Open Education @ SC4 introduces open educational resources (OER) which are freely available educational materials that can be used and adapted without cost to students. OER include open textbooks, course modules, and other materials that are licensed openly through Creative Commons. Using OER can significantly reduce textbook costs for students and lead to higher enrollment, lower withdrawal rates, and equivalent or better academic performance compared to traditional resources. SC4 supports the use of OER by helping faculty find, evaluate, create, and publish high-quality open resources while addressing concerns about discovery, peer review, and adaptability of existing materials.

1. Open Education @ SC4
Presenters:
Ryan Johnson
Kendra Lake

2. OER Basics

3. What is an open educational resource?
Open Education "...is the simple and
powerful idea that the world’s knowledge
is a public good and that technology in
general and the Web in particular
provide an extraordinary opportunity for
everyone to share, use, and reuse
knowledge”
—The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
•Materials (of any type) that reside either in the public
domain or are licensed openly, usually through a Creative
Commons license.
•Faculty created items that are shared freely and licensed
openly.
•Format: materials in any medium, digital or otherwise
•Conditions: that either
•resides in the public domain or
•have been released under an open license,
•Nature: permits its free use and re-purposing by others.
http://www.openwa.org/module-2/

4. What are open textbooks?
Open Textbooks are freely available resources that are
adoptable for use in a course.
Open texts can be used as is or revised & remixed to suit your
course depending on the book’s license.
Examples:
A First Course in Linear Algebra:
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=5
Chemistry: https://openstax.org/details/books/chemistry
Examples of OERS:
•open textbooks
•full courses
•modules
•syllabi
•lectures
•homework
assignments
•quizzes
•lab activities
•games
•simulations

5. What about licensing?
If no license is attached or indicated, one must assume the work
is copyright protected. http://esearch.sc4.edu/copyright
Public Domain
CC-BY
CC-BY-SA
CC-BY-NC
CC-BY-NC-SA
CC-BY-ND
CC-BY-NC-ND
By Creative commons (the original CC license symbols), the combined work by Shaddim and is hereby cc-by-4.0 licensed. - https://creativecommons.org/about/downloads/ https://creativecommons.org/policies/, Public
Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47247325
● Creative Commons
● Copyright
● Copyleft / GNU, etc.

6. Benefits of OER

7. Student Savings on Books
Florida Student Textbook Survey
22,000+ students surveyed
50%+ of students didn’t have aid covering book costs
31% didn’t register for a course, 35% took fewer courses, 14% dropped a
course, and 10% withdrew from a course due to textbook costs

8. Student Savings on Books
The Cost and Quality of Open Textbooks (Bliss, et. al.)
83% of 125 students across 6 colleges didn’t buy books when a free digital copy
was available to them
Those that did purchase books spent less than $60, with many spending less
than $40
Those who chose to print out the materials spent less than $20

9. Student Savings on Books
Adoption of OER by One Community College Math Department (Hilton, et. al.)
Covered 2,043 students
If all students used OER instead of traditional textbooks they would save
$255,375
SC4 Fall 2016 Semester preliminary savings estimate
● 435 students in 23 sections of 5 courses saved an estimated $115,942.50 by
elimination of traditional textbook

10. Student Savings on Books
Maricopa County Community College
Maricopa Millions OER Project
From Fall 2013 to Fall 2016 students have saved over $7.5 million dollars in
textbook costs
Free and low cost textbooks under $40 are available

11. Decreased Drop/Withdrawal Rates
Tidewater Community College (VA) Z-Degree (Wiley, et. al.)
The overall drop rate for 1st year Z courses was 2.79%, compared to 3.57% for
non-Z courses
Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation (Hilton, et. al.)
Face-to-Face Z course drop rate was 1.8% compared to 2.3%
Hybrid/Online Z course drop rate was 1.4% compared to 4%
Face-to-Face Z course withdrawal rate was 8.1% compared to 9.9%
Hybrid/Online Z course withdrawal rate was 13.1% compared to 13.7%

12. Decreased Drop/Withdrawal Rates
Virginia State University study showed 11% lower withdrawal rates among classes
utilizing OER compared to those using traditional textbooks

13. Student Performance
In 13 peer reviewed studies of OER efficacy covering nearly 120,000 students,
95% performed the same or better than students in non-OER courses
Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation (Hilton, et. al.)
Face-to-Face courses in Z-Degree saw 73% of students with a C or better,
compared to 68% in non-Z courses
Online/Hybrid courses in Z-Degree saw 69% of students with a C or better,
compared to 65% in non-Z courses

14. Student Performance
Measuring the Effectiveness of the OLI Statistics Course (Lovett, et. al.)
Fall 2005 saw no significant differences between OER students and those in
non-OER courses
Spring 2006 students in OER courses performed better in statistical literacy
than those in non-OER courses
Interactive Learning at Public Universities (Bowen, et. al.)
6 public colleges were studied, and no significant differences were seen
between OER and non-OER students

15. More Control for Instructors
Open Textbooks and Increased Student Access and Outcomes (Feldstein, et. al.)
Study authors argue that OER allow instructors more freedom to design their
courses how they’d like them to go
Mainstreaming Open Textbooks (Pitt)
Surveyed instructors reported that utilizing OER made them feel more in control
of their courses

16. How SC4 can help

17. Finding OER
http://esearch.sc4.edu/oer

18. Evaluating OER
Source: https://open.bccampus.ca/files/2014/07/Faculty-Guide-29-mar-15.pdf

19. Creating OER
Adapting & reusing
Creating from scratch
Helping to create and publish to the MCO OER Commons site
Organize your resources on LibGuide, Course reserve, or in LMS

20. Questions/Concerns

21. Quality of Resources
Open Textbooks and Increased Student Access and Outcomes (Feldstein, et. al.)
Study found that students believed OER were more engaging and helpful than a
traditional textbook
Adoption of OER by One Community College Math Department (Hilton, et. al.)
Students felt OER were useful both in class and outside of class
15/18 faculty said that OER were the same quality or better quality than
traditional resources

22. Quality of Resources
Mainstreaming Open Textbooks (Pitt)
Instructors felt that OER were more useful in part because of greater
accessibility to students
95% of instructor who used OER reported that they would recommend OER to
peers

23. Ease of Discovery and Peer Review
Many faculty in various studies were concerned about being able to find good
OER and the time it would take to find good OER
Open Stax books are peer reviewed, but others might not be, meaning institutions
and individual instructors will likely have to take on the burden of searching for
OER and evaluating quality