1. The National Landscape of OER in Higher Education
Open Education Texas: Policy, Practice, & Potential
Dr. Lisa Petrides
Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education
Presentation licensed under CC BY 4.0 International unless otherwise noted.

2. Why We’re Here: The Impact of OER
Increase in Student Success Rates — University of Georgia researchers found that OER improved end-of-course grades and decreased DFW rates, even more so for PELL eligible students
Decrease in Costs for Students— Tidewater Community College showed a 25% decrease in student cost to graduate through its Z-Degree programs
Potential Increase in Institutional Revenue — Tidewater researchers also concluded that converting to Z-Degrees across more programs would result in an $100K annual retention in tuition revenue due to a decrease in drop rates from using OER
OER as an Opportunity for Innovation in Teaching and Learning
The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics (2018); Increasing College Access and Success with Zero Textbook Cost Degree Programs (2015); The Tidewater Z-Degree and the INTRO Model for Sustaining OER Adoption (2016)

3. Framing the Discussion
Industry & Market
Forces at Work
Federal OER Policy
State OER Policy
Institutional OER Policy & Practice

4. A Changing Industry
After a long history of offering high-priced print textbooks, publishers are revamping their models to compete with OER on cost and access features—making significant inroads with proprietary platforms (for example, Inclusive Access)
Businesses offering OER wraparound services are rapidly proliferating, with some intentional blurring of the lines between OER and proprietary services
Users, institutions, and libraries are demanding seamless integration of OER into their workflows and learning management systems (LMS) placing higher expectations for platform, interoperability, and portability

5. Where the market’s going...
Increasing demand for integration with platforms that enable the seamless discoverability of OER in their local contexts (i.e. language, relevancy, standards)
Strong educator preference for content sources that integrate with their other quiz, homework, tutoring, and other content management systems
Strong desire for textbooks that have readily available supplemental materials
Expanding interest in textbooks that cover a broader range of topics, and with different pedagogical theories

6. OER at the Federal Level: Congress
Enacted: $10M OER Grant Programs in the 2018 and 2019 Appropriations Bill to support use and creation of open textbooks
Pending: Long term, continual funding for OER grants as well as OER-supportive policy measures in the Affordable College Textbook Act

7. OER at the Federal Level: Agencies
TAACCCT: Workforce investment for Community Colleges (2011)
Dept. of Labor: CC-BY Open Licensing Policy (2015)
U.S. State Dept: Open Licensing Playbook (2017)
Dept. of Education: Open Licensing Rule (2017)
2 CFR § 
Grantee or subgrantee must openly license to the public [...] any grant deliverable that is created wholly or in part with Department competitive grant funds, and that constitutes a new copyrightable work...

8. State OER Policy Commitments
26 states with enacted or pending OER policies
Most states from the map listed below, with key areas of their policy
Arkansas: SB 265 (2015) This bill requires that open educational resources be utilized to support course delivery to students.
California-SB 1052 and SB the Senate Bills apportioned $5,000,000...Legislative initiatives:EDUC. CODE § and § 66409
Colorado: HB (2018): makes a $660K appropriation
Connecticut-SHB The bill results in a state cost of $206,380 in 2016 and 2017…
Florida: FLA Stat. ANN Sec ; Florida’s H.B. 5101(2014); FLA. STAT. ANN §
Georgia: The State of Georgia’s budget includes funding to support a USG initiative, Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG)...
Hawaii: HB915: Requires the University of Hawaii to study the feasibility of adopting OER…
Iowa: SF433: establishes requirements relating to the use and identification of OER by postsecondary educational institutions
Maryland: SB 424/HB 967 (2017): includes $100,000 in general funds for a grant for the Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative
Minnesota:SF 1236(2014) states that MN State Colleges & Universities must collect data on the # of OERs available and their uses
Michigan: HB 5579 (2018): Appropriations bill including funding for the Michigan Virtual University
New Jersey: S 768: This bill requires institutions of higher education to develop open textbook plan.
New York: New York State's decision to invest $8 million to spread the development and use of open educational
North Carolina: HB 665 / SB 437: appropriates 300,000 to the Un. of NC for the adoption of high-quality OER for the most commonly taught courses
North Dakota: ND House Concurrent Resolution 3009(2013) mandates the study of the use of open textbooks in ND University System
Ohio: The Ohio Department of Higher Education appropriated 1,300,000 to the Ohio State Un. and other colleges collaboratively to develop OER
Oregon: HB appropriates money for the purpose of funding Oregon’s Open Educational Resources program
Texas: SB 810
Virginia: HB 454 requires governing boards of public institutions to implement guidelines for the adoption/use of OER in offered courses
South Carolina: S 262 A TEXTBOOK POLICY FOR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF HE TO HELP MINIMIZE COLLEGE TEXTBOOK COSTS
Washington: 2009, H.B.1244(Wash. Laws of 2009, Ch. 564) appropriated $1.2 million to the state’s community and technical colleges to support OER
West Virginia: HB2853- establishing the West Virginia Program for Open Education Resources
Pennsylvania: Affordable Learning Pennsylvania aims to support a robust OER community-funded partially by DE, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
SPARC OER State Policy Tracker (2018), SPARC OER State Policy Playbook (2018), Creative Commons: OER State Legislative Guide (2018), and ISKME review of state legislation websites.

9. Common State and System-Level Initiatives
Establishing state-wide OER coordinating councils
Developing OER state library consortium
Establishing OER grant programs to encourage creation and/or adoption (e.g., faculty grants)
Supporting course conversions and Z-Degrees
Supporting research or feasibility studies on OER
Requiring OER labeling in course schedules and registration systems
Examples, in order of bullets:
OER council: Colorado SB 258 (2017): Creates the open educational resources council in the Department of Higher Education; and CT HB 7162: This bill establishes the Connecticut Open Educational Resource Coordinating Council
OER Grant Program: Maryland: SB 424/HB 967 (2017): includes $100,000 in general funds for a grant for the Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative; Colorado HB (2018): Creating a grant program to support the creation and use of open educational resources, and making a $660K appropriation.
Course Conversions and ZDegrees: NY (2018) - NY state gave SUNY and CUNY given 8M to implement OER in high-enrollment, general education courses. SUNY and CUNY, respectively, re-engineered roughly 3,700 and 1,500 course sections that served roughly 56,000 and 40,000 students.
OER Research/feasibility studies: Hawaii HB915 (2019): Requires the University of Hawaii to study the feasibility of adopting OER; Minnesota SF 1236 (2014) - states that MN State Colleges & Universities must collect data on the # of OERs available and their uses
OER Course markings - see next slide
SPARC OER State Policy Tracker (2018), SPARC OER State Policy Playbook (2018), Creative Commons: OER State Legislative Guide (2018), and ISKME review of state legislation websites.

10. No/Low-Cost Course Labeling
Enacted in TX, CA, OR, WA, and VA, and some higher ed institutions at the system level - TN, OH, PA
Proposed in MN and other states (though most have adjourned for the year)
Empowering students to make the best decision for themselves, and to push for change with their tuition dollars
Tensions exist around where to set the boundary of no/low cost.
Example policy: CA SB 1359 (2016): Requires each campus of the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and would request each campus of the University of California, to identify in the online version of the campus course schedule its courses that exclusively use digital course materials, as specified, and communicate to students that the course materials for these courses are free of charge and therefore not required to be purchased. Course Labeling legislation from end of (CA, OR, TX, WA)
SPARC OER State Policy Tracker (2018), SPARC OER State Policy Playbook (2018), Creative Commons: OER State Legislative Guide (2018), and ISKME review of state legislation websites.

11. OER as an Opportunity for Innovation
Maryland SB 424
To the extent practicable, funds allocated [...] shall be for the adoption, adaptation, and creation of openly licensed educational resources that are equally accessible to and independently usable by individuals with disabilities.
Maryland’s Textbook Cost Saving Act allocates funds for accessibility in OER
The Textbook Cost Saving Act of 2017
Requiring the Governor to include $100,000 in the State budget for fiscal year 2019 for the purpose of providing a grant to the William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation at the University System of Maryland for the Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative; requiring specified funds allocated for specified purposes to be for the adoption, adaptation, and creation of specified resources that are equally accessible to and independently usable by individuals with disabilities
Link to MD’s gen assembly page about this policy
Link to actual policy:
SPARC OER State Policy Playbook (2018)

12. Institutions: Common Initiatives
Course conversion grants, faculty grants
Faculty awards for OER creation/use
OER committee formation
OER feasibility studies
State-wide library consortium
Map from Creative Commons USA based on review of data from Achieving the Dream, the Open Textbook Network, and Connect OER - SPARC. Denotes institutions that have OER policies and programs in place. Map is from 2018 and is not intended to be an exhaustive representation.

13. 39 13 48 2.2M Faculty, Student OER Awareness & Use
Percent of faculty reporting awareness of OER and open licensing in 2018 (up from 27% in 2016) 39
Percent of faculty using OER as required course material in 2018 (up from 5% in 2016) 13
Percent of degree granting institutions using OpenStax textbooks in 2018 48
Faculty statistics from Freeing the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, a national survey of 3,288 faculty and 812 chairpersons conducted in and also in ; supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Number of students using OpenStax textbooks in 2018 (up from 550k in 2015)
2.2M
Faculty statistics from the national study, Freeing the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education (2018): OpenStax statistics from OpenStax (2018).

14. Students as Advocates (More Recently)
“We the undersigned student leaders write to encourage the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, in its review of the proposed merger of the publishers Cengage and McGraw-Hill, to block the merger.”
“By reducing the need to compete, and then using access codes, subscription services, and “inclusive access” to strong-arm students into buying materials, Cengage and McGraw-Hill will be able to continue their decades-long pattern of raising prices.”
From Students to DOJ: Major Textbook Publisher Merger Will Hurt Students, July 2019, U.S. PIRG News Release .

15. What’s Next for the OER Field
An increase of open pedagogy and practice as an added value over publisher models, which are starting to compete on access and cost (see, e.g., Open Pedagogy Notebook)
More impact research to redirect quality conversations toward effectiveness and equity in learning materials
Harness Communities of Practice as a means to achieve sustainability and long-term maintenance of OER materials
Increased advocacy on OER as a tool or approach for creating enhanced instructional experiences and materials that learners can relate to (engaging, relevant, inclusive, bias-free)

16. Lisa Petrides, Ph.D.
CEO & Founder

17. Questions?
Contribute: OER stewards actively contribute to efforts, whether financially or via in-kind contributions, to advance the awareness, improvement, and distribution of OER; and
Attribute: OER stewards practice conspicuous attribution, ensuring that all who create or remix OER are properly and clearly credited for their contributions; and
Release: OER stewards ensure OER can be released and used beyond the course and platform in which it was created or delivered; and
Empower: OER stewards are inclusive and strive to meet the diverse needs of all learners, including by supporting the participation of new and non-traditional voices in OER creation and adoption.

18. CARE Framework Contribute Attribute Release Empower
Contribute: OER stewards actively contribute to efforts, whether financially or via in-kind contributions, to advance the awareness, improvement, and distribution of OER; and
Attribute: OER stewards practice conspicuous attribution, ensuring that all who create or remix OER are properly and clearly credited for their contributions; and
Release: OER stewards ensure OER can be released and used beyond the course and platform in which it was created or delivered; and
Empower: OER stewards are inclusive and strive to meet the diverse needs of all learners, including by supporting the participation of new and non-traditional voices in OER creation and adoption.