Introducing Open: What, Why and How

Introducing Open: What, Why, and How

Illinois Wesleyan UniversityNovember 29, 2016

Course Reserves

Course Reserves• Students looking for textbooks• Faculty meeting that need• The library cultivating relationships

with faculty and students through reserves

• Long lines• Too few copies • Too many copies for the library’s

space• Desk ”traffic patterns”

Operationally, we “fixed” the problem.

Policies

Processes

Communications

Facilities

Feedback

“There’s an open education conference in Vancouver, BC. You should go.”

“There’s an open education conference in Vancouver, BC. You should go.”

“There’s an open education conference in Vancouver, BC. You should go.”

Defining Open Educational Resources

Hewlett Foundation Definition:

“OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or are released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and repurposing by others”

That’s where I met Dave Ernst.

Open Content

OER

Open Textbooks

Why textbooks?

#textbookbroke

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

$400

$500

$600

$700

$800

$900

$1,000

$1,100

$1,200

$1,300

$1,400US Debt

Consumer Revolving Credit Student Loan Debt

$ Bi

llion

s

Federal Reserve http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/Current/

The average borrower owes more than

$28,950

in student loans (class of 2014).

Institute for College Access and Success http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/Student_Debt_and_the_Class_of_2012_NR.pdfhttp://ticas.org/posd/map-state-data-2015

Illinois Wesleyan = $32,101

Cost of Attendance• Tuition and Fees

• Room and Board

• Books and Supplies

• Personal Expenses

• Transportation

Cost of Attendance• Tuition and Fees

• Room and Board

• Books and Supplies

• Personal Expenses

• Transportation

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

0%

100%

200%

300%

400%

500%

600%

700%Increase in Textbook Prices

Textbooks CPI

Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/cpi/

The average student budgets

$1,249 - $1,364on textbooks and course materials in 2015-16.

http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimated-undergraduate-budgets-2015-16

Coping with the Cost

• Purchase an older edition of the textbook

• Delay purchasing the textbook• Never purchase the textbook• Share a textbook• Pirate a textbook

“I figured French hadn’t changed that much.”- UMN student

2012 2016

63.6% 66.5% Not purchase the required textbook

49.2% 47.6% Take fewer courses

45.1% 45.5% Not register for a specific course

33.9% 37.6% Earn a poor grade

26.7% 26.1% Drop a course

17.0% 19.8% Fail a course

In your academic career, has the cost of required textbooks caused you to:

http://www.openaccesstextbooks.org/pdf/2012_Florida_Student_Textbook_Survey.pdf

Our focus:

Open Textbooks

Why Open?• Facilitates the free exchange of information.• Allows higher education to take ownership of

its content.• Empowers faculty• Sharing is scalable.

Open = permissions free

• Copy• Mix• Share• Keep• Edit• Use

The 5Rs: 1. Retain2. Reuse3. Revise4. Remix5. Redistribute

Also known as…

How?

Strategies

Adopt

Create

Edit

Pedagogy

Strategies

Adopt

Create

Edit

Pedagogy

They don’t know much about them.

They’re busy:• Prepping for their courses• Responding to students• Grading• Mentoring• Research• Grant writing• Committee Work• The list goes on…

http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthecurriculum2014.pdf

Barriers to Faculty Adoption• Faculty don’t know where to find open textbooks• Faculty don’t understand the urgency of student financial

stress, and how it can impact students academically• Faculty aren’t aware that open textbooks are an option• Faculty don’t know what open textbooks are• Faculty confuse open textbooks with electronic textbooks• Faculty are skeptical of the quality of open textbooks• Faculty have limited time to engage in reviewing open

textbooks

Educ

ate

Enga

ge

+

+

1.0 - 1.5 1.5 - 2.0 2.0 - 2.5 2.5 - 3.0 3.0 - 3.5 3.5 - 4.0 4.0 - 4.5 4.5 - 5.00

20406080

100120140160180200220240260

0 0 6 420

89

219

247

Open Textbook Reviews

Ratings

Revi

ews

• 335 books• 615 reviews by faculty at OTN schools• 1 million (!) visits from every country in the

world (except North Korea)• Books produced at Rice University, SUNY,

University of Texas at Austin, NOBA, University of Minnesota, Portland State, Grand Valley State, …

335 Total Books*

8 Accounting & Finance 48 Business, Management & Marketing 34 Computer Science & Information Systems 14 Economics 6 Engineering 8 Foreign Languages 21 General Education 59 Humanities & Language 42 Law 60 Mathematics & Statistics 54 Natural & Physical Sciences 21 Social Sciences

*November 2, 2016

Best PracticesWorkflowsDecision making guidelinesDocumentationCommunity of Practice

Strategies

Adopt

Create

Edit

Pedagogy

Strategies

Adopt

Create

Edit

Pedagogy

OTN Publishing Initiative• Completing a pilot with University of Arizona, University

of Washington, UMASS Amherst and Cleveland State University.

• Providing access to: – Publishing platform– Support for project development and services– Standardized training– Documentation, best practices, guidelines

Strategies

Adopt

Create

Edit

Pedagogy

What will you do?- Join the OTN!- Open Textbook Library: email / meetings / + - Partnership with student government.- Online guides (instructors, students).- OT listserv/learning community.- Webinars/workshops (e.g. using and adapting).- Adopter profiles (articles, videos). - Mini-grants to encourage adoption- What else?

Sarah Cohensfcohen@umn.edu@open_textbooks

open.umn.edu

Thank you.