Open Educational Resources at Bucks Bill Hemmig Erin Niclaus - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Open Educational Resources at Bucks Bill Hemmig Erin Niclaus Casey Kerins Technology Day 2019

At Bucks • About half of our students do not Textbook costs add up to $65 purchase all required textbooks. per credit to the overall cost • Nearly a third consider textbook costs of an Associate’s program. when choosing courses. • Many students find less expensive textbook sources but receive the books a week or more into the semester.

What are OER? "OER are 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 repurposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge." — The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The 5 R s of OER… R etain R euse R evise R emix R edistribute

Where are they? …and many other places!

https://openstax.org/

Our first OER initiative • Fall 2016 - Summer 2018 • College Foundation and College funded • New LMS templates created for 12 courses using OER and other free resources. • 30 faculty taught a total of 159 sections of these courses developed during the initiative using the new templates. • Nearly 3,000 students saved almost $350,000.

Today… Courses with OER course templates available: • HIST151 • COMM105 • MGMT230 • COMM110 • PSYC110 • HLTH103 • COMP110 • SCIE102 • MATH090 • COMP111 • SOCI110 • MGMT100 • COMP114 • VAFA 193 • MGMT160

Today… • In fall semester, 2018, 63 sections of courses with OER templates were taught by 32 instructors to 1270 students.

Today… Spring 2017 through Fall 2018: • Total number of students affected, with duplication: 4,288 • Total estimated student savings: $554,000

The OER Institute The Open Educational Resources (OER) Institute is designed for full- and part-time Bucks faculty who are interested in replacing commercial resources in their classes with resources that are free to their students. The Institute will provide instruction in identifying, evaluating and adapting OER, in understanding Creative Commons licensing, in redesigning courses to accommodate open materials, and will promote open pedagogy.

Tech Days January 11, 2018 Erin Niclaus Faculty OER Advocate

Objectives • An overview of finding a high quality open textbook and creating a course template using the open textbook, • A demonstration of what the template looks like, how I use it and how other instructors can use it • Advantages of using OERs in the classroom

Adopting OER in the classroom

• "Six Steps to OER" by Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) Librarians, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License / Modified text from original.

How to find OERs • OERs often have a Creative Commons license or other permission to let you know how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared  OER commons  OpenStax  Merlot  OER Canvas Course • Libguides: eg. http://bucks.libguides.com/c.php?g=397250&p=2700025 • Google/Bing/Search

Creation of the OER Course Template

Advantages of Using OERs in the Classroom: • Before and After • Early engagement • Multiplatform accessibility • Content matching

Before and After Preparation for course • students can check out the course materials before the term begins • help them make an informed decision in choosing the right course, and preparing themselves for the class. Retention of knowledge after course • revisit their course materials after the quarter/semester is over to refresh their memories or to further study the topics • open course materials will help them reinforce what they have learned and further develop their level of understanding in the area https://training.instructure.com/courses/1276118/pages/what-are-the-benefits-in-using-oer

Early Engagement • Everyone can engage from day 1 • Surveys have found that many students do not purchase textbooks due to cost • First generation college students actually pay more on average for textbooks, possibly because they are less aware of other alternatives such as renting or used copies. http://www.achievingthedream.org/sites/default/files/initiatives/launching_oer_degree_pathways.pdf

Textbooks in the Classroom • Even OER textbooks show to be more engaging than traditional textbooks. The multi platform accessibility allows students to engage with the content from the textbook differently than the hard copy. • During in-class activities, students worked together on a project using the textbook and an article. Students were able to use their books, phones, tablets, and laptops to access both the textbook and all the supplementary material.

Match learning styles • Content matching, wherein learning materials are aligned to what a student needs at a given moment, whether through videos and visuals, group activities, or opportunities to explore source documents, listen to lectures, or watch demonstrations.

QUESTIONS, ANSWERS AND INSIGHTS ERIN.NICLAUS@BUCKS.EDU FACULTY OER ADVOCATE

CURRENT OER COURSES as of SP18 • · COMM110 – Stacey Bennett, • · COMP110 — Sarah Bruck, who also has a template for COMP114 now. • · COMP111 — Elizabeth Luciano • · HLTH103 — Steve Coyne • · HIST151 — Jason Totten • · MATH090 — Janine Termine • · MGMT100 — Greg Luce/ Bruce Imber • · PSYC110 — Tanya Letourneau • · SCIE102 — Michael Babij /Cristina Ramacciotti • · SOCI110 – Erin Niclaus • · VAFA193 — Richard Gabriele

FUTURE OER COURSES - Fall 2018/ 2019 • Michael Babij: SCIE103, Physical Geology • Dipi Bhaya: KINS178, Basketball and Baseball • Erin Niclaus: SOCI150, Criminology • Michelle Pierson: READ110, College Reading and Study Strategies • Stacey Bennett: COMM105, Interpersonal Communications • Steve Coyne: KINS170, Individual Fitness and Wellness • Judi Lehrhaupt: AESL105, Communications Skills for International Students • Brenda Seibert: MGMT160, Insurance and Risk Management • Kelly Sell: MGMT230, Principles of Management • Stan Timek: VACV135, Video Studio

Open educational resources + student data OER Courses Textbook Courses 2.6 2.6 Mean Grade (Course GPA) 76.4% 76.5% Successful Completion Rate* 92.1% 93.4% Persistence Rate** *Successful Completion is defined as earning a C or better in the course. **Persistence is defined as completing a course, and is calculated by dividing grades A-F by Grades A-F + Withdrawals.

Open educational resources + student surveys • In recent OER course surveys, 97% of students rated the quality of the OER textbook “about the same” or “better” than the quality of the texts in their other courses • When asked to pick between an OER course section and a traditional textbook course section taught by the same professor, 65% of students stated they would enroll in the section with the OER textbook. ▫ 21% said they had no preference; only 14% of these students preferred the traditional textbook course section.

Open educational resources + student comments Themes of Access , Affordability, and Convenience • “For someone who has to work and go to school as well as saving money, these texts were the most stress free way to get through this class .” • “MUCH MORE CONVENIENT” • “I was able to use the online text much in the same way I would use a traditional textbook but with the added benefit of portability and cost .” • “Textbooks are expensive and large/difficult to lug around. Having a free online textbook allowed me to save money and also was less of a hassle to have handy .” • “It was more accessible and easier to understand which helped me receive better grades in this class.”