Education Commons^™

Exploring Open Education Advocacy: Stakeholder Strategies To Build A Campus Culture Of “Open”, Nancy Henke, Molly Jameson, Ethan Roth

University Libraries Faculty Publications

Awareness of OER is essential to understanding and implementing open and equitable pedagogical practices. However, what if a campus requires more education about the “what” and “why” of OER to then spark discussions about open pedagogy? And how does an institution build a campus culture of open education when stakeholders have different degrees of investment in its implementation? OER advocacy efforts may differ significantly depending on an individual’s position within the academic hierarchy and their job responsibilities.

This panel featured three different OER advocates – an undergraduate student, a faculty librarian, and a program administrator – as they shared their …

Value Beyond Cost Savings: Unlocking Diversity, Equity And Inclusion With Open Educational Resources, Nancy Henke

Libraries Workshops & Webinars

The cost savings offered by the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) have garnered significant attention. As free teaching, learning, and research materials, OER reduce financial barriers to education by eliminating textbook costs. However, fewer people are aware that OER also contribute to a more inclusive learning environment. This session explores the value of OER beyond financial benefits, delving into how OER, as free and accessible resources, play a role in building an inclusive educational landscape. From embracing diverse perspectives in content creation to providing the opportunity to tailor course materials to students’ specific needs, this presentation uncovers the many …

Textbook Affordability Initiatives And Open Educational Resources: Complementary Or Competing Approaches To A Persistent Problem?, Anne Shelley, Rachel E. Scott

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This presentation investigates library support for textbook affordability initiatives and Open Educational Resources (OER) to consider the relative opportunities and limitations of both approaches. The literature has shown that the cost of textbooks—which has increased far beyond the rate of inflation—can be an obstacle to student success, especially for students from underrepresented groups. By sharing findings from published literature and results from focus groups and interviews conducted with teaching faculty, the speakers highlight both the incentives faculty have to collaborate with librarians to address the increasing costs of assigned materials as well as the challenges they face in adopting an …

Programmatic Characteristics Of Open Education Initiatives At U.S. Post-Secondary Institutions, Jon Bull, Michele Gibney

University Libraries Librarian and Staff Articles and Papers

Although a number of academic research papers showcase the benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER) on student success metrics, the literature still lacks a central collection of knowledge identifying programmatic characteristics between 4 year public, 4 year private, and 2 year community colleges that support these OER initiatives in the United States. To address this gap in the literature and provide evidential statistics that suggest common programmatic characteristics, this quantitative study collected 149 survey responses from program managers of OER-related initiatives at institutions of higher education in the United States. While some previous research on this topic has focused on …

Affordable Learning Kentucky: Strategies For Affordability And Success, Kelly Smith, Cristen Ross, Lori Werth, Ilona Burdette

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Kentucky Virtual Library’s Affordable Learning Steering Committee, an initiative of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), is a working group of librarians from universities around Kentucky exploring ways to advance Kentucky in the Open Educational Resource (OER) / Affordable Textbook movement.

The panel presentation included an overview of their work to date and a discussion with the audience about Kentucky’s needs and strategies related to affordable courseware for students on topics including working with campus bookstores, adding course resources to library collections, using e-reserves dynamically, promoting faculty use and creation of open content, and campus textbook initiatives.

Panelists included …

No Textbook Cost General Education Pathway: An Effort To Increase Retention At Central Washington University, Maura Valentino, Geri Hopkins

Library Scholarship

Purpose

This study aims to describe a project that aims to give students a choice to complete their general education requirements without purchasing a textbook.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 26 faculty, teaching in the new general education curriculum, at Central Washington University were given stipends to eliminate expensive textbooks and use free to the student resources such as open educational resources (OER) or library resources. The data was collected on student savings and student and faculty satisfaction with the program.

Findings

Many paths were created through the general education curriculum, so a student may easily finish these requirements without purchasing a …

The Case For Oer In Lis Education, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

The increasingly high cost of textbooks coupled with the pedagogical opportunities presented by Creative Commons licenses has provided fertile ground for the development of open educational resources (OER) initiatives as an impactful practice for improving student success. Librarians are leading advocates for OER, yet little has been published on how librarians learn about OER or how faculty use OER in library and information science (LIS) programs. For this study, the author surveyed LIS faculty about their awareness and usage of OER as well as the role they imagine for future librarians in open education. LIS faculty, current and future librarians, …

Collaboration Between Library, Faculty, And Instructional Design To Increase All Open Educational Resources For Curriculum Development And Delivery, Kelly Whealan-George, Anne Marie Casey

Publications

Students at universities spend an average of $1,250 yearly on textbooks and course materials. Can a collaboration between the Library and the Instructional Design Department create value for student populations by incorporating OER into the course development process? This is a case study of one University with a large online and distributed network with controls over the course design, timeline and curriculum delivered by the faculty. This University’s team tested whether the entire course could be designed in a scalable format using OERs collaborating with a librarian to organize the resources so students will have ready access to OER every …

An Evocative Appraisal Of The Awareness, Attitude And Utilisation Of Open Educational Resources At Kumasi Technical University, Joshua Appiah, Harry Barton Essel, Kwesi Opoku Amankwa

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are part of a growing, global movement in open practice in Higher Education; current and potential use of OERs have significant implications for the student in Higher Education. While investment in OERs has been considerable through the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH), there has not been an evaluation to develop a full understanding of how these Open Educational Resources are perceived and patronized by academic staff and students. The study, therefore, evaluated the awareness, attitude and usage of OERs by students and staff at the Kumasi Technical University. Questionnaires were administered to …

Results From A Psychology Oer Pilot Program: Faculty And Student Perceptions, Cost Savings, And Academic Outcomes, Juliana Magro, Sara V. Tabaei

Touro College Libraries Publications and Research

This case study describes the library’s experience of collaborating with an undergraduate Psychology Department at Touro College to integrate open textbooks into their program. We discuss the pedagogical changes as well as explore the impact of Open Educational Resources (OER) on students’ savings, their academic outcomes and perceptions of OER. Furthermore, we highlight the successes and shortcomings in having the library as a central OER partner. To measure the results, we surveyed students and conducted a faculty survey and a focus group, in addition to analyzing the students’ final grades. This pilot program delivered strong results. The students’ perception was …

Choose Your Own Initiative: Exploring The Landscape Of Oer And Textbook Affordability Programs, Matt Ruen, Jacklyn A. Rander, Janelle Yahne

Presentations

Congratulations! Your college or university is ready to plan (or maybe expand!) a campus-wide initiative focused on Open Educational Resources or other textbook alternatives. But OER and affordability programs vary widely in scope, funding, and strategies, described in articles, book chapters, and news stories. At Grand Valley State University, library OER supporters faced this situation when our faculty senate established a task force to identify university-wide strategies for OER and affordable course materials. To help this task force hit the ground running, we surveyed the landscape of programs at other institutions, identified organizations actively engaged in OER work, and selected …

Oer & Textbook Affordability Initiatives: An Introduction, Janelle Yahne, Jacklyn A. Rander, Matt Ruen

Library Reports and Communication

An overview of initiatives and programs supporting the use and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) or other Affordable Course Materials at higher education institutions. The report also identifies relevant organizations, addresses related issues in higher education and the textbook industry, and provides further readings and resources on OER.

This was originally assembled as background and reference materials for the 2018-2019 University Academic Senate Task Force on Open Educational Resources and Affordable Course Materials, at Grand Valley State University (Allendale, Michigan). It was subsequently revised and expanded in Summer 2019. The report focuses primarily on the Michigan context, and is …

Report Of 2018-2019 Open Educational Resources & Affordable Course Materials Task Force, Thomas Pentecost, Annie Bélanger, Lihua Huang, Charles Lowe, Erin Mcintosh, Matt Ruen, Eric Szczepaniak

Library Reports and Communication

The University Academic Senate charged the OER/ACM Task Force to:

1. Explore current GVSU practices involving course material decisions.
2. Recommend strategies to recognize existing OER/ACM use by GVSU faculty.
3. Recommend strategies to increase use of existing OER/ACM services and support.
4. Recommend new initiatives or support to increase OER/ACM adoption by GVSU faculty.

This report fulfills these charges, providing information on the context of textbook usage at GVSU and delivering recommendations and possibilities for expanded OER/ACM support.

Opening The Conversation: Getting Started, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

This column explores the concept of Open Educational Resources and how it relates to librarianship

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Opening Up: Why Are We Not Using More Open Educational Resources (Oer’S)?, Daniel A. Sabol

CSIS Technical Reports

Open Educational Resources (OER) have the ability to alleviate student drop out rate, make faculty course design easier, allow faculty to contribute and participate in the OER undertaking that is swiftly spreading through our nation. In addition we are able to save our students $2,000 - $3,000 dollars over the course of their education. This work looks at findings from a survey which was sent out to list serves and direct email to faculty. The survey posed questions to try to determine why faculty were having a difficult time accepting and using OER’s in their own classroom. It was discovered …

Oer Awareness, Advocacy, And Adoption: An Institutional Approach, Jaya Kannan, Chelsea Stone

Librarian Publications

Sacred Heart University (SHU) has launched a university-wide Open Educational Resources(OER) initiative with three goals in mind – reduce the cost of textbooks for students, increase access to course materials, and strengthen pedagogical effectiveness. SHU has made appreciable headway in the short span of one and a half years by formulating a vision, defining the goals, developing a plan of action, and implementing a pilot study to integrate open textbooks in two math courses. Although it is a nascent initiative, this presentation summarizing the lessons-learned will make a useful contribution to the OER academic discussion . The presentation will describe …

Examining Community College Faculty Attitudes Toward Open Educational Resources: A Mixed Methods Study, Denise Cote

Library Scholarship

The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study situated at a large community college in the midwestern United States was to examine faculty attitudes, knowledge, and use of open educational resources (OER) and to identify institutional initiatives that would support OER adoption. The goal of the first, quantitative phase of this study was to replicate a national survey of higher education faculty on the subject of OER. Local faculty responses to the survey were compared to those of their national peers. The second, qualitative phase of the study was the development and analysis of a single case study that …

Open Educational Resources: Revolutionizing The Academic World, Johannah Lowder, Roriebeth Fredrich

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation by the Jerry Falwell Library and Center for Curriculum Development offers information on the benefits of using Open Educational Resources (OER) in a course and resources for finding OER.

Open Educational Resource Presentation, Johannah Lowder

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation by the Jerry Falwell Library and Center for Curriculum Development offers information on the benefits of using Open Educational Resources (OER) in a course and resources for finding OER.

Open Educational Resources (Oer) Pilot Program, Fall 2015 Final Report, Catherine Overson

Open Educational Resources

Assessments Conducted by Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Assessments Targeted Four Central Areas:

1. Textbook Cost Savings
2. Student Perceptions of the OER Materials
3. Student Learning Outcomes
4. Faculty Perceptions of the OER Pilot Program