THE OPEN HUB How Libraries Facilitate OER Jeremy Smith Digital Projects Manager in Scholarly Communication UMass Amherst ACRL NEC Access Services Interest Group Friday October 28, 2016

WHY OER? The cost of textbooks has gone up and everyone is worried about it. Besides dozens of academic institutions implementing grants similar to ours, Government agencies and foundations are getting involved. US Senators Dick Durbin and Al Franken recently co-sponsored the Affordable College Textbook Act which would create a competitive grant program to support the creation and use of open college textbooks. The US Dept. of Education recently launched a campaign to encourage states, districts, and educators to adopt Open materials and with a requirement that recipients of Department grant funds have open licenses.

WHY OER?

WHY OER? 2014 survey of 264 UMass students in OEI classes

WHY OER? 2016 survey of 54 UMass students in OEI classes

FACULTY AWARENESS 2016 Babson Report Opening the Textbook: OER in U.S. Higher Education, 2015-16

OPEN EDUCATION INITIATIVE SEEKING SOLUTIONS Trends US Fed departments (NIH, Dept. of Education) are writing OER practices into grant language statewide initiatives kicking off (#GoOpen). “z degrees” no textbook needed for entire degree. Legislature funded programs. OPEN EDUCATION INITIATIVE (OEI)

The OEI is a faculty incentive program that encourages The creation of new teaching materials and models The use of existing open (free or low cost) information resources to support student learning The use of library materials The development of open technologies

COLLABORATION ACROSS CAMPUS Libraries Teaching Excellence & Faculty Development Information Technology Libraries Schol Comm: individual consultations, workshops for OER, copyright, & open licensing Liaison consultations to find resources and create new content Circulation & reserves staff help to find subscription materials Course Materials Affordability Working Group Information Technology Classroom technologies & hosting Instructional technologies and experimentation. (e.g webpages, educational software, etc.) Teaching Excellence & Faculty Development (Institute for Teaching & Faculty Development) Suggest OER when faculty want to increase interactive learning Support faculty creating new curriculum materials and scaffolding

LIBRARY OER WEBSITE

SUCCESS STORIES Randal Knoper Miliann Kang Hossein Pishro-Nik English 269: American Literature and Culture after 1865 Cost Savings to date: $2,660 Miliann Kang Women's Studies 187: Gender, Sexuality and Culture Cost Savings to date: $8,475 Hossein Pishro-Nik Electrical and Computer Engineering 314: Introduction to Probability and Random Processes Cost Savings to date: $25,833 Knoper: offered a $10 Anthology of American Literature Vol. II 1865-1922 ; supplemented with library videos

OUTCOMES

Student savings Over 5 years Since 2011 $1.3 million Student savings $100,000 invested Over 5 years 7,000 students, 60+ faculty & 100 classes Since 2011

OER Assessment

OER Barriers Lack of awareness Time No single catalog of OER Lack of ancillary content Time commitment of support staff Getting beyond the “pilot” phase

OER Future Goals

THANKS! Any questions? You can find me at: @youthelectronix jlsmith@library.umass.edu