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How to Build Your Own Open Textbook
Digital Pedagogy Symposium
Amanda Coolidge and Clint Lalonde, BCcampus
2. Why are we talking about textbooks? (Amanda 10 min)
What is a textbook (Clint 20 min)
Activity 1: Pick an aide….or 5. Pedagogical aides of TB (20 min)
What is Open? (Amanda) (20 min)
Activity 2: What are affordances of open and digital? 1-2-all (20 min)
Overview of OTB collection (Amanda 10 min)
Overview of some technologies (Clint 10 min)
Activity 3: Find a book (20 min)
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open.bccampus.ca
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Why are we even talking
about textbooks these days?
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Education is expensive
Image credit: Beyond Textbooks by Thomas used under CC-BY license.
Text credit: Open Textbook Network used under CC-BY license.
• Tuition and Fees
• Room and Board
• Books and Supplies
• Personal Expenses
• Transportation
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Education is expensive
BC Students now work 180%
more hours than they did in 1975
to pay for PSE
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Education is expensive
BC Students now work 180%
more hours than they did in 1975
to pay for PSE
Half of Bachelor’s degree
graduates rely on student loans
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Education is expensive
"Kids Giving you problems? Hire an Elephant" by peasap is licensed
under CC BY 2.0
BC Students now work 180%
more hours than they did in 1975
to pay for PSE
Half of Bachelor’s degree
graduates rely on student loans
In 2012, Canadian student loan
debt surpassed $28 billion
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Education is expensive
BC Students now work 180%
more hours than they did in 1975
to pay for PSE
Half of Bachelor’s degree
graduates rely on student loans
In 2012, Canadian student loan
debt surpassed $28 billion
Average student debt in Canada
is $28,495
3 years after graduating, only
21% are debt free
When debt reaches $10,000,
program completion rates drop
from 59% to 8%
The cost of textbooks has risen by
1041% since 1977
9.
10.
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Average Student Expenditures on Textbooks
The Peak: SFU Campus Newspaper
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66% do not purchase books at some point due to book cost
47.6% take fewer courses due to book cost
45.5% choose not to register for a course due to book cost
37.6% regularly go without textbooks and earn a poor grade due
to book cost
26.1% have dropped a course due to book cost
20.7% have withdrawn from a course due to book cost
Impact of Textbook Cost
Source: 2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey – Florida Virtual Campus (DRAFT)
13. – University of Minnesota student
“I figured French hadn't
changed that much”
15. CC0 Alex Read
A textbook is an organized body of material useful for the
formal study of a subject area.
What is a textbook?
Text: Wikibooks:Textbook Considerations by various authors CC-BY-SA 3.0
16. CC0 Alex Read
1. A discrete, well-bounded scope
2. Includes examples and problems
3. Internally consistent style
4. Utility for future reference
5. A logical structure
What is a textbook?
Text: Wikibooks:Textbook Considerations by various authors CC-BY-SA 3.0
17.
18. Chapter Objectives Chapter Learning Outcomes Chapter Outline
Bold & Italicized text Table of Figures Index
Case Studies/Vignettes Glossary of Key Terms Demonstrations
Illustrations (photos,
diagrams, charts)
Simulations Further Reading Suggestions
Multimedia Pronunciation Guide Table of Contents
Maps Chapter Summary or Review Heading & Subheadings
Checklists Focus Questions Examples of Best Practices
Timelines Practice Questions
Weiten, W., Guadagno, R. E., & Beck, C. A. (1996). Student’s Perceptions of Textbook Pedagogical Aids. Teaching of Psychology, 23(2), 105-107. doi:10.1207/s15328023top2302_8
Gurung, R. A. R. (2004). Pedagogical Aids: Learning Enhancers or Dangerous Detours? Teaching of Psychology, 31(3), 164-166. doi:10.1207/s15328023top3103_1
Gurung, R. A. R. (2003). Pedagogical Aids and Student Performance. Teaching of Psychology, 30(2), 92-95. doi:10.1207/S15328023TOP3002_01
Activity: Pick your Top 5 Textbook Aides
19. Chapter Objectives Chapter Learning Outcomes Chapter Outline
Bold & Italicized text Table of Figures Index
Case Studies/Vignettes Glossary of Key Terms Demonstrations
Illustrations (photos,
diagrams, charts)
Simulations Further Reading Suggestions
Multimedia Pronunciation Guide Table of Contents
Maps Chapter Summary or Review Heading & Subheadings
Checklists Focus Questions Examples of Best Practices
Timelines Practice Questions
Weiten, W., Guadagno, R. E., & Beck, C. A. (1996). Student’s Perceptions of Textbook Pedagogical Aids. Teaching of Psychology, 23(2), 105-107. doi:10.1207/s15328023top2302_8
Gurung, R. A. R. (2004). Pedagogical Aids: Learning Enhancers or Dangerous Detours? Teaching of Psychology, 31(3), 164-166. doi:10.1207/s15328023top3103_1
Gurung, R. A. R. (2003). Pedagogical Aids and Student Performance. Teaching of Psychology, 30(2), 92-95. doi:10.1207/S15328023TOP3002_01
What students said they used
20. Weiten, W., Guadagno, R. E., & Beck, C. A. (1996). Student’s Perceptions of Textbook Pedagogical Aids. Teaching of Psychology, 23(2), 105-107. doi:10.1207/s15328023top2302_8
Gurung, R. A. R. (2004). Pedagogical Aids: Learning Enhancers or Dangerous Detours? Teaching of Psychology, 31(3), 164-166. doi:10.1207/s15328023top3103_1
Gurung, R. A. R. (2003). Pedagogical Aids and Student Performance. Teaching of Psychology, 30(2), 92-95. doi:10.1207/S15328023TOP3002_01
What actually improves learning?
21. Weiten, W., Guadagno, R. E., & Beck, C. A. (1996). Student’s Perceptions of Textbook Pedagogical Aids. Teaching of Psychology, 23(2), 105-107. doi:10.1207/s15328023top2302_8
Gurung, R. A. R. (2004). Pedagogical Aids: Learning Enhancers or Dangerous Detours? Teaching of Psychology, 31(3), 164-166. doi:10.1207/s15328023top3103_1
Gurung, R. A. R. (2003). Pedagogical Aids and Student Performance. Teaching of Psychology, 30(2), 92-95. doi:10.1207/S15328023TOP3002_01
“correlation analysis did not show any positive
relations between the reported use of a pedagogical
aids and learning as measured by exam performance”
Gurung 2003
22. Weiten, W., Guadagno, R. E., & Beck, C. A. (1996). Student’s Perceptions of Textbook Pedagogical Aids. Teaching of Psychology, 23(2), 105-107. doi:10.1207/s15328023top2302_8
Gurung, R. A. R. (2004). Pedagogical Aids: Learning Enhancers or Dangerous Detours? Teaching of Psychology, 31(3), 164-166. doi:10.1207/s15328023top3103_1
Gurung, R. A. R. (2003). Pedagogical Aids and Student Performance. Teaching of Psychology, 30(2), 92-95. doi:10.1207/S15328023TOP3002_01
Students who rated key terms as being helpful had
lower test scores than those who did not use key
terms.
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What Are OER?
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What Are OER?
Videos
Blogs
Course materials
Images
Lesson plans
Wikis
Games
Test banks
Simulations
Open Textbooks
FREE!
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Creative Commons logo by Creative Commons used under a CC-BY 3.0 License
CC license image from Copyright in Education & Internet in South African Law used under CC-BY 2.5 South Africa license
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Open = Free + Permissions
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The 5 R’s of Open
• Make and own a copyRetain
• Use in a wide range of waysReuse
• Adapt, modify, and improveRevise
• Combine two or moreRemix
• Share with othersRedistribute
http://lumenlearning.com/announcement-5r-open-course-design-framework/
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open.bccampus.ca
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Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC-BY. 4.0 International.
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Faculty have full legal rights to
customize & contextualize open
textbooks to fit their pedagogical
needs
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http://lumenlearning.com/announcement-5r-open-course-design-framework/
“Faux-pen”
• free (but gated) access
• all rights reserved PLUS terms of
use
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open.bccampus.ca
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Quality
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When you think about quality of
educational resources, there is only
one criterion that matters….
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To what degree do those materials
support learning?
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OER and Student Achievement
13 Peer Reviewed Studies
http://openedgroup.org/
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119,720 Students
http://openedgroup.org/
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95% Same or Better Outcomes
http://openedgroup.org/
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Examples
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Examples
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What are the affordances that an
open and digital textbook gives
you over a traditional textbook?
Activity 2: 1-2-all
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BC Open Textbook Project
40 open textbooks for highest
enrolled 1st & 2nd year post-
secondary subjects in BC
20 for skills & training
$2 million
AB & SASK MOU
Manitoba Review Project
AB OER
eCampus AB
Canada OER
Visual notes of John Yap announcement, Giulia Forsythe Used under
CC-SA license
40. Why are we doing this project?
To increase access to higher education by reducing student costs
To give faculty more control over their instructional resources
To improve learning outcomes for students
Annie Lennox campaigns with Oxfam at the AIDS Conference by Oxfam used under CC-BY-NC-ND license
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41. The Project
Don’t reinvent it by Andrea Hernandez released under CC-BY-NC-SA and based on Wheel by Pauline Mak released
under CC-BY license
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42. Faculty Reviews
291/365 by thebarrowboy used under a CC-BY
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43. Reviews > Adaptations
My Adventures Adapting a Chemistry Textbook291/365 by thebarrowboy used under a CC-BY
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44. New Creations
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open.bccampus.ca
Resources
Guides
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What is next
for you?
Notas del editor
Camosun College campuses are located on the traditional territories of the Lkwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. We acknowledge their welcome and graciousness to the students who seek knowledge here.
I work at BCcampus , where we acknowledge the Coast and Straits Salish People on whose traditional territories we are privileged to live, work and play.
One of the drivers for open education is that education is becoming increasingly more expenses. While there are a number of affordability issues, as listed in this slide, books and supplies are not the highest cost leading to affordability issues – but it is the one cost that faculty and institutions can impact and it has a special impact on the academic success of students.
Tuition fees began rising faster than the rate of inflation in the mid-1990s. Undergraduate students in Ontario ($8,114) paid the highest average tuition fees in 2016/2017.
Tuition fees began rising faster than the rate of inflation in the mid-1990s. Undergraduate students in Ontario ($8,114) paid the highest average tuition fees in 2016/2017.
Tuition fees began rising faster than the rate of inflation in the mid-1990s. Undergraduate students in Ontario ($8,114) paid the highest average tuition fees in 2016/2017.
These large levels of debt impact the life decisions students make for years to come.
Image source: http://mfi-miami.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Game-of-Loans.jpg
McElroy, Lori. “Student Aid and University Persistence: Does debt matter?” Millennium Scholarship Foundation, 2005.
Screenshot of http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/alberta-universities-report-dramatic-rise-in-food-bank-use
The 2012 Florida Student Textbook Survey takes this data one step further and illustrates how students behave when faced with high textbook costs.
In this survey, 54 % spent more than $300 on textbooks during the Spring 2012 term and 19% spent over $500.
More than half (64%) reported not having purchased the required textbook because of the high cost, and
Almost one-fourth reported doing without frequently (23%).
45% reported not registering for a course
49% took fewer courses
27% dropped a course,
21% withdrew from a course.”
Different than other texts we work with. Not fiction, not written for entertainment. Purpose is to educate.
A discrete, well-bounded scope: all the material should relate to a solid understanding of the subject, usually mixing theory and practice for each topic as it covers the subject domain.
Use of examples and problems: the student should be able to better grasp each presented concept by following examples, and then applying the concept in structured exercises or problems.
An internally consistent style: after the first few sections, there should be little or no surprises for the student in terms of layout and presentation of material. The texts user can get comfortable with the layout, the tempo of presentation, and the pattern of figures, illustrations, examples and exercises.
Utility for future reference: once reviewed, the textbook should isolate material that is useful to the future application of subject knowledge in well organized appendices and tables.
A structure that makes sense: the textbook is not just a collection of useful material, it is a guide to the student for an order of review which will aid in mastering the subject area.
Where pedagogy meets theory – spacing effect, rules of 7+/-2
Gurung surveyed 200 undergraduate psychology students and asked them to rate the usefulness of 10 pedagogical aids
Only looking at exam scores
Psychology students
Fairly small sample size
One of the really interesting findings from Gurungs 2003 paper was that there was one correlation between a pedagogical aid and exam outcomes was “significant” and that had to do with key terms. Following year he duplicated his research with a larger sample size (still Psych) and tried to control a few more variables. No correlation between pedagogical aides and improved test scores and student who relied on key terms as being helpful did worse. They were looking for shortcuts.
Spend a lot of money on textbooks with lots of features when it is really unproven whether those features actually help or hinder students. Why do we ask students to pay a lot of money for textbooks when they may actually give them shortcuts and hurt their learning??
Open Educational Resources 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 or re-purposing by others.
These are examples of OER that can be integrated into teaching practice – Free to use and licensed under a CC license
https://sites.camosun.ca/camosun_innovates/OLR/
CC licenses enable the free distribution of otherwise copyrighted work. A CC license is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created. Authors retain IP, but may allow for differing levels of flexibility – 5R
retain in the newest OER- fundamental R, if I can download and adapt my own copy…
retain was assumed but became important to call it out
permissions must be granted for free, for one to think of it as an OER
5 Rs means that we need formal legal instruments to grant these- creative commons licenses
through the act of putting a CC license on a presentation, book, etc— i am formally telling you this is okay…
becoming more popular because of the good will of open, but it is really just a marking measure
- have to create an account
- not having 5 R permissions
apply test- is it granted me the permissions to engage in the 5Rs?
when you make the choice to use copyright work you are at that point of struggle- internet enables, but copyright restricts
intuition is going to tell you “you get what you pay for”- you hear free and think low quality, sub standard materials
quality question-
when you think about quality about educational resources, there is only one criterion that matters - to what degree do those materials support learning
things that are nice vs. instructional design
what are predictors of student learning?- not a nice book cover
unless you are an instructional designer it is hard to see instructional design
quality of educational materials begin and end when students learn from them
intuition is going to tell you “you get what you pay for”- you hear free and think low quality, sub standard materials
quality question-
when you think about quality about educational resources, there is only one criterion that matters - to what degree do those materials support learning
things that are nice vs. instructional design
what are predictors of student learning?- not a nice book cover
unless you are an instructional designer it is hard to see instructional design
quality of educational materials begin and end when students learn from them
There are a number of studies that highlight the proven quality and efficacy of open educational resources. One result in particular, and most recent, highlights just this. Across eleven academic studies that attempted to measure results pertaining to student learning (with 48,623 students participated) 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 2015. 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), 94-111. 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 http://www.eurodl.org/index.php?p=archives&year=2012&halfyear=2&article=533. Gil, P., Candelas, F., Jara, C., Garcia, G., Torres, F (2013). Web-based OERs in Computer Networks. International Journal of Engineering Education, 29(6), 1537-1550. (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 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680513.2012.716657. (Open 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): 341-351. 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. 261-276.
Almost 50, 000 students participating in eleven studies…
…where 93% experienced the same or better outcomes when assigned open educational resources, such as open textbooks.
Insert open textbook screenshots
Insert open textbook screenshots
Now that you have seen what structure looks like as well as the pedagogical frameworks of a textbook...
There are three main reasons that propel BCcampus’s drive for open education and in particular in the open textbook project. To increase access to higher education by reducing students, to give faculty more control over their instructional resources, and to improve learning outcomes for students.
At the start of the project in 2012, BCcampus did an inventory of the highest enrolled subject areas at BC post-secondary institutions. Many established open education projects had already created and adapted open educational resources and open textbooks in some of these areas, so rather than start from scratch by creating new textbooks BCcampus decided to adopt open textbooks that already existed and had a proven track record of high quality and widely adopted materials.
BCcampus then posted these open textbooks in their collection and began to solicit reviews from BC faculty. Faculty were to review a book’s comprehensiveness, content accuracy, relevance, clarity, consistency and modularity. Each review was then posted with the open textbook in the collection. As you can see these reviews are open because they are posted along with the reviewer’s name and which institution he or she is affiliated with. Also each review is released under a CC-BY-ND license. ND (non-derivative) was added as a condition to the Creative Commons license to ensure the reviews could not be changed.
From the reviews BCcampus then put out a call for proposals for faculty to adapt the textbook based on the reviews. They wanted to ensure that whatever was missing or lacking from a textbook in the collection that it was then adapted to meet the needs of BC Faculty. In some cases the reviews indicated that the books were too US centric, or that some of the chapters were not relevant for the BC context. Being able to adapt a textbook to meet specific learning outcomes, that is the power of working in the Open. The faculty had the opportunity to change the textbook. Here is one example of an adaptation- Professor Jessie Key at VIU adapted the Introductory Chemistry book based on the reviews submitted.
We continue to create a suite of guides and toolkits to provide support the adaptation of open textbooks and related work in open education.
Some of these, such as the Adaptation Guide and Pressbooks Guide, are “open creations”, i.e. works in progress or under development that are publicly viewable and accessible, openly licensed, and available for harvesting and comments.
If you go to our website, you will see all of these items listed under the “Resources” drop-down link.
This open creation concept is brand new, something I came up with a few weeks and blogged about. It really came out of laziness. I wanted to offer my work to the world without finishing it; but, on the other hand, my perfectionist self wanted to make sure each guide went through the rigorous steps of review, copy editing, proof reading.
I have also found that putting one’s work up for other’s to see is a great opportunity to gather ideas and even if someone doesn’t directly comment on the work, when I’m asked a question and don’t have an answer, I can always say: “That’s a great idea. I don’t’ know the answer, but I’ll put a page in the Adaptation Guide and think about it. Maybe someone else has a solution.”
From this conversation today, are there next steps you want to take?
What are your take aways?