspectives

Since year 2, an overarching goal for OFAR has been to increase institutional impact. Applicant teams are asked to submit letters from supporting administrators and team leads are asked to update their supporting administrator monthly.

As a result, administrators at participating colleges felt engaged in their colleagues’ OFAR efforts.

• Most administrators first learned about OFAR from faculty who wanted to participate (63%).
• About half said they were actively engaged with the OFAR cohort, but all reported that college leadership supported the program and offered help when needed.
• All colleges created ways for OFAR faculty to share what they learned within their departments (100%), and most also shared across the wider college community (83%).

Course Success Trends in OFAR-Taught Classes

Course-level data suggest that courses taught by OFAR faculty saw higher student success after faculty participated in the program. On average, a larger share of students completed OFAR-taught courses with passing grades in spring 2025 compared to spring 2024. While these gains are not uniform across all colleges or student groups, the trends point toward meaningful improvements in both overall success and outcomes for students of color.

• Across all eight colleges, course success rates in OFAR-taught classes rose from 74% (spring 2024) to 79% (spring 2025).
• Six colleges saw their course success rates increase, with gains ranging from +6 to +15 percentage points.
• +6 / +4 / +3 points: Students who identified as Black saw the largest gains (+6 points), followed by Hispanic/Latine (+4) and Asian (+3) students.

Areas of Opportunity and Improvement 

Feedback from participants indicated four opportunities for program improvement.

Opportunity 1: Build on the strength of expert-led webinars by increasing opportunities for interaction and dialogue amongst participants.

Opportunity 2: Expand open pedagogy topics and examples to enhance participants’ understanding and application of this strategy. Participants found engaging with and learning from peers to be invaluable and wished for more such opportunities.

Opportunity 3: Explore differentiated learning resources

Opportunity 4: Formalize a hybrid coaching model into the program design.