1. E-Textbooks: Two Approaches
Beth Bernhardt
Assistant Dean for Collection Management and Scholarly Communications
UNC Greensboro
Joseph Thomas
Assistant Director for Collections and Scholarly Communications
East Carolina University

2. What are Open Educational Resources?

3. Definition
Teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re- purposing by others. 
- William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

4. Open Educational Resources: The 5Rs Framework
Retain: Users have the right to make, archive, and "own" copies of the content;
Reuse:  Content can be reused in its unaltered form;
Revise: Content can be adapted, adjusted, modified or altered;
Remix: The original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new;
Redistribute: Copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed form.  - See more at:

5. OERS Include

6. Research on Cost of Textbooks
UNCG Student thoughts

7. Why Open Education?
“I stopped buying textbooks my second semester here.” - Marieme T., library student assistant

8. The Reality of Student Debt
The average borrower owes more than
$28,950
In student loans (class of 2014)
High debt loads are not only a financial stress. They can also delay the time it takes individuals or couples to reach certain milestones, such as having children, getting married or owning property.
Source: Institute for College Access and Success

9. Student Public Interest Group report 2016
Survey of 5,000 students
Nearly one third (29.7%) used financial aid to pay for their textbooks
Students using loans to would pay an additional $34.72 for a $150 textbook

15. OER’s and Alt-Texts in Technical Services: How to Get the Job Done
Course-Adopted Texts at Joyner Library,
East Carolina University
Joseph Thomas Assistant Director for Collections and Scholarly Communication Joyner Library, ECU

16. What are Alt-Texts Course-adopted texts (CATs) Freely available
Can be articles or books from library
Can be open access

17. Examples of Alt-Texts
Two places you can find open textbooks are at Oapen and Open Textbook Library
Some examples of ECU CATs:
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler
Encyclopedia of Urban Legends by Jan Brunvand
Job Search Handbook for People with Disabilities by Daniel Ryan

18. Classes Using CATs Lower level and upper level courses
From anthropology to theatre
Both on-campus and distance ed

19. Bookstore Cooperation
Reluctant partners at first, but now willingly participate
We ask them for “The List”: spreadsheet with resource, author, edition, publication year, course, section, instructor

20. The List The raw list needs to be cleaned up
It needs to be searched in Serials Solutions to see if we could have access to the titles
Then it gets searched in Gobi to see what type of license we could buy for each title: we’re primarily interested in unlimited license e-books

21. Buy-in from Faculty Send faculty emails
Ask if they’d be willing to let students use electronic version
Most say yes
A few say no
Royalties
Students should own book for future reference
Concerns about access
Absence of content in online that is included in print
Image quality

22. Getting the Item We purchase the item like any other e-book
Activate it in Serials Solutions
Update the LibGuide:
Catalog it so it’s in our catalog

23. Projected Savings
Track number of courses, sections, number of students and bookstore cost and library cost and come up with an estimated savings amount
The library spent $6,141.77
It saved approximately $241,876.66*
Involved 144 professors
235 class sections
167 titles in all, some of which were already held by ECU

24. Usage What types of usage are we seeing User sessions
Number of pages viewed
Pages printed
Full title downloads

26. What We’ve Learned Editions matter Nothing with course access codes
EBL concurrent license has worked
Added providers: JSTOR, ProjectMuse
Least DRM possible
Some always fall through the cracks and we have to pick them up later
Remember to count repeating courses over multiple semesters when calculating cost savings

27. For the Future
Would a 3 concurrent user license be ok for a small seminar class?
Make LibGuide into something better
Database driven replacement
Reference:
Patrick L. Carr, James D. Cardin & Daniel L. Shouse (2016) Aligning Collections with Student Needs: East Carolina University's Project to Acquire and Promote Online Access to Course-Adopted Texts, Serials Review, 42:1, 1-9, DOI: /

28. Mini Grants – UNCG Libraries
10 stipends were granted
Goal was to encourage faculty to use low-cost or free alternatives to expensive course materials
Open-access scholarly resources
Library-licensed and owned resources
Learning objects and text created by the faculty

29. Timeline October 2014 - Scholarly Communications Forum
“Solving the Textbook Cost Crisis with Open Educational Resources”
Nicole Allen from SPARC
Made an announcement at the Forum and in our Campus Weekly
March 2015 – OER Mini-Grants applications announced
Had the Office of the Provost send out s with the announcement
April 14th and 15th, 2015 – Workshops held
45 faculty attended the workshops
April 24th 2015 – Applications due
Had 25 applications
May 11th 2015 – the Grant winners
contained contact information for the Library Liaison and the Instructional Technology Consultant

30. Timeline August – September 2015 – Meetings with grant winners
Met with grant winners individually
Late November – Early December 2015 – Report findings
Meet with grant winners again
Write up cost savings information
Write an article with quotes from faculty
February 2016 – Faculty Forum with OER winners
Have the share their experiences

31. Cost savings Course Number of students in the class Cost of Textbook
CHE 342 93
$154
$ ,322.00
CED 777B and D 8
$100 $
POL260/240 85
$180
$ ,300.00
ART 100
147
$175
$ ,725.00
CED 756A
$412
$ ,296.00
HDF 212
192
$211
$ ,512.00
ATY 453 20
$80
$ ,600.00
ARH 112
215
$171
$ ,765.00
BUS/ENT 201 90
$ ,200.00
BUS/ENT 240 40
$70
$ ,800.00
BUS/ENT 340 30
$60
$ ,800.00
ENG *by fall 2016
990
$65
$ ,350.00
TOTAL
1918
$ ,470.00

32. Return on Investment Average textbook cost $111.82
Cost for University Libraries and Provost Office combined (one time)
$10,000.00
Gross Savings
$214,470.00
Return on investment
$204,470.00
ROI Ratio
21.45

33. Example from Dr. Bob Anemone
Essential Skeleton 4 free app

34. Faculty thoughts on using OER in their classes
“The resources I found are better than the textbook” –Jennifer Reich, Associate Director / Lecturer
“I was going to use other resources for just the BUS 201 class but ended up using them for my 240 and 260 classes” – Chanelle James, Lecturer in Bryan Business School
“When I told my class there would be no required textbook they all clapped and cheered!” - Heather Helms – Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies

35. Student Survey quotes
I truly appreciated the resources over a traditional text book. I connected more with the resources and it was less expensive.“
I appreciated the fact that I didn't have to spend money on a textbook! 
The resources provided were incredible in providing relevant information. The instructor did a great job of providing the material. I think that the financial burden of textbooks is one that is sometimes unavoidable but when is can be avoided I believe it is beneficial to the student. I am very thankful for the instructor working so hard to ease the students of this burden.
I believe that this method of teaching is great, and I have learned just as much as I would using a textbook.

36. OER nationally
Open Textbook Library -
Open Textbook Network - UNC Greensboro just joined in September
Open Library of Humanities -
OpenStax College -
Affordable Learning Georgia -
SPARC – List of OER Project and Policies -

37. Next Steps
ECU and UNCG joint grant to provide Alt Textbooks and OER mini grants for faculty
Psychology Faculty at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver, Canada, Rajiv is an OER Research Fellow with the Open Education Group, the Associate Editor of NOBA Psychology OER, and a former Faculty Fellow with the BC Open Textbook Project. Rajiv has co-authored two open textbooks and is involved in course development for the OERu.
Merinda is currently the Health and Human Sciences Librarian and an Associate Professor in the Colorado State University Libraries. She joined the Open Textbook Network in 2015, after participating in the Network’s inaugural summer institute and organizing a successful Open Textbook Network visit for the Colorado State University community. Merinda received her MLIS in 2002 from The University of British Columbia.

38. References Bureau of Labor Statistics The Economist
The Economist
textbooks-cost-so-much?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/pe/whytextbookscostsomuch
Florida Virtual Campus 2012 Florida Student Textbook Survey
NBC News
risen-812-percent-1978-n399926

39. Questions?
Beth Bernhardt Assistant Dean for Collection Management and Scholarly Communications University of North Carolina Greensboro
Joseph Thomas Assistant Director for Collections and Scholarly Communication East Carolina University