Faculty attitudes towards OER and open textbooks in British Columbia and beyond

Rajiv Jhangiani BCcampus Open Textbook Fellow Beck Pitt OER Research HubChristina Hendricks BCcampus Open Textbook FellowClint Lalonde BCcampus

Open Education ConferenceVancouver BCNov 19, 2015#opened15

In the beginning

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BC Open Textbook Project

40 free & open textbooks for highest enrolled 1st & 2nd year post-­secondary subjects in BC2014 – 20 for skills & training

First province in Canada2014 – AB & SASK MOU

$1 million2014 -­ $1 million

Visual notes of John Yap announcement, Giulia Forsythe Used under CC-­SA license

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open.bccampus.ca

Year Sections Students Savings

2013 19 593 $59,300 -­ $87,960

2014 89 3018 $301,800 -­ $432,672.50

2015 186 5664 $556,140 -­ $684,129.65

Total 294 9275 $927k -­ $1.2 mil

Faculty are key

Why do they adopt?What challenges do they face?How can we overcome those challenges?

The Study

OER Research Hub Hypotheses:

• Use of OER leads to improvement in student performance and satisfaction;;

• The open aspect of OER creates different usage and adoption patterns than other online resources;;

• OER adoption at an institutional level leads to financial benefits for students and/or institutions;;

• Use of OER leads to critical reflection by educators, with evidence of improvement in their practice;;

• Participation in OER pilots and programs leads to policy change at institutional level.

• Demographic characteristics;; • Institutional and teaching context;;• Use of OER;; • Awareness and use of open textbooks from the BC Open Textbook Project;;

• Motivations for using OER;; • Challenges and enabling factors for using and adapting OER;;

• Perceived quality of OER;; • Impact of OER use on students, classroom practice, and institutions;;

• Institutional policies concerning OER;; • Awareness of open licensing;; • Sharing of teaching materials openly;; • Use of computers and the internet;; • Key personality characteristics.

What do we know so far?Usage PatternsQualityBarriers/Enabling FactorsPolicy

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Perceived quality of OER

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Compared to traditional, proprietary materials

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Adoption, adaptation, creation correlations

0.39

Adopted OER

CreatedOER

AdaptedOER 0.45

0.43

All correlations significant at p<.001

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Use, adaptation, creation, by type of institution

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Research University Teaching University College/Institute

Adopted

Adapted

Created

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Barriers to OER use, by type of institution

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Research university

Teaching university

College/Institute

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Enabling factors for OER use, by type of institution

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Research university

Teaching university

College/Institute

So what have we learned?

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The Question of OER Quality

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Adoption, Adaptation, & Creation

Much more adoption than adaptation & creationUsage patterns reflect the reported barriersMore awareness of cost savings to students than institutional benefitsAbsence of institutional policies reflect this

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The Path to Adoption, Adaptation, & Creation

Knowing About AND Having TimeTo Locate AND Easily AccessRelevant High-­Quality

WHILENot Encountering Resistance from

(And Preferably Receiving Support from)

ColleaguesAdministrators

AND

Policy Other Stakeholders

open.bccampus.ca Source: "Pencil" by sylviaduckworth. Reproduced with permission.

Thank YouQuestions?