Open Education @ SC4Presenters:

Ryan JohnsonKendra Lake

OER Basics

What is an open educational resource?Open Education "...is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Web in particular provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge”

—The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

•Materials (of any type) that reside either in the public domain or are licensed openly, usually through a Creative Commons license.

•Faculty created items that are shared freely and licensed openly.

•Format: materials in any medium, digital or otherwise

•Conditions: that either•resides in the public domain or•have been released under an open license,

•Nature: permits its free use and re-purposing by others.

http://www.openwa.org/module-2/

What are open textbooks?

Open Textbooks are freely available resources that are adoptable for use in a course.

Open texts can be used as is or revised & remixed to suit your course depending on the book’s license.

Examples:

A First Course in Linear Algebra: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=5

Chemistry: https://openstax.org/details/books/chemistry

Examples of OERS:•open textbooks•full courses•modules•syllabi•lectures•homework assignments•quizzes•lab activities•games•simulations

What about licensing?

If no license is attached or indicated, one must assume the work is copyright protected. http://esearch.sc4.edu/copyright

Public Domain

CC-BY

CC-BY-SA

CC-BY-NC

CC-BY-NC-SA

CC-BY-ND

CC-BY-NC-ND

By Creative commons (the original CC license symbols), the combined work by Shaddim and is hereby cc-by-4.0 licensed. - https://creativecommons.org/about/downloads/ https://creativecommons.org/policies/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47247325

● Creative Commons● Copyright● Copyleft / GNU, etc.

Benefits of OER

Student Savings on Books

Florida Student Textbook Survey

22,000+ students surveyed

50%+ of students didn’t have aid covering book costs

31% didn’t register for a course, 35% took fewer courses, 14% dropped a course, and 10% withdrew from a course due to textbook costs

Student Savings on Books

The Cost and Quality of Open Textbooks (Bliss, et. al.)

83% of 125 students across 6 colleges didn’t buy books when a free digital copy was available to them

Those that did purchase books spent less than $60, with many spending less than $40

Those who chose to print out the materials spent less than $20

Student Savings on Books

Adoption of OER by One Community College Math Department (Hilton, et. al.)

Covered 2,043 students

If all students used OER instead of traditional textbooks they would save $255,375

SC4 Fall 2016 Semester preliminary savings estimate

● 435 students in 23 sections of 5 courses saved an estimated $115,942.50 by elimination of traditional textbook

Student Savings on Books

Maricopa County Community College

Maricopa Millions OER Project

From Fall 2013 to Fall 2016 students have saved over $7.5 million dollars in textbook costs

Free and low cost textbooks under $40 are available

Decreased Drop/Withdrawal Rates

Tidewater Community College (VA) Z-Degree (Wiley, et. al.)

The overall drop rate for 1st year Z courses was 2.79%, compared to 3.57% for non-Z courses

Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation (Hilton, et. al.)

Face-to-Face Z course drop rate was 1.8% compared to 2.3%

Hybrid/Online Z course drop rate was 1.4% compared to 4%

Face-to-Face Z course withdrawal rate was 8.1% compared to 9.9%

Hybrid/Online Z course withdrawal rate was 13.1% compared to 13.7%

Decreased Drop/Withdrawal Rates

Virginia State University study showed 11% lower withdrawal rates among classes utilizing OER compared to those using traditional textbooks

Student Performance

In 13 peer reviewed studies of OER efficacy covering nearly 120,000 students, 95% performed the same or better than students in non-OER courses

Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation (Hilton, et. al.)

Face-to-Face courses in Z-Degree saw 73% of students with a C or better, compared to 68% in non-Z courses

Online/Hybrid courses in Z-Degree saw 69% of students with a C or better, compared to 65% in non-Z courses

Student Performance

Measuring the Effectiveness of the OLI Statistics Course (Lovett, et. al.)

Fall 2005 saw no significant differences between OER students and those in non-OER courses

Spring 2006 students in OER courses performed better in statistical literacy than those in non-OER courses

Interactive Learning at Public Universities (Bowen, et. al.)

6 public colleges were studied, and no significant differences were seen between OER and non-OER students

More Control for Instructors

Open Textbooks and Increased Student Access and Outcomes (Feldstein, et. al.)

Study authors argue that OER allow instructors more freedom to design their courses how they’d like them to go

Mainstreaming Open Textbooks (Pitt)

Surveyed instructors reported that utilizing OER made them feel more in control of their courses

How SC4 can help

Finding OER

http://esearch.sc4.edu/oer

Evaluating OER

Source: https://open.bccampus.ca/files/2014/07/Faculty-Guide-29-mar-15.pdf

Creating OER

Adapting & reusing

Creating from scratch

Helping to create and publish to the MCO OER Commons site

Organize your resources on LibGuide, Course reserve, or in LMS

Questions/Concerns

Quality of Resources

Open Textbooks and Increased Student Access and Outcomes (Feldstein, et. al.)

Study found that students believed OER were more engaging and helpful than a traditional textbook

Adoption of OER by One Community College Math Department (Hilton, et. al.)

Students felt OER were useful both in class and outside of class

15/18 faculty said that OER were the same quality or better quality than traditional resources

Quality of Resources

Mainstreaming Open Textbooks (Pitt)

Instructors felt that OER were more useful in part because of greater accessibility to students

95% of instructor who used OER reported that they would recommend OER to peers

Ease of Discovery and Peer Review

Many faculty in various studies were concerned about being able to find good OER and the time it would take to find good OER

Open Stax books are peer reviewed, but others might not be, meaning institutions and individual instructors will likely have to take on the burden of searching for OER and evaluating quality