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Full-Text Articles in Education
Free, Online, And Tailor-Made: Creating An Open Textbook As A Model Document, Andy Spackman
Free, Online, And Tailor-Made: Creating An Open Textbook As A Model Document, Andy Spackman
Faculty Publications
The high cost of textbooks contributes to the financial burden of today’s college students. Open textbooks are one solution, but in the absence of an administrative directive or institutional policy, faculty have little incentive to adopt open textbooks beyond an appreciation of their students’ financial distress. Working from the grassroots and partnering with the library, the faculty of Brigham Young University’s Management Communication program has created their own open textbook. Free, online, and tailor-made, this textbook can evolve in parallel with curriculum and models the writing and design principles taught in the course. The rationale and implementation of this project …
Cost-Savings Achieved In Two Semesters Through The Adoption Of Open Educational Resources, John Hilton Iii, T. Jared Robinson, David Wiley, J. Dale Ackerman
Cost-Savings Achieved In Two Semesters Through The Adoption Of Open Educational Resources, John Hilton Iii, T. Jared Robinson, David Wiley, J. Dale Ackerman
Faculty Publications
Textbooks represent a significant portion of the overall cost of higher education in the United States. The burden of these costs is typically shouldered by students, those who support them, and the taxpayers who fund the grants and student loans which pay for textbooks. Open educational resources (OER) provide students a way to receive high-quality learning materials at little or no cost to students. We report on the cost savings achieved by students at eight colleges when these colleges began utilizing OER in place of traditional commercial textbooks.
The Adoption Of Open Educational Resources By One Community College Math Department, John Hilton Iii, Donna Gaudet, Phil Clark, Jared Robinson, David Wiley
The Adoption Of Open Educational Resources By One Community College Math Department, John Hilton Iii, Donna Gaudet, Phil Clark, Jared Robinson, David Wiley
Faculty Publications
The high cost of textbooks is of concern not only to college students but also to society as a whole. Open textbooks promise the same educational benefits as traditional textbooks; however, their efficacy remains largely untested. We report on one community college’s adoption of a collection of open resources across five different mathematics classes. During the 2012 fall semester, 2,043 students in five different courses used these open access resources. We present a comparison between the previous two years in terms of the number of students who withdrew from the courses and the number that completed the courses with a …
One College's Use Of An Open Psychology Textbook, John Hilton Iii
One College's Use Of An Open Psychology Textbook, John Hilton Iii
Faculty Publications
The high cost of textbooks is of concern not only to college students but also to society as a whole. Open textbooks promise the same educational benefits as traditional textbooks; however, their efficacy remains largely untested. We report on one community college's adoption of a free online psychology textbook. During the fall semester, 2011, 690 students used this book. Compared to students using a traditional text in the spring of 2011, students who used the free online textbook scored higher on departmental final exams, had higher GPAs in the class and higher retention rates.
A Preliminary Examination Of The Cost Savings And Learning Impacts Of Using Open Textbooks In Middle And High School Science Classes, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley, Shelley Ellington, Tiffany Hall
A Preliminary Examination Of The Cost Savings And Learning Impacts Of Using Open Textbooks In Middle And High School Science Classes, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley, Shelley Ellington, Tiffany Hall
Faculty Publications
Proponents of open educational resources claim that significant cost savings are possible when open textbooks displace traditional textbooks in the classroom. Over a period of two years, we worked with 20 middle and high school science teachers (collectively teaching approximately 3,900 students) who adopted open textbooks to understand the process and determine the overall cost of such an adoption. The teachers deployed open textbooks in multiple ways. Some of these methods cost more than traditional textbooks; however, we did identify and implement a successful model of open textbook adoption that reduces costs by over 50% compared to the cost of …
Examining The Reuse Of Open Textbooks, John Hilton Iii, David A. Wiley, Neil Lutz
Examining The Reuse Of Open Textbooks, John Hilton Iii, David A. Wiley, Neil Lutz
Faculty Publications
An important element of open educational resources (OER) is the permission to use the materials in new ways, including revising and remixing them. Prior research has shown that the revision and remix rates for OER are relatively low. In this study we examined the extent to which the openly licensed Flat World Knowledge textbooks were being revised and remixed. We found that the levels of revision and remix were similar to those of other OER collections. We discuss the possible significance and implication of these findings.
Open-Access Textbooks And Financial Sustainability: A Case Study On Flat World Knowledge, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley
Open-Access Textbooks And Financial Sustainability: A Case Study On Flat World Knowledge, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley
Faculty Publications
Many college students and their families are concerned about the high costs of textbooks. A company called Flat World Knowledge both gives away and sells open-source textbooks in a way it believes to be financially sustainable. This article reports on the financial sustainability of the Flat World Knowledge open-source textbook model after one year of operation.