The Open Textbook Network

Collectively Helping Institutions and Faculty Overcome Barriers to Adoption

of Open Textbooks

David Ernst, PhDUniversity of Minnesota

What are the barriers that keep faculty from adopting open

textbooks?

Barriers to Faculty Adoption• 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 don’t know where to find open textbooks• Faculty are skeptical of the quality of open textbooks• Faculty have limited time to engage in reviewing open

textbooks

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39%Adoption rate of workshop attendees

(14% - 65%)

0 05

1

8

41

6065

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

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 - 5.0

Reviews

Ratings

Faculty Reviews of Textbooks in the Open Textbook Libraryopen.umn.edu

…

• help faculty overcome barriers to adoption of open textbooks (faculty workshop & reviews)

• increase institutional capacity to support faculty adoption and use of open textbooks (staff workshop, summer institute, toolkit)

• collaboratively develop new understandings and best practices of open textbook adoption and use (adoptions, student savings, textbook quality, stories of success)

The Open Textbook Network (OTN) is a consortium of institutions working to:

Cost: $5,000 ($10,000 - $5,000 subsidized by the Hewlett Foundation)

For more information

Open Textbook Library: open.umn.edu

Open Textbook Network: z.umn.edu/otnetwork

Or contact me: David Ernst dernst@umn.edu

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