Open Educational Resources (OER): An Alternative to the High

Cost of Publisher Textbooks

Regina Gong, Librarian and OER Project Manager

Dr. Sharon Hughes, Professor of Psychology

Lansing Community College

2017 Professional Issues in Higher Education Conference

Michigan Education Association (MEA)

October 20, 2017

Unless otherwise notedthis presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0

http://slideshare.net/ReginaGong/

LCC AT A GLANCE

• Located in downtown Lansing

• Founded in 1957

• 26,000 students enrolled/year

• Teaching faculty 90% adjuncts

• Faculty started using OER in fall

2015 semester

• No grants/stipends/incentives

were offered

Open Educational Resources (OER)

“Teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits

their free use and re-purposing by others."

~William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

OER have open licenses (Creative Commons) that allows you to:

•Retain

•Reuse

•Revise

•Remix

•Redistribute

OER come in many forms:

• open textbooks

• full courses

• modules

• syllabi

• lectures

• homework assignments

• quizzes

• lab activities

• games

• simulations

OER > Cost savings

OER = Free + Freedom

licenses

most

open

least

open

Source: CC license image from Copyright in Education & Internet in South African Law used under CC-BY 2.5 South Africa license

Textbook affordability

Allow faculty exploration and innovation in finding new,

better, and less costly ways to deliver quality learning

materials to students

OER Initiative Goals

• Started from the bottom up

• Administration support was strong

• Academic Senate resolution on OER passed in

March 2015

• Embarked on extensive OER awareness

• Started offering OER courses in fall 2015

semester

OER Initiative at LCC

Photo by Autumn Mott on Unsplash

Time for change

https://flic.kr/p/dBfmng

Switching to OER

What did we do to make it happen?

•OER Librarian helped in finding materials

OER Reviewed by Faculty 1. Psychology (OpenStax) -

https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology

2. Introduction to Psychology -

http://www.saylor.org/books/#PtoZ

3. Introduction to Psychology (BC Campus OpenEd) -http://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?subject=Psychology

4. NOBA Project - http://nobaproject.com/

5. Introduction to Psychology (University of Minnesota Open

Textbook Library) - http://open.lib.umn.edu/intropsyc/

What did we do to make it happen?

•OER Librarian helped in finding materials

•Faculty buy-in and involvement in the process

•Rubric development

What did we do to make it happen?

•OER Librarian helped in finding materials

•Faculty buy-in and involvement in the process

•Rubric development and process

•Narrowing our choice & faculty agreement

https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology

• Process of

changing

textbooks (in

general)

• Some faculty were

not that

enthusiastic with

the switch

• Obtaining hard

copies for faculty

MCO OER Grant Recipient – Adoption Category

Dr. Sharon Hughes, Professor of Psychology

Richard Coelho, Adjunct Professor

Vaughn Vowels, Adjunct Professor

PSYCH 203 (Social Psychology)

https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=74

https://lcc.edu/resources/oer/

BIOL 127 – Cell Biology

BIOL 128 – Organismal Biology

BIOL 270 - Human Genetics

PSYC 200 – Intro to Psychology

ECON 201 –Microeconomics

ECON 201 – Macroeconomics

BIOL 201– Human Anatomy MATH 106 – Math Literacy with Review BIOL 121 – Biol Foundations for

Physiology

PHYS 200 – Intro Physics

w/Applications

Dr. Mark Kelland, Professor of Psychology• PSYC 202: Psychology of Personality

• PSYC 180: Positive Psychology

LCC Faculty Created OER

Dr. Matthew Van Cleave, Philosophy faculty

• PHIL 151: Intro to Logic and Critical Thinking

LCC Faculty Created OER Coming Soon

Spanish 121 and 122 – Elementary Spanish I and II

Open textbooks for the Fashion Program

Remix of American Yawp and OpenStax History

Lab Manuals for Human Anatomy and Chemistry

Interactive games, homework, and assignments for OpenStax Biology

Fall 2015 Spring 2016 Summer 2016 Fall 2016 Spring 2017 Summer 2017 Fall 2017

Faculty Using OER 5 12 4 46 48 26 74

Courses Using OER 5 10 4 14 16 12 27

Sections Using OER 11 23 6 101 100 33 150

Students Enrolled 317 540 129 2,825 2,558 724 3,724

Actual Textbook Savings

(based on new print book) $ 63,286.75 $ 92,077.75 $ 26,792.50 $ 351,449.00 $ 318,974.50 $ 90,642.50 $ 470,718.25

Total Textbook Savings (no.

of students*$100) $ 31,700 $ 54,000 $ 12,900 $ 282,500 $ 255,800 $ 72,400 $ 372,400

OER Adoption Summary

Photo by Aidan Bartos on Unsplash

$ 1,081,700

Evaluation and Feedback

Evaluation and Feedback

Evaluation and Feedback

Evaluation and Feedback

Evaluation and Feedback

Evaluation and Feedback

Evaluation and Feedback

Evaluation and Feedback

Evaluation and Feedback

“I think this is a really great option for the poor

starving student. Everybody should have

access to education and this really helps level

that playing field.”

Here’s what our students say about OER:

“I've always been bitter about buying a

textbook that I only need to use maybe 700

words (total) throughout the semester. This is

so much better.”

Here’s what our students say about OER:

“College is expensive enough as it is. Lots of

kids don't bother or can't afford purchasing

new $150 books for every class and it ends

up hurting their grade. Free textbooks are

good for everyone.”

Here’s what our students say about OER:

http://libguides.lcc.edu/oer/award

$1,600,000

Image source: https://unsplash.com/search/money?photo=OCrPJce6GPk

Photo by Tiago Aguiar on Unsplash

• Implement the OER Award Program to increase more courses using

OER

• Encourage & support faculty engagement with open education and

pedagogy

• Assessment & Efficacy Studies – COUP Framework ; Disseminate

research studies from Regina’s Open Education Group Research

Fellowship 2017-2018 Award

• Promote/market OER courses to students

Our Road Ahead

Image source: https://unsplash.com/collections/167234/questions?photo=i--IN3cvEjg

Regina Gong, gongr1@lcc.edu ; @drgong

Sharon Hughes, hughess@lcc.edu