Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Investing In Textbook Affordability Pays Off For Students, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Investing in textbook affordability can have a huge payoff for students—just ask Assistant Professors Alice Brawley Newlin and Marta Maras in the Management department. Their open, customized textbook for Statistical Methods (MGT 235) is completely free. It has been used by over 400 students and saved them an estimated $150,000! The story of how this remarkable outcome was achieved has its origins in Musselman Library. [excerpt]

2022 Gettysburg College Textbook Survey Full Report, Mary R. Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In Fall 2022, Musselman Library conducted its second course materials survey, this time in collaboration with 10 other liberal arts colleges from around the country. This report compiles the results from Gettysburg College participants' responses. Comparisons are also made to the results from Gettysburg's 2019 survey and the larger group of colleges.

Textbook Remix: An Introduction To Libretexts For Oer Editing, Mary Elmquist, Alice M. Brawley Newlin

All Musselman Library Staff Works

So, you’ve found an open textbook that you really like, but it’s not quite right for your class? LibreTexts might be the answer! Join us for this informal webinar to learn a little more about this online platform designed for customizing and distributing open textbooks. From Gettysburg College, Scholarly Communications Librarian Mary Elmquist will provide an introduction to the platform, its structure and features, and Dr. Alice Brawley Newlin, Assistant Professor of Management, will speak on her ongoing experiences using LibreTexts to edit and implement an open textbook for a Statistical Methods course.

This session should provide insight for both …

Student Textbook Surveys: An Important Component Of A Library Oer Initiative, Janelle Wertzberger, Amanda Langdon, Andrea Hartranft, Mary Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

A student textbook survey is a potentially powerful tool in the OER advocate’s toolkit. This moderated panel features librarians working within smaller settings and includes representatives from a small, private, liberal arts college, a small public Hispanic-serving institution, and a community college. Panelists will discuss survey goals, research design considerations, approaches to data analysis, and strategies for sharing results. Participants will gain concrete ideas about whether and how a student textbook survey could advance their local OER initiatives, as well as practical tips for how to move ahead with such a project.

Inequitable Impacts Of Textbook Costs At A Small, Private College: Results From A Textbook Survey At Gettysburg College, Sarah Appedu, Mary Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger, Sharon K. Birch

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Recognizing that higher education settings vary considerably, librarians at Gettysburg College sought to better understand textbook spending behaviors and the effects of costs on our students. We adapted the Florida Virtual Campus 2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey to suit the context of our small, private, liberal arts college. Most students spent $300 in Fall 2019. Financial aid awards did not cover the cost of required books and course materials for most students receiving aid. Negative effects were more pronounced for first-generation students and Pell Grant recipients, who were more likely to not purchase required books, to not register …

Faculty And Student Perspectives On Open Education At Gettysburg College, Mary R. Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger, Alice M. Brawley Newlin, Natasha J. Gownaris, Christopher C. Oechler, Ryan E. Nedrow

Friday Forum

Commercially available textbooks and course materials are often expensive for students and sometimes don’t cover topics in exactly the way you might prefer to teach. Freely available and completely adaptable open educational resources (OER) have risen in popularity in recent years, both nationwide and locally, as a way to address both issues. Join us to hear from Alice Brawley Newlin (Management), Tasha Gownaris (Environmental Studies), Chris Oechler (Spanish), and Ryan Nedrow ’22 to hear about their experiences with OER in the classroom. Panelists will talk honestly about the benefits, drawbacks, challenges, and successes associated with open course materials in order …

Using A Student Textbook Survey To Advance An Oer Initiative, Sarah Appedu, Mary Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Learn how one library created, administered, and used the results of a student textbook survey in order to advance an OER initiative. We will cover fundamental details, including how we modified an existing survey, chose an administration tool, and promoted the survey. Additionally, we will share our approach to analyzing data and sharing results with various campus stakeholders. This session will focus on the practical aspects of the project in hopes that other libraries will feel empowered to conduct local surveys that support programmatic goals.

Open Textbooks: Access, Affordability, And Academic Success (2020), Janelle Wertzberger, Mary R. Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Concerned about the high cost of commercial textbooks? Open textbooks are full, real textbooks, used by many faculty across the country, and licensed to be freely used, edited, reproduced, and distributed. Adopting an open textbook ensures that all students have immediate access to a zero-cost book and provides faculty 100% control over their learning materials. Attend this workshop to learn more about why open textbook adoption is on the rise, and hear from Gettysburg professors who made the switch after last year’s workshop.

After the workshop, participants will be invited to write a short review of an open textbook they …

What’S Up With Textbooks?, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Presentation at a faculty meeting on textbook costs and actions that instructors can take to improve student learning

How Much Do You Spend?: Textbook Affordability At Gettysburg College, Mary R. Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This poster, created for Musselman Library's Charting your Course 2019 first-year orientation activity, explains some of the strategies that Gettysburg College students can use to mitigate the impacts of rising textbook costs.

Open Textbooks: Access, Affordability, And Academic Success, Janelle L. Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This session will give Gettysburg College faculty a chance to learn more about open textbooks and how to discover options that might work for the courses you teach. Open textbooks can help alleviate the burden of textbook costs for students and provide faculty with content that can be customized for their course. Open textbooks are full, real textbooks, used by many faculty across the country, and licensed to be freely used, edited, and distributed. After the workshop, participants will be invited to write a short review of an open textbook they might assign in a course (please note: open textbooks …

Update On Open Access, Oer, And Oa Week 2018, Christopher Barnes

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Presentation given at the Musselman Library All-Staff Meeting on 1 November 2018.

Oer And Accessibility: Designing Equitable Foundations For Open Education, Christopher Barnes

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Presentation on OER and accessibility given at the ACLCP Fall Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Friday, 26 October, 2018.

Becoming Librarian Oer Advocates & Leaders: Spotlight On The Sparc Open Education Leadership Fellows, Christopher Barnes, Amanda Larson, Hope Power, Stephanie Quail

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Presentation given at the 15th Annual Open Education Conference in Niagara Falls, New York.

Final Portfolio - Sparc Open Education Leadership Program, 2017-18, Christopher A. Barnes

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Final portfolio of work completed for the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program, 2017-18, including the Capstone Project Final Report, the Community Resource entitled “Piloting Faculty OER Grant Programs: A Practical Guide for Librarians,” and the blog Opening Up Liberal Arts Colleges (linked). “Piloting Faculty OER Grant Programs" is also available separately in The Cupola.

Piloting Faculty Oer Grant Programs - A Practical Guide For Librarians, Christopher Barnes

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This community resource was created as a component of my capstone project for the 2017-2018 pilot of the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program. My goal was to determine whether my institution was ready for a faculty OER grant program pilot and design one that would be both effective and sustainable. Over the course of the project, I found myself compiling the most important questions we at Gettysburg College needed to answer to determine whether and what kind of a grant program was best for us.

Part One of this resource is therefore an organized list of the questions I found …

Customize Your Course Content With Open Educational Resources, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This half day workshop provides an overview of the current open textbook and OER landscape, including information about copyright, fair use, open licensing, strategies for identifying open content, and models for compiling open content for class use. We will also devote time to hands-on exploration of existing open resources that could be used in your course or discipline. If you have been thinking about reworking your required readings and are leaning toward more open materials, this workshop is the perfect time to explore the possibilities. You will get the most out of this workshop if you come with a specific …