Overcoming Barriers to the Growth of Innovative Teaching Practices Heather M. Ross (@mctoonish) University of Saskatchewan May 1, 2018

Overview Open at USask The Study Benefits of Open Barriers to Open Moving Past the Barriers Questions / Discussion

Open at USask University of Saskatchewan – CC-BY-NC-SA 2017-2018 – 4,000+ students using open textbooks Since 2014-2015 - $800,000+ saved New open textbooks created / existing adapted OER Repository Open Pedagogy University of Saskatchewan – CC-BY-NC-SA

The Study 9 U of S instructors Semi-structured group interviews 3 sessional instructors and 6 faculty members 7 departments within 4 colleges Semi-structured group interviews Overall Questions: What do they see as the benefits of open? What do they see as the barriers to this initiative growing at the U of S? What are the key supports needed to move forward?

Benefits to Open Instructor control of the content (“I can update it") Improve pedagogy (“sometimes our curriculum is driven by the text”. Switching to open changes the way you think about that.) Best content for the students for the course (localized, current) Improved student access (cost, multiple devices and print, no waiting for bookstore to get materials) Improve rapport with students (“increases their respect for you and buy-in to the course”)

Barriers to Open Lack of awareness about OER, how to find it, and how it works Lack of knowledge and comfort with using the technologies Lack of time needed to find materials and make changes to the course or teaching practice Culture within a department - a single course across multiple sections and instructors; tenure and promotion Need for support and professional development for educators to move toward open practices Many of these are the same barriers for instructors to move forward with the integration of Indigenization, internationalization, and other needed pedagogical changes.

Lack of Awareness Literature: Study: Lack of awareness about OER, how to find it,  and how it works (Harley, 2008; Once 2011; Masterman, etc., 2011) Study: More information about the process and concrete examples of how it works and how it could work in their courses “Maybe it’s a case of they don’t know what they don’t know” Instructors don’t know “where the barriers are and what the opportunities are.” Raise awareness among students

Technology Literature: Study: Lack of knowledge and comfort with using the technologies (Petrides, et al, 2011; Armellini & Nie, 2013) Study: Software to adapt can be challenging to use.

Lack of Time Literature: Study: Lack of time needed to find materials and make changes to the course or teaching practice (Harley, et al 2010; Armellini & Nie, 2013; Chae & Jenkins, 2015, Jhangiani, et al, 2016) Study: There’s always something more urgent Time spent on OER has taken away from work on writing papers Need more faculty so that they have the time to do this

Departmental / Institutional Culture Literature Culture within a department - a single course across multiple sections and instructors (Chae & Jenkins, 2015; Jhangiani, et al, 2016) Institutional culture in terms of promotion and tenure, policies that reward innovative teaching practices (Harley, 2008; Lane and McAndrew, 2010) Study My department didn’t tell me I couldn’t do it “It can be a liability to being doing cutting edge stuff.” Working with OER "has absolutely no baring" on their tenure file “It only matters if it can go on your CV” “There are various boxes I need to check to get tenure” SOTL needs to count toward tenure and promotion.

Moving Past the Barriers Raise Awareness Provide Support Change Culture

Raise Awareness Champions Students: Publicize milestones Copyright In departments, from Library and TLC "You need someone who is pushy, who has that evangelical zeal” "The person has to get out there. They need to invite themselves to workshops and department meetings" Testimonials from colleagues that “they’ve done this and it works” "Encourage all departments to adopt at least one open text to create an advocate" Students: Raise awareness among students Get students to say how much they’ve saved using OER Publicize milestones Copyright Publicize milestones - U of S will hit $1 million in savings for students within the next two years.

Support Literature Study Need for support and professional development for educators to move toward open practices (Armellini & Nie, 2013; Harley, 2008; Lane & McAndrew, 2010; Rolfe. 2012; Lynch & Rather, 2015; Jhangiani, et al, 2016) Study Help finding quality OER materials IT support OER advisors / consultants (to help find, explain licensing, etc.) Funding (for grad students, coverage) A useful platform to work with

Culture “Anything that helps with your teaching helps with your tenure file. You have to care about your student experience.”* Tenure and promotion guidelines Be explicit University of British Columbia tenure and promotion guidelines This varies considerably by departments and colleges, and most participants said otherwise. This should be how departments, colleges, and universities look at teaching. Be explicit – if open, Indigenization, internationalization … good teaching overall is important than let’s reward that and not penalize those who want to be doing it.

Questions and Discussion Heather M. Ross heather.ross@usask.ca @mctoonish

References Armellini, A., & Nie, M. (2013). Open educational practices for curriculum enhancement. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 28(1), 7–20. Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2013.796286 Chae, B., & Jenkins, M. (2015). A qualitative investigation of faculty open educational resource usage in the Washington Community College System: Models for support and implementations. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4eZdZMtpULyZC1NRHMzOEhRRzg/view Harley, D. (2008). Why understanding the use and users of open education matters. In T. Iiyoshi & M. S. V. Kumar (Eds.), Opening up education: The collective advancement of education through open technology, open content, and open knowledge (1st ed., pp. 197–211). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

References cont. Harley, D., Lawrence, S., Krzys, S., & Dixson, J. (2010) “Affordable and open textbooks: An exploratory study of faculty attitudes.” California Journal of Politics and Policy 2, no. 1. Retrieved from http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/cjpp.2010.2.1/cjpp.2010.2.1.1087/cjpp.2010. 2.1.1087.xml. Jhangiani, R. S., Pitt, R., Hendricks, C., Key, J., & Lalonde, C. (2016). Exploring faculty use of open educational resources at British Columbia post-secondary institutions. Victoria, BC: BCcampus. Retrieved from http://wiki.ubc.ca/images/b/be/BCFacultyUseOfOER_final.pdf Lane, A., & McAndrew, P. (2010). Are open educational resources systematic or systemic change agents for teaching practice? British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(6), 952–962. Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- 8535.2010.01119.x Lynch, K., & Rathert, G. (2015). Textbooks can be affordable: Getting faculty in the game. Proceedings of Open Education Global 2015: Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Banff, Alberta.

References cont. Masterman, L., Wild, J., White, D., & Manton, M. (2011). The impact of OER on teaching and learning in UK universities: Implications for learning design. Proceedings from the 2011 International LAMS and Learning Design Conference. 35-44. Panke, S. (2011). An expert survey on the barriers and enablers of open educational practices. Petrides, Lisa, Cynthia Jimes, Clare Middleton-Detzner, Julie Walling, and Shenandoah Weiss. (2011) Open textbook adoption and use: Implications for teachers and learners. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e- Learning 26, no. 1: 39–49. Rolfe, V. (2012). Open educational resources: staff attitudes and awareness. Research in Learning Technology, 20(0). http://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14395