Open Educational Resources Westchester Community College E-Textbook Committee April 10, 2013

Origin The term “Open Educational Resources” (OER) was first adopted at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries. (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)

Definitions  “Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation, and distribution.” (UNESCO)  “... materials offered freely and openly to use and adapt for teaching, learning, development and research.” (Commonwealth of Learning, Canada)  “... [A]n important element of an infrastructure for learning.... in forms ranging from podcasts to digital libraries to textbooks, games, and courses. (US Dept. of Education)  “... materials used to support education that are freely accessed, modified, and shared by anyone.” (Stephen Downes)

E-Textbooks a part of a larger, interconnected “Digital Ecosystem” OER E-Textbooks Borrowed Whole Campus- Published DIY Flexible- Published MOOCs Open journals/ articles Audio/ Video Web pages Repository content OER Mindmap, Donna Gaudet, Mathematics, Scottsdale, AZ CC

Why Should We Pay Attention? Increasingly ubiquitous and Quality Real-world transferability Timely Dynamic and Flexible Geographically relevant democratic

“Textbook costs can be a barrier to Education.” (Student PIRGs) Students are forgoing textbooks at a detriment to their success. (Chronicle of Higher Ed.) Over the past 4 decades... Consumer Price Index 250% Health-care costs575% Textbooks812% (American Enterprise Institute, Huffington Post) Avg. spends $1,200/yr. on textbooks/course materials. GAO: cost of textbooks is comparable to 72% tuition at some community colleges. (Student PIRGs) More than ¾ of the cost of textbooks goes to the publisher (National Association of College Stores)

Publisher “Pricing Decisions”  Key-codes cannot be shared, re-sold, or “lent”  Despite promise of savings, students are still a captive market and have even less influence over pricing in e- format  One study found students saved only $1 (DeSantis) Others cite a figure more like 50% savings but with onerous restrictions and little innovation. (Boezi, FlatWorld)

Legislation & Oversight  September: California (Gov. Jerry Brown introduced bills (SB 1052 and SB 1053) “that will provide for the creation of free, openly licensed digital textbooks for the 50 most popular lower-division college courses offered by California colleges.”SB 1052SB 1053  Textbooks developed will be made available under the Creative Commons Attribution license or CC BY. Creative Commons Attribution license  March 19: OPEN SUNY Resources announced

Act now! Conduct pilots Engage students and faculty Test for devices and reader software Set standards for Accessibility Work with the library Engage Campus business leaders Choose open content Plan for analytics Do’s Do’s and Don'ts of OER Implementation (Shelton Waggener)

Focus solely on Textbooks Set hardware standards Provide Exclusivity Leave e-content to the bookstore Ignore faculty authors Don’ts Do’s and Don'ts of OER Implementation (Shelton Waggener)

Locate an Open Textbook  OER Commons (  College Open Textbooks (COT) (  CCCOER Open Textbook Directory (  OAIster (Library vendor OCLC) (  Textbook Revolution (  Lexis Nexis / JSTOR

University, Gov’t, Foundation – built Repositories & Initiatives CONNEXIONS – OpenStax (Rice U. Hewlett, Bill & Melinda Gates) MERLOT (California State University Repository, Foundations, Publishers) MARICOPA LEARNING EXCHANGE (Maricopa Community Colleges) THE ORANGE GROVE (State U of Florida) WISC Online (Wisconsin Technical College System)

DeSantis, Nick. “E-Textbooks Saved Many Students Only $1.” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 4, Web. Downes, Stephen. “OER Defined.” Half An Hour Blog. July 14, Web Kingkade, Tyler. “College Textbook Prices Increasing Faster than Tuition and Inflation.” The Huffington Post. 4 January Web. UNESCO. “Open Educational Resources.” UNECSO.org. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Web. U.S. Department of Education. “Open Education Resources.” ED.gov. U.S. Dept. of Education. Web. Waggener, Shelton. “E-Content: Opportunity and Risk.” Educause Review Online. 5 September Web.E-Textbooks Saved Many Students Only $1“OER DefinedCollege Textbook Prices Increasing Faster than Tuition and Inflation.” Open Educational ResourcesOpen Education ResourcesE-Content: Opportunity and Risk. Works Cited