This document provides an overview of open educational resources (OER) and the BC Open Textbook Project. It defines OER as educational resources that can be freely accessed and adapted. The goals of the BC Open Textbook Project are to reduce student costs, improve learning outcomes, and provide faculty with flexibility. The project aims to develop 40 open textbooks in high-enrollment subjects. It discusses repositories where open textbooks can be found and the project's review and development process. The presentation encourages early adoption and adaptation of open textbooks.

1. Douglas College
Faculty of Science
April 29, 2013
Clint Lalonde
clalonde@bccampus.ca
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

2. BCcampus
Mission:
Connect the expertise,
programs, and resources of all
BC post-secondary institutions
under a collaborative service
delivery framework

3. Collaborate
Connect
BCcampus Role
Innovate

4. BCcampus
Lines of business:
 Student Services and Data Exchange
 Collaborative Programs and Shared Services
 Curriculum Development and
Academic Growth

5. 2003-2012
•$9 million invested
•153 grants awarded
•100% participation across PS system
•83% partnerships
•47 credentials developed in whole or part via OPDF
•355 courses, 12 workshops, 19 web sites/tools and 396
course components (learning objects, labs, textbooks,
manuals, videos)
100% licensed for open free sharing & reuse by all BC
post-secondary
OPDF

6. Repositories: SOLR
solr.bccampus.ca

7. Remote Science Labs
BC-Integrated Lab Network (BC-ILN)
bciln.ca
SOLR: http://solr.bccampus.ca:8001/bcc/items/5ab2d290-8f05-8679-251b-b65662f92230/1/

8. Overview
• What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?
• Why open textbooks?
• Finding textbooks
• BC Open Textbook Project

9. “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 re-purposing by
others.”
What are OER?
William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education-program/open-educational-resources

10. What are OER?
“Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type
of educational materials that are in the public
domain or introduced with an open license. The
nature of these open materials means that anyone
can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share
them.”
UNESCO
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-
resources/what-are-open-educational-resources-oers/

11. What are OER?
• Educational resources (text, images, simulations, multimedia,
textbooks)
• Accessible by anyone (usually via internet)
• Free
• Can be modified & adapted

12. What are OER?
• Educational resources (text, images, simulations, multimedia,
textbooks)
• Accessible by anyone (usually via internet)
• Free
• Can be modified & adapted
Technical – can a PDF really be open?

13. Open Textbooks
“A textbook licensed under an open copyright
license, and made available online to be freely used
by students, teachers and members of the public.
They are available for free as online versions, and
as low-cost printed versions, should students opt
for these.”
BCcampus
http://open.bccampus.ca/open-textbooks/open-textbook-faq/#1

14. BC Open Textbooks
Visual notes of John Yap announcement, Giulia Forsythe http://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/8094691691/
Used under Creative Commons attribution share-alike license
Goal: 40 free and open
textbooks available for
the highest enrolled 1st
&
2nd
year post-secondary
subjects in BC.

15. Don’t reinvent the wheel

16. Leverage the commons

17. BC Open Textbooks
• Available in many formats – choice & remix
– HTML, ePub, PDF and print
– Mobile & Accessibility
• Released with open licenses & openly available
– Allow faculty freedom for adaption
– Publicly funded should be open licensed &
available
• High quality material
– Peer-review (faculty)
– System wide engagement & collaboration

18. Why Open Textbooks?
1. Reduce cost for students
2. Improve learning
3. Greater faculty flexibility

19. Why Open Textbooks?
1. Reduce cost for students
2. Improve learning
3. Greater faculty flexibility
Image: Frustration by Bev Sykes used under Creative Commons Attribution license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/basykes/490907537/

20. Reduce student cost
• Students spend $1200/yr on textbooks
• 4x rate of inflation over past 20 years
• 70% students have not purchased textbook for a
course because of price

21. What students think of textbooks
“The price of textbooks has influenced my decision to take classes. When the same class
is offered by three different instructors, I check which book is the cheapest, and even
though the professor might not be good, I’m forced to take that class because the
textbook is the cheapest.”
“For my ‘Intro to Stats’ class, the usual cost of the textbook is like $120. But then I got a
copy from India for like $29. And it’s the exact same copy.”
“I was in lab one day and the guy sitting next to me had the PDF version of the book
opened on his computer. And I was like, Oh, can I have a copy? And he sent it over to
me.”
“I have a friend who actually didn’t spend any money last year for books because he
went to the library at the beginning of the quarter, borrowed books, scanned everything,
and had the PDF file.”
“My most expensive class was clinical psych, because she writes the textbook herself,
and it has a new edition every semester or something ridiculous. So it was like almost
$200. And the thing is that you can’t use the previous edition, because she changes it
herself because she knows the textbooks sell well. It’s like so manipulative.”
Students Get Savvier about Textbook Buying,
The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2013
http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Get-Savvier-About/136827

22. Reduce student cost - Textbooks
Source: OpenStax College http://openstaxcollege.org/
June 2012
160 school adoptions
$2.3 million savings

23. Improve learning
• Virginia State University School of Business
• 1 year pilot (2010/11)
• OTB in 9 courses (Flat World Knowledge FWK)
Sources: Open Textbooks and Increased Student Access and Outcomes, EURODL
“Students in courses that used FWK textbooks tended to have
higher grades and lower failing and withdrawal rates than those
in courses that did not use FWK texts.”

24. Improve Learning
Utah Open Textbook Project
1 year pilot
10 high school science teachers adapt CK12 textbooks
2000 students
Cost US $4.99/book printed & delivered (US $80)
Result: 5.9% gain in standardized test scores

25. Improve Learning

26. Improve learning
“My textbook is on back-order/in the mail/out of
stock”
“I can’t get my textbooks until my student loan
arrives”
“I’ve got an old edition”
Does this resonate with you?

27. Faculty flexibility
“adapt & re-share”
“repurpose”

28. Faculty flexibility
©

29. The 4 R’s

30. Creative Commons

31. Creative Commons
Image from Copyright in Education & Internet in South African Law
http://education-copyright.org/creative-commons/
Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 South Africa license

32. I’m sold. Where can I find open textbooks?

33. Repositories: Merlot
Merlot.org
Peer reviewed & user comments

34. Repositories: Merlot
taste.merlot.org/opentextbooks
2200+ open textbooks
1074 Science & Technology
326 Math & Stats

35. Repositories: Connexions
cnx.org
Endorsement Lenses
http://cnx.org/lenses

36. Repositories: Connexions
Remix & authoring

37. Open Textbooks
Wikibooks
Wikimedia Foundation project
Human Physiology: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Human_Physiology

38. Open Textbooks
University of Minnesota
open.umn.edu
•Referatory
•Some faculty reviews
•User friendly
Natural & Physical Sciences https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/SearchResults.aspx?subjectAreaId=8

39. Open Textbooks
Open Stax
openstax.org

40. Open Textbooks
Open Stax
openstax.org
Available now
Algebra-Based Physics
Introduction to Sociology
General Biology for Majors
Concepts of Biology
Coming soon
Human Anatomy and Physiology: May 15, 2013
Elementary Statistics: September 30, 2013
Pre-Calculus: February 2014
Principles of Economics: February 2014
Introductory Psychology: October 2014
General Chemistry: about July 2014

41. OpenStax College

42. Open Textbooks
American Institute of Math
aimath.org/textbooks
•Editorial review board
•Evaluation criteria

43. American Institute of Math
Evaluation criteria includes:
•must be able to serve as the primary text in a
mainstream mathematics course at the undergraduate
level in U.S. colleges and universities.
•They must have exercises.
•Class-tested.
Watch licenses

44. Open Textbooks
College Open Textbooks
collegeopentextbooks.org
28 educational organizations
200 US colleges
150+ peer reviews of OTB
Faculty success stories: http://www.collegeopentextbooks.org/success-stories-

45. Open Textbooks
College Open Textbooks Community
collegeopentextbooks.ning.com
Adoption: http://collegeopentextbooks.ning.com/page/adoptions-of-open-textbooks

46. Open Textbooks
Community College Consortium for Open
Educational Resources (CCCOER)
Oerconsortium.org
750 open textbooks
Adoption resources & webinars

47. OTB: What we have been doing
OTB Sub-Committee
18 members
Faculty, administrators (Thor Borgford, Douglas College), Teaching &
learning centres, Libraries, Bookstores, Students, BCCAT, MAEIT
The sub-committee advises on:
• Identification and prioritization of the 40 subjects
• Selection criteria for candidate texts and supplementary resources
• Call for proposals processes
• Identification of additional consultation and engagement opportunities
• Quality assurance and updating processes for resources
41 applicants from across BC post-sec

48. OTB: What we have been doing
Top 40 subjects based
on course registrations
Source: BC CDW & BC Research Institutions
Full list: bccampus.ca/top-40-courses

49. OTB: What we have been doing
Open Textbook Summit
March 2013
BCcampus
BC AEIT
Creative Commons
eCampus Alberta
Alberta Enterprise & Advanced Education
The 20 Million Minds Foundation
Washington Open Course Library
University of Minnesota Open Textbook Catalogue
Lumen Learning
Siyavula
Open Courseware Consortium
OpenStax/Connexions
Student Public Interest Research Groups
Right to Research Coalition
Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA)

50. OTB Project Update
Phase 1: Call for Reviews of existing (until May 24)
Phase 2: Call for modifications (Fall, 2013)
Phase 3: Call for creation (Spring 2014)

51. Phase 1: Faculty Reviews
• Seeded 10 open textbooks
• $250 faculty review
• 4 reviews per textbook
• May 24th
bccampus.ca/open-textbooks-phase-1-call-for-
reviewers/

52. BC Open Textbooks
open.bccampus.ca

53. OTB: Next steps
• BCCAT articulation meetings
• Library engagement
• Authoring platform evaluation
• Pressbooks
• Connexions/OERPub
• Faculty Support
• CoP for authors?
• Seed more textbooks
• Adoption/Adaption Workshops

54. You don’t have to wait for us!

55. Questions?
Thank you
open.bccampus.ca
Clint Lalonde
clalonde@bccampus.ca
BCcampus.ca