This my presentation from my session at the OpenEd conference in Park City, UT.

1. Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a CC-BY-NC-SA license. Please attribute any duplicate or derivative
works to Richard Sebastian, Virginia Community College System.
OpenEd 2013
Opening the
VCCS
Richard Sebastian
Director, Teaching & Learning Technologies
Virginia Community College System
rsebastian@vccs.edu

2. Puddles Pity Party
“Royals”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmCJEehYtU

3. Cast of
Characters
OTIS

6. From the Golden Crescent
to the Rural Horseshoe

7. fully
online
degree
programs
80

9. EVERYTHING
IS
CONNECTED

10. Richmond, Virginia
Useless Playboys
Jonny Cecka
GWAR

11. Task Force on College Textbooks
JUNE 2004

12. Task Force on College Textbooks: 2004
1. Faculty members receive education about the cost of
textbooks. Particular attention is paid to those parts of the
ordering process over which they have leverage and how this
leverage can be used to help control costs.
2. Textbook adoption processes are formalized and include textbook
cost as a consideration.
3. The same textbook is adopted for all sections of a given course
within colleges and across multi-campus colleges.
4. Textbook adoptions are consistent across statewide or region-wide
college groups.
5. Textbooks are adopted for a minimum of three years.
6. Academic divisions’ textbook orders are accurate and timely.

13. Task Force on College Textbooks: 2004
7. The College encourages faculty to adopt or develop alternatives to
traditional textbooks for their classes.
8. The college provides students with alternative ways to pay for
textbooks.
9. The bookstore provides a used textbook sales and purchase
program that results in significant cost savings to a significant
number of students.
10.There is a positive working relationship between bookstore
personnel and college personnel.
11.Bookstores make use of less expensive sources for textbooks.
12.The bookstore utilizes alternative approaches of providing
textbooks at lower cost to students.

14. ENG 111 & 112

17. Textbook Costs & Digital Learning Resources
Workgroup
May 2012

19. 1. Examine VCCS administrative practices and
policies that unnecessarily add to the cost
of academic textbooks
1. Explore how networked digital technology
can best be leveraged to lower the overall
cost of textbooks, including using open
educational resources

20. 3. Investigate ways which currently licensed
electronic resources can be used in
electronic "course packs," as a substitute
for text books, or for the supplementary
material often required for a course of
study
3. Identify opportunities for interested VCCS
faculty to explore using openly licensed
resources in their courses

21. 5. Examine the current relevance of printed
textbooks in an age of interactive, web-
based content, digital publishing, and
collaborative social networks.
5. Recommend strategies and policies for
creating an institutional culture that
embraces and practices openness,
transparency, collaboration, and sharing.

22. PLANNING
RETREAT
August 2012

23. $20,000
November 2012

24. • $3000
• Emphasis on adoption
• High enrollment courses
• Cohort-based
• Lumen-supported
• Stealth course-resdesign
Spring 2013

25. EVERYTHING
IS
CONNECTED

26. Textbook Costs & Digital Learning Resources
INTERIM REPORT
September 2013

27. VCCS Presidential evaluations should be
revised to include metrics for measuring
the goal to significantly reduce the cost
of textbooks and related course
materials in at least 10% of all course
sections offered each year, in each of the
next ten years.
Full-time faculty evaluations should
include required criteria to “select high-
quality learning resources, such as
textbooks, bearing in mind
appropriateness, necessity,
accessibility, and reduced student
costs”.

28. Ex. PSY 200
Utilize the VCCS faculty peer group structure to articulate learning outcomes for
courses, beginning with prerequisite courses and courses with high enrollment currently
demonstrating low success rates and/or low persistence rates to subsequent courses
and award completion.

29. PSY 200
http://vccs.libguides.com/psy200

31. 1. BIO 101
2. BIO102
3. BUS 100
4. CHM 111
5. CST 100
6. ENG 111
1. ENG 112
2. HIS 101
3. ITE 115
4. MTH 163
5. PSY 201
6. SDV 100
FALL 2013

32. 520 Students
20 sections
12 colleges
$52,000-92,000
FALL 2013

33. • Z Courses
• Associate degree in Business Admin
• $0 Textbook Costs
FALL 2013

34. 1. ENG 111
2. ENG 112
3. ENG 125
4. MTH 151
5. PHY 201
6. PHY 202
7. HIS 121
8. HIS 122
9. ART 101
10. ART 102
11. HIS 262
12.SDV 100
FALL 2013

35. OPEN TEXT
INITIATIVE SYSTEM
(OTIS)

38. VCCS Intellectual Property Policy

39. Rambling Professor
http://www.youtube.com/ramblingprofessor

40. INSTITUTIONAL
& FACULTY
CULTURE
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
–Peter Drucker

41. IMPORTANCE
OF LIBRARIES

42. LOOK FOR
CONNECTIONS

43. Holla back
Richard Sebastian
Director of Teaching and Learning Technologies
Virginia’s Community Colleges
rsebastian@vccs.edu
@rasebastian
http://edtech.vccs.edu