Open Education in Virginia's Higher Education Institutions: An Environmental Scan Sarah Cheverton (James Madison University) Beverly Covington (SCHEV) Claudia Holland (George Mason University) Jenny Quarles (VA Community College System) OpenEd16 November 3, 2016 Richmond, VA Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

What is SCHEV? The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) is the Commonwealth's coordinating body for higher education. Mission: To advocate and promote the development and operation of an educationally and economically sound, vigorous, progressive, and coordinated system of higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia and to lead state-level strategic planning and policy development and implementation based on research and analysis. Beverly The Council also seeks to facilitate collaboration among institutions of higher education that will enhance quality and create operational efficiencies.

Data derived from http://www. sheeo. org Data derived from http://www.sheeo.org. State funding allocated for higher ed in Virginia has fallen from $8k in 1990 to less than $5k/FTE student in 2015. Tuition at public institutions have increased over that same period from about $3500 to over $8k per year. Because affordability is a big part of state plan, must look at all strategies to approach affordability Students have more influence over course materials cost than tuition. Student options to save money if z-course offered. http://www.sheeo.org

US Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Virginia Plan Goals Provide affordable access for all. Optimize student success for work and life. Drive change and improvement through innovation and investment. Advance the economic and cultural prosperity of the Commonwealth and its regions. Beverly Cultivate affordable postsecondary pathways for traditional, non-traditional and returning students; Provide effective academic and student services infrastructures focused on persistence and completion; Increase on-time completion of certificates and degrees; and Cultivate innovations that enrich quality, promote collaboration and improve efficiency.

Timeline

Our environmental scan The survey served to: provide a picture of the status of open and OER at public institutions in VA, determine which institutions are leaders in open work and which institutions need more support, and identify barriers to open initiatives and investigate what support, legislation and/or funding is needed to address these barriers. Jenny

* And More. . . *Numbers reflect % of respondents.

* The Results Jenny *Numbers reflect % of respondents

Survey Quotes “In short, higher level administration is starting to become aware of OER and its potential for reducing costs for students. However, to date, there has been no directive or allocation of resources to specifically focus on OER or open pedagogies.” Quotes from the survey.

“The information from OpenVA has been an invaluable resource as we begin advocating for OER on our campus. Please keep sharing it.”

Areas of Focus lack of connection with student orgs, VA21 and student government for OER advocacy; bookstore and faculty/department policies that impact the ability to adopt OER versus a traditional textbook; authentic assessment; need more institutional data on open education, outreach & awareness (where do people need more training?); how are textbook costs reported at institutions (is there a common method?) Upper administration support and action Jenny

OVAC Future Directions Provide guidance on messaging to high level & influential OER champions, Devise mechanisms to facilitate collaborations among institutional offices active in and critical to facilitating OER adoption, and Build awareness of challenges and opportunities for open education in Virginia. Claudia The environmental scan revealed areas to begin OVAC’s next steps in support of OER adoption and growth. OVAC plans to compose sample messages to share via the OpenVA website. This guidance is intended to educate and enlist support from institutional administrators (e.g., President, Provost, CIO) and student government and/or appropriate student organizations. Facility the operative word here. Librarians, Instructional Designers, accessibility and education technologists, LMS managers, Faculty Development leaders, etc. are some of the working parts essential to faculty OER adoption. Incorporate OER initiative(s) in Fac Dev and IT strategic planning & goals. Sustainability and growth in terms of internal funds devoted to OER adoption; looking beyond grants. Some challenges - not enough open textbooks available, yet; Work closely with librarians who have established relationships with faculty and institutional publishers (library?) to develop new open textbooks. Who in the state offers guidance if not assistance with publishing? ADA compliance should be considered at the outset, not as an afterthought.

Long-term Goals Incentivizing cross-institutional collaborations (e.g., http://4-va.org), Examine policies and procedures that affect course material affordability and recommend needed revisions (e.g., TCC’s http://web.tcc.edu/policies/2000/2108-UseofOpenEducationalResources.pdf), Create a clearinghouse for statewide data on OER use & savings, by institution, and Dedicated state appropriations. Claudia Ideas that have evolved as OVAC matures as a group, not necessarily reflected in the survey outcomes. 4-VA funds have been allocated to support mini-grants incentivizing faculty to create &/or use open content to replace expensive books (5 institutions now part of 4VA- George Mason, James Madison, ODU, UVa, VaTech) Some VA community colleges, such as TCC, have adopted an OER policy. Data collection is critical for purposes of lobbying for state monies & legislation, promoting VA HE institutions & verifying student success. The Virtual Library of VA’s (aka VIVA) membership in the OTN is providing one mechanism for collecting data on open textbook adoption by VA HE institutions. Additional methods for collecting data need to be devised. (Beverly would you jump in here to talk about proposed appropriations)

Contact Information Sarah Cheverton, M.A. Assistant Coordinator of Online Learning James Madison University cheverse@jmu.edu 540-568-5321 Beverly R. Covington, J.D. Senior Associate for Academic and Legislative Affairs State Council of Higher Education for Virginia beverlycovington@schev.edu 804-371-0571; Claudia Holland, M.A., M.L.I.S. Head, Scholarly Communication and Copyright George Mason University Libraries, Mason Publishing chollan3@gmu.edu 703-993-2544 Jenny Quarles, M.A. Director of Teaching and Learning Technology Virginia Community College System jquarles@vccs.edu 804-819-4797