1. Using Open Textbooks to Transform Student Learning
AzLA 2017
Using Open Textbooks to Transform Student Learning
Cheryl Cuillier, Open Education Librarian University of Arizona Libraries
<have 60 minutes>
<everybody got handouts?>
Hi, I’m Cheryl Cuillier. I’m the Open Education Librarian at the University of Arizona Libraries.
I just want to point out that this presentation is Creative Commons licensed – if you don’t know what that means, you’ll find out soon.
These slides and handouts are also linked from the website oer.arizona.edu.
Parts of this presentation are derived from “Open Textbooks: Access, Affordability, and Academic Success” by David Ernst, licensed under CC BY 4.0

2. Your turn Go to Slido.com Enter code #J291 Select POLLS
Answer the poll question: I work …
<at community college libraries? 4-year college/university libraries? Public libraries? School libraries? Special libraries? Anyone else?>
While my talk is going to focus on open textbooks for academic libraries, OER are also important for K-12 schools and lifelong learners.
On slido.com, you’ll notice there’s also a tab for questions. As we go, feel free to type in a question. You can upvote questions by selecting the thumbs up icon.

3. What we’ll cover today What are OER? Creative Commons licences
Why are open textbooks important?
What we’ve done at the UA
Benefits & barriers
Finding open textbooks
Assessing open textbooks
Increasing student success
Customizing textbooks
Open pedagogy
Where to learn more about OER

4. “Everyone has the right to education
“Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”
<Image taken from Dave’s slide>
This quote is from the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights.
It reminds us that we’re here to talk about something bigger than textbooks … education as a social justice issue ... education as a way to transform people‘s lives. It‘s why I‘m so passionate about the open-access movement and making education equally accessible to all.
– Article 26

5. What are OER?
So, what are open educational resources (OER)? They’re teaching, learning, and research resources that range from textbooks, full courses, syllabi, and lecture notes to test questions, games, assignments, videos, and lab notes. Anyone in the world can download them for free, read them online for free, copy, adapt, and reshare them.
In this talk, I’ll be focusing on textbooks.
OER are part of the broader open-access movement (open data, open science, open-source software, open journals, etc.). By the way, the world is celebrating the 10th annual Open Access Week right now, so Happy Open Access Week.

6. OER = free + freedom to do the 5 R’s
Retain
Reuse
Revise
Remix
Redistribute
In order to be considered “open,” a resource needs to be free AND give the user the freedom to do the 5 R’s. When I say “free,” I mean free to the user. There are large costs associated with producing open textbooks (often covered by philanthropic organizations, states, provinces, or universities).
5 R’s:
Retain: make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
Reuse: use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
Revise: adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
Remix: combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
Redistribute: share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)
From
<vertical open sign: CC0:

7. Creative Commons licenses
All Rights
Reserved
Some Rights
Reserved
<Dave’s slide>
How do people know if a textbook allows the 5 R’s? Usually through a Creative Commons license (see handout).
While copyright is “all rights reserved,” Creative Commons is “some rights reserved.” It’s up to the creator which rights are reserved.

8. https://creativecommons.org/licenses
<Dave’s slide images>
These are the bulding blocks of Creative Commons licenses.
BY = Attribution (this license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation)
NC = Non-commercial (can’t be resold for profit – this causes some confusion – professors have asked, “Can I use NC content if I’m charging tuition for a class?” Answer is yes, but users can’t profit from reselling the content itself)
SA = Share Alike (license under the identical terms)
ND = No derivatives (can’t modify content in any way -- under the 5 R’s, not considered OER)

9. https://creativecommons.org/licenses
<modified from Dave’s slide>
The building blocks can be combined in various ways.
Wikipedia uses CC BY-SA
Ted Talks use CC BY-NC-ND (most restrictive Creative Commons license – materials with a ND license not technically OER)
The Creative Commons’ Attribution license (CC BY) is the gold standard for open textbooks. It’s the most flexible Creative Commons license and the one we encourage OER creators to use.
Creative Commons’ CC0 tool allows creators to waive all rights and place a work in the public domain.

10. The challenges of mixing CC content
The license that you choose matters.
I know you can’t read these, but this chart shows whether you can mix 2 CC-licensed items with different licenses. From left to right and top to bottom, the licenses go from least restrictive (public domain and CC BY) to most restrictive (CC BY NC ND). If there’s a check mark, you can mix them. If there’s an X, you can’t.
This shows why we really encourage OER creators to use the least restrictive license they’re comfortable with.
On an OER listserv this week, there was a big discussion about whether to require certain licenses on grant-funded OER projects. The executive director of SUNY OER Services said the original Open SUNY Textbook project assigned a CC BY-NC-SA license to all the works, which has caused many headaches. She says they now advocate for a CC BY license (or CC BY-SA).
Some faculty prefer the NC. They don’t want commercial publishers profiting off their work. That is a danger. Two weeks ago, right before the OpenEd conference, Cengage announced it’s new OpenNow courses, which mix OpenStax’s CC BY licensed textbooks with Cengage’s own content. Then Cengage resells it to students for $25/course or more.
If you’re interested in learning a lot more about Creative Commons licenses, a new CC Certificate program is coming in April It will run as a 12-week online course (with tracks for academic librarians and for educators) on Canvas with OER.
OK, we’ve talked about what OER are and how Creative Commons licenses work. Now let’s turn to why open textbooks are important …
“License Compatibility Chart” by Creative Commons is licensed under CC BY

11. Why we need OER
… It’s so that students aren’t left with $1,000 TV stands made of 4 commercial textbooks. Look at that sad face!
<

12. $1.45 trillion student loan debt Source: Federal Reserve System
When it comes to college costs and student debt, there are some alarming numbers …
$1.45 trillion (with a T) is the amount of outstanding federal student loan debt as of June Every time I give an OER presentation, I have to update this number and raise it.
<
<public domain image from
Source: Federal Reserve System

13. Average debt of university graduates in the United States 2014/15, by state
I’ve highlighted Arizona in red on this chart showing the average debt of U.S. university graduates. While average debt in Arizona is thankfully lower than in many other states, $23,780 is still quite a burden on graduates.
Note: United States; 2015
Source: Institute for College Access & Success

14. Debt at Arizona public universities
At public universities in Arizona, the average debt for 2016 graduates ranged from almost $23,000 at ASU-Tempe to more than $26,000 at NAU. Less than half of UA and ASU students graduated with debt in 2016, but 64% of NAU students did. The other key number to look at here is Pell Grants, which go to students with financial need. According to Scholarships.com, “Students whose total family income is $50,000 a year or less qualify, but most Pell grant money goes to students with a total family income below $20,000.”
<
Source: Institute for College Access & Success,

15. Why are graduates leaving college with debt?
This chart from the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) shows why. The orange line shows the increasing number of students enrolled in public higher education in Arizona. The turquoise part of the bars show how educational appropriations have been shrinking, especially since 2008 (from just under $8,600 per FTE in 2008 to about $5,100 in 2016). The teal part of the bars (on top) show how net tuition and fees (minus financial aid) have been increasing (from about $3,200 in 1991 to nearly $8,000 in 2016).
It used to be possible to work during the summer and earn enough money to pay for a year’s tuition. Not any more.

16. $800- $1,200 for books & supplies
As a librarian, there’s little I can do about the cost of tuition & fees, or room & board. I can do something about textbook costs.
$800 is the UA’s Financial Aid Office estimate of the cost of undergraduates’ books and supplies for $1,200 is the estimated cost for graduate students.
Source: UA Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid

17. The UA BookStores do everything they can to keep prices down, but publishers have increased the cost of textbooks more than 1,000% (3 times the rate of inflation) since 1977.
The big question is why????

18. Why have textbook costs risen?
A 2016 Student Public Interest Group report, “Covering the Cost: Why We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore High Textbook Prices”: blames textbook price increases on the lack of two major economic forces in the textbook market: competition and consumer choice. “Five major publishers control 80% of the market … [and] The student – the consumer – has no choice in which textbook they’re assigned.”
In the NBC News story on the previous slide, Nicole Allen, a spokeswoman for SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, agrees that publishers have "been able to keep raising prices because students are 'captive consumers.‘ “
According to a 2015 article in MarketWatch, titled “How financial aid is driving up college textbook prices”: “ ‘[Textbook prices] have all been going up at a much faster rate than any other consumer product,’ said Mark Perry, a finance and business economics professor at the University of Michigan-Flint. ‘It’s directly tied to the fact that students get financial aid.’ Rising tuition leads to more financial aid for students, and publishers know this, so they raise book prices, Perry said.”
Source: 2016 Student Public Interest Group report, “Covering the Cost”

19. of students don’t buy required textbook
66.6%
of students don’t buy required textbook
As a result of high textbook costs, two-thirds of students say they haven’t purchased the required textbook for a class.
Students react to high textbook prices with all kinds of strategies that are less-than-ideal for learning – in addition to skipping a book, they’ll try sharing it, pirating it, waiting several weeks to see if they really need it, or using an older edition. I have 2 sons in college who spend a lot of time and effort trying to find cheaper deals on textbooks and they’ve both been burned by getting the wrong edition for a class, which turned out to be useless.
One University of Minnesota student was asked to buy an $80 textbook, but found one that was 2 editions older for $8 on Amazon. His rationale was “I figured French hadn't changed that much,” but he knew he was taking some academic risk.
<2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey>
<public domain image from
<Minnesota student anecdote from Dave Ernst>
Source: 2016 survey by Florida Virtual Campus

20. In your academic career, has the cost of required textbooks caused you to:
66.6%
Not purchase the required textbook
47.6%
Take fewer courses
45.5%
Not register for a specific course
37.6%
Earn a poor grade
26.1%
Drop a course
20.7%
Withdraw from a course
These academic risks can be significant. Here are more numbers from that 2016 Florida survey. Most numbers are up from the 2012 survey. Obviously, we don’t want to see these outcomes (poor grades, failing courses, taking fewer courses, dropping courses) for students.
When Cable Green from Creative Commons came to speak at the UA during Open Education Month this spring, he said he’s met students who actually choose a major based on textbook costs. They may want to study nursing or engineering, but switch to another major with more affordable textbooks.
So I want to present a more encouraging number …
<More than 22,000 public higher education students from all of Florida’s 40 colleges and universities participated in the survey (n = 22,906). Percentages are students who answered seldom, occasionally, always>
19.8%
Fail a course
Source: 2016 survey by Florida Virtual Campus

21. saved with OER at UA (in 2 years)
$535,400
saved with OER at UA (in 2 years)
$535,400 is the conservative estimate of what UA students saved in through the use of OER (based on $100/student).
We hope this is just the beginning. Like a ripple in a pond, we’d love to see OER spread across campus.
<Public domain image for background from

22.
Half a million dollars is also a drop in the bucket compared to what some community colleges have saved.
Is anyone here from the Maricopa Community College system?
The Maricopa Millions project has done a phenomenal job of saving students money with OER. As of Fall 2017, the cumulative total is over $10M.
Z degrees (or zero-textbook-cost degrees) are a growing trend at community colleges. Pima Community College in Tucson got a big Achieving the Dream grant to develop a Z degree.

23.
I’d love to have an OER/low-cost materials filter in the UA’s course catalog like Maricopa Community Colleges do. Oregon and the Cal State system will also be implementing a similar search capability.
<In a 2017 article in Inside Higher Ed, titled “OER, on the Ground,” it said students at the Community Colleges of Spokane (in WA state) were using this type of search filter to vote with their feet. “In the winter 2017 quarter, courses using OER were filled 74 percent to capacity. Other courses were filled at 61 percent capacity.”>

24. We started small at the UA
Estimated
savings:
$6,100
Our OER initiatives started out small at the UA. We first began piloting open textbooks in Spring Our eContent pilot project used two open textbooks that I found in the OER Commons. A year later, in Spring 2015, we joined the Open Textbook Network and I organized OER Day at the UA, which included an Open Textbook Workshop for instructors. In 2016, the UA became an OpenStax institutional partner.
This year, my job is transitioning from liaison librarian/discovery coordinator/OER coordinator to focus mostly on OER.
GIST 601 (Intro to Geographic Information System Technology)
Used in place of textbook with
list price of $183.26
SBE 202 (Professional Communication & Presentation)
Used in place of textbook with
list price of $192

25. Raising OER awareness @ the UA
• Open Textbook Workshops for faculty (paying $200 stipends + free lunch)
• Visits to schools/ departments with list of subject-specific OER options and OER 101 handout
• Joint presentations with UA BookStores
• OER Action Committee and listserv
• 2017 Open Education Week events
• Open Textbook Workshop for faculty (without stipends)
What’s worked well
Duds
As Open Education Librarian, an important part of my job is to raise awareness of OER on campus. Some of the strategies I’ve tried have worked well.
<go through chart>
OER Action Committee includes members from the libraries, UA Press, BookStores, central IT, teaching center, and Disability Resource Center, plus instructional designers, faculty, and student government leaders.
Duds: We actually expanded Open Education Week to Open Education Month, with 4 different events. I spent months organizing panels and events, including a session with Cable Green of Creative Commons. Turnout was disappointingly low.

26. The jury is still out on some of our other efforts
The jury is still out on some of our other efforts. I got the idea for these posters from ALA’s celebrity READ campaign. The “textbook hero” slogan comes from OpenStax T-shirts. We plan to share these templates with a Creative Commons license.
Photos by Aengus Anderson / graphic design by Marty Taylor / University of Arizona Libraries

27. This ad ran in the campus newspaper, The Daily Wildcat.
We tried to reach students with an ad in the campus newspaper at the start of Open Education Month. The College of the Canyons let us adapt their poster design and Open Textbook Network members contributed additional kitten puns.
This ad ran in the campus newspaper, The Daily Wildcat.
Graphic design by Marty Taylor / University of Arizona Libraries

28. Benefits of OER Lower costs Available online Equal access
Perpetual access
Updatable
Customizable
Flexible formats
Student success
To recruit UA faculty to adopt OER, I’ve focused on its advantages. In addition to significant cost savings, there are a number of other benefits:
- Available online: Because OER don’t require any special authentication, they’re easily integrated into learning management systems. For online courses, access to digital OER is much easier for students.
- Equal access: With an open textbook, every student has access from the first day of class. No student's academic progress is thwarted because he or she can't afford to buy the required textbook(s).
- Perpetual access: With OER, students can keep the books as long as they want. Rented commercial textbooks have to be returned; eTextbook access often ends after 180 days.
- Updatable & customizable: OER can be updated or modified at any time. Faculty can also mix and match chapters from open textbooks or add their own content to create a resource that’s tailored specifically to their teaching style and the course’s learning objectives.
- Different formats: With OER, web/PDF copies are free, forever. EPUB versions can be easily used on mobile devices. Most OpenStax books come in Bookshare versions for those with visual disabilities.
- Student success: Results from the largest study to date, published in the Journal of Computing in Higher Education, found that when it came to three key measures of student success—course completion, final grade of C- or higher, course grade – students whose faculty chose OER generally performed as well or better than students whose faculty assigned commercial textbooks.
I can hear you thinking: OER sound perfect! How could there possibly be any downside to free resources? Well, we have run into a few barriers to OER adoption…
<SPARC open access icon>

29. Barriers to OER adoption
OER scattered online
Lack of awareness
Concerns about quality
Technical/legal issues
Time to revamp syllabus
Some subjects have few OER
OER scattered online: There’s a goldmine of OER online, but it can be challenging to find them. There’s no central repository, no one-stop shop to go to look for OER. Lack of awareness is another hurdle. According to the Babson Survey, only 25% of faculty said they were “Aware” or “Very Aware” of open educational resources, up from 20% last year. Only 5.3% of courses are using open textbooks (includes public domain and Creative Commons licensed).
Concerns about quality: « If it’s free, it can’t be any good. » Technical/legal issues: Faculty are unsure how to edit OER, how to find images and graphics that are in the public domain or that have a Creative Commons license.
Time for faculty to revamp syllabus: If you’ve created a course around a particular textbook, it can be a lot of work to redesign the class. Some subjects have few OER: While more subjects are being covered all the time, initial open textbook projects have targeted large undergraduate classes. According to the Hewlett Foundation, which funds OER projects, there’s more OER content in math and science than in English, language arts, and social sciences.
<Bricks are public domain image from
<Babson Survey: >

30. Your turn Go to Slido.com Enter code #J291 Select POLLS
Answer the poll question: What do you see as the biggest OER hurdle at your institution?

31. Where to find open textbooks
One of the barriers is discoverability. To help instructors locate open textbooks, we created a website: OER.arizona.edu, with links to all of these repositories. They‘re also listed in your handout.
[logos from websites]

32. https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics
OpenStax is my favorite source of open textbooks and ancillary materials. OpenStax is a project out of Rice University, funded by philanthropic groups like the Gates Foundation and Hewlett Foundation. OpenStax spends a lot of time and money producing textbooks that rival commercial textbooks. They pay their authors. They‘re formally peer reviewed, which is important to faculty and administrators. For those of you at school libraries, OpenStax has several titles customized for Advanced Placement classes.
This College Physics textbook is used for 2 semesters at the UA, in PHYS 102 and 103. It replaced a textbook that sold for $240.
<show print version of College Physics>

33. Source: UA BookStores’ textbook portal for students
So the OpenStax book is totally free for students to read online and download. For students who prefer print, the UA BookStores sell a hardcover, full-color version for $48.50 new or $36.50 used.
When faculty submit their textbook orders to the BookStores each semester, they’re now asked to report whether they’re using open textbooks or library-licensed ebooks. That should improve my ability to track OER usage on campus.
Source: UA BookStores’ textbook portal for students

34. Free instructor resources
To compete with commercial publishers‘ course in a box, OpenStax offers free ancillary materials for instructors, such as PowerPoint slides and homework answers. To access them, instructors need to create a free account. This is so that things like the Instructor Solutions Manual (homework answers) don’t get posted online. For Physics, the Concept Trailers refer to a series of free videos on YouTube.

35. Optional add-ons https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics
OpenStax has partnered with a variety of technology companies to offer optional learning tools. These are just a few of the online tools available for College Physics. At the UA, PHYS 102/103 students use Expert TA’s online homework system, which also handles homework grading. Access is free for instructors and $32.50/semester per student.

36.
The Open Textbook Library is the first place I send faculty (and the first place I look myself). The library is a project of the University of Minnesota and the Open Textbook Network. It has more than 415 complete textbooks, including the OpenStax titles. All of the textbooks in the library are either used at multiple higher education institutions or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.

37. To enhance discovery of open textbooks, the Open Textbook Library makes free MARC records available. They’re a little hard to find on the Open Textbook Library site. Go to the Our Textbooks link and select Discovery from the drop-down menu. We’ve added these MARC records to the UA Libraries’ catalog.

38.
When we added the MARC records to our catalog, they were also ingested into Summon, our discovery service. Now, if you do a keyword search for chemistry in Summon, an OpenStax chemistry book is actually the 2nd result. A new filter for open access content was added to Summon in May It’s not a perfect tool, but it’s a start. More than 225 million items in the Summon index are identified as Open Access (of those, more than 3.2 million are books/ebooks). 

39. https://als.csuprojects.org/course_content
Another good way to find open textbooks is to use these search tools on Cal State’s Affordable Learning Solutions website (which has great resources for faculty and OER librarians, by the way). There’s an ISBN search and keyword search of MERLOT content. If instructors are currently using a commercial textbook, they can input the ISBN number and find open alternatives. I used the ISBN search recently with an art history book and found 38 open textbooks and 36 online courses in MERLOT.

40.
In the K-12 OER space, Amazon Inspire is an interesting development. Unveiled in June 2016, Amazon says it will feature videos, images, lesson plans, and other K-12 educational resources. The service is still in beta. It used to require an access code (which I tried unsuccessfully to get). Now you can log in with your Amazon credentials, but you have to provide your school zip code and the grade you teach (K-12).
It’s something to keep an eye on, to see whether Amazon expands into the higher ed space.
<Can’t find much recent news about Amazon Inspire. According to Tory Patterson, co-founder of venture capital fund Owl Ventures, told the New York Times: "Amazon is establishing a foothold that could expand into a one-stop shopping marketplace—not just for paid learning materials, but for schools’ wider academic and institutional software needs.“ - >
“We’ve collaborated with thousands of teachers and dozens of states, districts, and publishers during the private beta of Amazon Inspire.” “Amazon Inspire allows users to upload, share, discover, access, download, and use digital content, such as, videos, images, lesson plans, and other educational resources.”

41. The question of quality
I mentioned that questions about quality were one of the barriers to OER adoption. It does come up with faculty and administrators at the UA.

42. My message to faculty: “
You have complete academic freedom to choose the best course materials. You’re the subject-matter expert. ”
When faculty ask me about the quality of OER, this is my standard response. I say that I can help them find OER, but it’s up to them as the subject-matter experts to evaluate the materials and decide if they meet their learning objectives and course needs. I emphasize that faculty always have complete academic freedom – they simply have more options with OER.
Background image – CC BY - Brenda Clarke
Background image: “Free Texture #65” by Brenda Clarke is licensed under CC BY 4.0

43. This is a great case to point to when people question OER quality.
Someone noticed this content in a Pearson nursing textbook and shared it on social media, saying, “the recommendations are not just based on stereotypes, but could be harmful if relied upon in patient care.” In a video, Pearson’s president for global product development “apologized for the content, saying it ‘reinforced a number of stereotypes’ and ‘was wrong.’ In a tweet, he said, ‘We plan to work with experts to help improve our curriculum.’
So commercial textbooks aren’t infallible. The difference is that an open textbook can be edited and fixed immediately, but Amazon is still selling new hardcover copies of this textbook for $ Who knows when the corrected edition will come out. (80% of its reviews are now 1 star, though)

44. Show & tell “Oh, it’s a real textbook” ! High-quality design
Formal peer review + new editions
High-quality design
“Oh, it’s a real textbook” !
Show & tell
I keep a set of the print OpenStax books in my office. I take them to meetings and presentations. At our faculty workshops, I had an “open textbook petting zoo.”
I’ve found that putting a hardcover OpenStax book in the hands of faculty and administrators really helps alleviate concerns about OER quality. I tell them that OpenStax books are formally peer reviewed. I highlight that the Sociology book is in its 2nd edition, so books are being updated. They see the full-color pages and high-quality design. Inevitably, someone blurts out, “Oh, it’s a real textbook!” And I say, “YES!.” I’ve also found that it’s useful to highlight the OER efficacy studies that have been done.
Photo by Aengus Anderson / University of Arizona Libraries

45.
I’ve found that it helps to point out to faculty and administrators that OpenStax and Open SUNY textbooks are formally peer reviewed. Books in the OER Commons, MERLOT repository, and Open Textbook Library have user reviews. I think both are useful. Faculty reviews for the Open Textbook Library are written following Open Textbook Workshops. At the UA, we’ve done 2 rounds of workshops with a total of 55 faculty. We pay each instructor $200 to attend the training and then write a review of a book in his or her subject area. The OTN has found that the process of reviewing the textbook often leads to adoptions.
This was the case for one of our workshop participants. Her review is the second one shown here. Her department plans to adopt it for 1,200 incoming freshman. I’m working with her to customize the book.

46. “Open Textbooks” by David Ernst is licensed under CC BY 4.0
This slide comes from the Open Textbook Network. Books in the Open Textbook Library are ranked on a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being best). This chart shows that the vast majority of open textbooks in the OTL receive 4‘s and 5‘s, which should be reassuring to faculty who have quality concerns.
“Open Textbooks” by David Ernst is licensed under CC BY 4.0

47.
Cool4Ed, which is a service of the Cal State University-MERLOT program, features evaluations of both quality and accessibility for more than 150 open textbooks. You can find these reviews under the Course Showcase tab. The accessibility evaluations are done by the CSU Long Beach Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility and are really detailed, covering 15 accessibility “checkpoints” that could impact the learning of people with a range of disabilities. Reviewers check whether there’s alt text for images, whether audio clips have transcripts, and whether the text and audio/video content is compatible with assistive technology, etc. In the Quality Evaluations, open textbooks are judged on subject matter, instructional design, editorial aspects, and usability.
<“Every etextbook has quality evaluations by CCC, CSU, and UC faculty with expertise in the appropriate discipline. The California OER Council developed the evaluation rubric which was used by all faculty reviewers. Every etextbook has a comprehensive accessibility evaluation conducted by the CSULB Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility.”>

48. 12 Peer Reviewed Studies of Perceptions of OER Quality
<Dave’s slide>
In terms of student and teacher perceptions of OER, 2,717 students and 2,484 faculty members were surveyed across the nine peer-reviewed studies. Approximately 50% said that the OER resources were as good as traditional resources, 35% said the OER were superior and 15% said they were inferior.
Allen, I., Seaman, J. (2014). Opening the Curriculum: Open Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, Bliss, T., Robinson, T. J., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). An OER COUP: College teacher and student perceptions of Open Educational Resources. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1–25. Bliss, T., Hilton, J., Wiley, D., Thanos, K. (2013). The cost and quality of open textbooks: Perceptions of community college faculty and students. First Monday, 18:1. Feldstein, A., Martin, M., Hudson, A., Warren, K., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D. (2012). Open textbooks and increased student access and outcomes. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning. Retrieved from Gil, P., Candelas, F., Jara, C., Garcia, G., Torres, F (2013). Web-based OERs in Computer Networks. International Journal of Engineering Education, 29(6), (OA preprint). Hilton, J., Gaudet, D., Clark, P., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 14(4), 37–50. Lindshield, B., & Adhikari, K. (2013). Online and campus college students like using an open educational resource instead of a traditional textbook. Journal of Online Learning & Teaching, 9(1), 1–7. Petrides, L., Jimes, C., Middleton‐Detzner, C., Walling, J., & Weiss, S. (2011). Open textbook adoption and use: Implications for teachers and learners. Open learning, 26(1), 39-49, Pitt, R., Ebrahimi, N., McAndrew, P., & Coughlan, T. (2013). Assessing OER impact across organisations and learners: experiences from the Bridge to Success project. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2013(3). 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. BCcampus Research Report. Victoria, BC: BCcampus.
Pitt, R. (2015). Mainstreaming Open Textbooks: Educator Perspectives on the Impact of OpenStax College open textbooks. The International Review of Research in Open And Distributed Learning, 16(4).
 and CA OER Whitepaper

49. 15% Worse 35% Better http://openedgroup.org <Dave’s slide>
In terms of student and teacher perceptions of OER, 2,717 students and 2,484 faculty members were surveyed across the nine peer-reviewed studies. Approximately 50% said that the OER resources were as good as traditional resources, 35% said the OER were superior and 15% said they were inferior.
Allen, I., Seaman, J. (2014). Opening the Curriculum: Open Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, Bliss, T., Robinson, T. J., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). An OER COUP: College teacher and student perceptions of Open Educational Resources. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1–25. Bliss, T., Hilton, J., Wiley, D., Thanos, K. (2013). The cost and quality of open textbooks: Perceptions of community college faculty and students. First Monday, 18:1. Feldstein, A., Martin, M., Hudson, A., Warren, K., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D. (2012). Open textbooks and increased student access and outcomes. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning. Retrieved from Gil, P., Candelas, F., Jara, C., Garcia, G., Torres, F (2013). Web-based OERs in Computer Networks. International Journal of Engineering Education, 29(6), (OA preprint). Hilton, J., Gaudet, D., Clark, P., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 14(4), 37–50. Lindshield, B., & Adhikari, K. (2013). Online and campus college students like using an open educational resource instead of a traditional textbook. Journal of Online Learning & Teaching, 9(1), 1–7. Petrides, L., Jimes, C., Middleton‐Detzner, C., Walling, J., & Weiss, S. (2011). Open textbook adoption and use: Implications for teachers and learners. Open learning, 26(1), 39-49, Pitt, R., Ebrahimi, N., McAndrew, P., & Coughlan, T. (2013). Assessing OER impact across organisations and learners: experiences from the Bridge to Success project. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2013(3). 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. BCcampus Research Report. Victoria, BC: BCcampus.
Pitt, R. (2015). Mainstreaming Open Textbooks: Educator Perspectives on the Impact of OpenStax College open textbooks. The International Review of Research in Open And Distributed Learning, 16(4).
 and CA OER Whitepaper

50. 13 Peer Reviewed Studies of Efficacy
<Dave’s slide>
Across 13 academic studies that attempted to measure results pertaining to student learning (higher ed: treatment, 99,692 control, k12: 1805 treatment 2439 control) none showed results in which students who utilized OER performed worse than their peers who used traditional textbooks.
Allen, G., Guzman-Alvarez, A., Molinaro, M., Larsen, D. (2015). Assessing the Impact and Efficacy of the Open-Access ChemWiki Textbook Project. Educause Learning Initiative Brief, January See also this newsletter. Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., Lack, K. A., & Nygren, T. I. (2012). Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from Randomized Trials. Ithaka S+R. Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., Lack, K. A., & Nygren, T. I. (2014). Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from a Six‐Campus Randomized Trial. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(1), Feldstein, A., Martin, M., Hudson, A., Warren, K., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D. (2012). Open textbooks and increased student access and outcomes. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning. Retrieved from Gil, P., Candelas, F., Jara, C., Garcia, G., Torres, F (2013). Web-based OERs in Computer Networks. International Journal of Engineering Education, 29(6), (OA preprint) Hilton, J., Gaudet, D., Clark, P., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 14(4), 37–50. Hilton, J., & Laman, C. (2012). One college’s use of an open psychology textbook. Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, 27(3), 201–217. Retrieved from Repository Preprint). Lovett, M., Meyer, O., & Thille, C. (2008). The open learning initiative: Measuring the effectiveness of the OLI statistics course in accelerating student learning. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2008 (1). Pawlyshyn, Braddlee, Casper and Miller (2013). Adopting OER: A Case Study of Cross-Institutional Collaboration and Innovation. Educause Review. Robinson, T.J. (2015). Open Textbooks: The Effects of Open Educational Resource Adoption on Measures of Post-secondary Student Success (Doctoral dissertation). Robinson T. J., Fischer, L., Wiley, D. A., & Hilton, J. (2014). The impact of open textbooks on secondary science learning outcomes. Educational Researcher, 43(7): Wiley, D., Hilton, J. Ellington, S., and Hall, T. (2012). “A preliminary examination of the cost savings and learning impacts of using open textbooks in middle and high school science classes.” International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 13 (3), pp
This also includes Fischer et al (2015), Wiley et al. (EPAA) (2016), and Hilton et al. (IRRODL) (in press)

51. 95% Same or Better Outcomes
<Dave’s slide>
Across 13 academic studies that attempted to measure results pertaining to student learning (higher ed: treatment, 99,692 control, k12: 1805 treatment 2439 control) none showed results in which students who utilized OER performed worse than their peers who used traditional textbooks.
Allen, G., Guzman-Alvarez, A., Molinaro, M., Larsen, D. (2015). Assessing the Impact and Efficacy of the Open-Access ChemWiki Textbook Project. Educause Learning Initiative Brief, January See also this newsletter. Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., Lack, K. A., & Nygren, T. I. (2012). Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from Randomized Trials. Ithaka S+R. Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., Lack, K. A., & Nygren, T. I. (2014). Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from a Six‐Campus Randomized Trial. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 33(1), Feldstein, A., Martin, M., Hudson, A., Warren, K., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D. (2012). Open textbooks and increased student access and outcomes. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning. Retrieved from Gil, P., Candelas, F., Jara, C., Garcia, G., Torres, F (2013). Web-based OERs in Computer Networks. International Journal of Engineering Education, 29(6), (OA preprint) Hilton, J., Gaudet, D., Clark, P., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 14(4), 37–50. Hilton, J., & Laman, C. (2012). One college’s use of an open psychology textbook. Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, 27(3), 201–217. Retrieved from Repository Preprint). Lovett, M., Meyer, O., & Thille, C. (2008). The open learning initiative: Measuring the effectiveness of the OLI statistics course in accelerating student learning. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2008 (1). Pawlyshyn, Braddlee, Casper and Miller (2013). Adopting OER: A Case Study of Cross-Institutional Collaboration and Innovation. Educause Review. Robinson, T.J. (2015). Open Textbooks: The Effects of Open Educational Resource Adoption on Measures of Post-secondary Student Success (Doctoral dissertation). Robinson T. J., Fischer, L., Wiley, D. A., & Hilton, J. (2014). The impact of open textbooks on secondary science learning outcomes. Educational Researcher, 43(7): Wiley, D., Hilton, J. Ellington, S., and Hall, T. (2012). “A preliminary examination of the cost savings and learning impacts of using open textbooks in middle and high school science classes.” International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 13 (3), pp
This also includes Fischer et al (2015), Wiley et al. (EPAA) (2016), and Hilton et al. (IRRODL) (in press)

52. Nuts & bolts of using OER
Flickr image:
“Nuts” by joe jukes is licensed under CC BY 2.0

53. A: Adopt B: Build C: Create
These are basically your 3 options. A is easiest – you take an existing open textbook and adopt it. B is more complicated. C is pretty time intensive, but some faculty on campus are doing it.
One thing we haven’t tried yet at the UA is offering grants to faculty who adopt, adapt, or create OER. Many colleges and universities are doing this, often through the libraries.
My colleagues at Kansas State University have implemented a $10/student fee for each course that adopts OER or free resources. 89% of the fee goes back to the department as an incentive.

54. As members of the Open Textbook Network, the UA has access to a free Pressbooks account. I’m currently working with a Pharmacy professor to import her content into Pressbooks and turn it into a book. “Pressbooks is easy-to-use online software that lets you convert your book into the professional-quality files you need to publish your book”
I was part of a task force in the Open Textbook Network that also used Pressbooks to create this guide. It’s linked from our OER website, under Using OER. Direct URL is
The gist of the guide: While a Creative Commons license gives you the RIGHT to modify an open textbook, technical issues can make it difficult to actually do it.
It’s difficult to make major changes to a PDF.

55. Another Open Textbook Network guide, Authoring Open Textbooks, features a checklist for getting started, case studies of publishing programs, textbook organization and elements, writing resources, and an overview of useful tools. Direct URL is

56. Open pedagogy
Open pedagogy was a big focus of last year’s OpenEd conference. It’s the idea that, instead of having students do throw-away assignments that are quickly forgotten, involve them in creating OER – which is more meaningful and lasting.
Direct URL is

57. Best OER practices in courses
Split chapters into separate PDFs for weekly readings
Also offer entire file for searchability
Make print an option
Work with disability resource experts
Use images in the public domain or that have liberal CC licenses
Our OER website, has resources for these images.

58. Creative Commons offers a handy tool for searching for CC-licensed images, videos, music, and media. There’s also a new CC Search beta, with one-click attribution.

59. https://research.cehd.umn.edu/otn
As far as how to get more involved in OER yourself, I highly recommend the Open Textbook Network. It has an active listserv. Each summer, Network members meet in Minneapolis for the Summer Institute (training for new members) and a 2-day Summit (for all OTN members). It’s been invaluable to me for networking, resources, and information.

60. I also recommend joining the REBUS Community, although you don’t have to be a member to participate in the monthly online “Office Hours.” Videos of past sessions are available on YouTube.

61. https://sparcopen.org/our-work/sparc-library-oer-forum
There’s also the SPARC Libraries & OER Forum. It has another active listserv. There are monthly calls. There’s also a bi-weekly e-newsletter with OER news, events, opportunities, jobs, and readings.

62. Lastly, feel free to use the UA’s OER website as a resource
Lastly, feel free to use the UA’s OER website as a resource. It’s not going to win any design awards, but it does get thousands of views. Under “About OER,” we explain the 5 R’s and post links to books, articles, and reports about OER, focusing on how they improve student success. Under “OER Use at UA,” we highlight the UA faculty who are using OER and link to their books. We also explain how OER embody the four pillars of the university’s strategic plan. Under “Finding OER,” we list the major repositories and websites. Under “Using OER,” we highlight tools for creating OER (like Pressbooks and iBooks Author) and link to the Open Textbook Network’s guide, Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know. Under “Not OER, But...” we showcase library-licensed materials that are free for course use (but not open).

63. Questions?
Don’t be shy!
“Zanibar in a box, again” by Nicola Romagna is licensed under CC-BY
I hope this presentation has introduced you to at least one new resource for OER. I’m happy to take questions.
< image from Flickr,
Cheryl Cuillier Open Education Librarian (520)
Photo credits: Unless otherwise noted, all photos are in the public domain

64. Your turn Go to Slido.com Enter code #J291 Select QUESTIONS
If you think of additional questions (or if you didn’t get a chance to ask yours), type where it says “Type your question” (name is optional), hit send
You can upvote questions by selecting the Thumbs Up icon
If we don’t get to all of these questions, I’ll send the answers via Twitter to #azla2017