St. Edward’s University September 25, 2019 Katherine D. Harris Professor of English Chair, California Open Educational Resources Council San Jose State University California Open Educational Resources Council Presentation by http://icas-ca.org/coerc

1. Working Towards Low-Cost
Textbooks: Cross-Sector Faculty
Collaboration for a Statewide OER
Initiative
St. Edward’s University
September 25, 2019
Katherine D. Harris
Professor of English
Chair, California Open Educational Resources Council
San Jose State University
California Open Educational Resources Council Presentation by http://icas-ca.org/coerc is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 4.0 International License.Image credits on the last slide.

2. Taking the leap....

3. THE GOAL – to increase faculty adoption,
implementation, and use of high quality, affordable
or free course materials to save students money.

4. Source: Phil Hill, “OER Adoption: The Worst of Times and The Best of Times” (Oct 13, 2014) based on Babson
Report 2014

5. “the biggest takeaway from the Babson survey [2014] is
this question – who will introduce the remaining 66%-75%
of this country’s faculty to OER? Haters or advocates?”
--David Wiley
“The Babson OER Survey and the Future of
OER Adoption” (Nov 3, 2014)

10. The California State Legislature passed and the Governor
signed SB 1052 and SB 1053 for the California public
higher education systems to create an online library of open
educational resources and open textbooks (2012)
SB 1052 CA Senate Bill authorizing creation of CA-OER
SB 1053
CA Senate Bill authorizing CA Open Source Digital
Library
The CSU was designated as the leadership
organization to manage the project

11. CA-OER Membership (2016)
CCC UC CSU
Dolores Davison
History/Women’s
Studies,
Foothill
Peter Krapp
Film, Media/Visual
Studies, Informatics,
Irvine
Diego Bonilla
Communication,
Sacramento
Cheryl Aschenbach,
English,
Lassen
Chikako Takeshita
Gender & Sexuality
Studies,
Riverside
Ruth A. Guthrie
Computer Information
Systems,
Pomona
Daniel Crump
Librarian,
American River
Bruce Cooperstein
Mathematics,
Santa Cruz
Larry Hanley
English,
San Francisco
Katherine D. Harris, English, San Jose State (CSU)
Project Coordinator/Chair (non-voting)

12. To establish this project, the California State University,
Office of the Chancellor was awarded grants from the:
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation ($500,000)
and Gates Foundation ($500,000) to match the State of California’s
funding, mandated by SB 1052 and SB 1053.

20. Criteria for Selecting 50 Courses
CA-OER was able to identify more than 50 courses to evaluate OER textbooks using the following criteria:
Works for as many campuses as possible following the designation for general education courses:
Highly enrolled according to Course Identification Number System:
http://www.c-id.net/degreereview.html
Generates significant textbook savings
Relatively consistent across textbook products
Provides opportunities for faculty to augment open textbooks
Conducive to discipline-based pedagogies
Critical Thinking Oral Communication Quantitative Reasoning Written Communication
Access to multiple OER textbooks for any given course

21. Phase I: First Five Courses
Selected & Textbook Reviews
Completed
Public
Speaking
Microeconomics
U.S. HistoryIntroduction to
Chemistry
Introduction to
Statistics

22. Peer Review Process
• Drawn from faculty across CCC, CSU, & UC
• Self-identified based on response to the faculty survey
• Competitively assembled panels
Selecting the panelists
• 1 panelist from each of the 3 segments (CCC, CSU, UC)
• Balance of experience with OER materials
• Balance of place in the career
Resulting reviews are made public along with names &
institutions of each faculty member

23. How can I find the reviews by these panelists?
http://coolfored.org/courseshowcase.html

25. Ok, but what do 30,000 CCC, CSU, and UC faculty
think about OER?
Respondents were from a variety of disciplines, teaching lower and upper
division courses: 1083 responses -- 331 University of California -- 147 Cal
State University -- 605 California Community Colleges

26. Faculty Survey Highlights
• Only 7% of faculty surveyed are using OER textbooks, 23% of faculty
have never heard of OER Textbooks.
• 98% of faculty surveyed rate Quality of the OER textbook as the most
important issue.
• 75% of faculty surveyed are likely to adopt an OER Textbooks if a quality
OER textbook is available

27. Faculty Survey Highlights
• The majority of faculty surveyed (40%) were aware of OER
textbooks but, had never looked at one
• 13% of faculty reported that they were using an entire or part of an
OER textbook in their courses
• Some faculty reported not being aware of open textbooks (22%).
• The Babson Survey (2014) reports that 66% of faculty indicate they
are unaware of open textbooks.
Full survey results:
Guthrie, Ruth, Katherine D. Harris, Peter Krapp. “Adoption of Open Educational Resources in California
Colleges and Universities.” International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies 9:3 (2018)

28. Faculty & Student Focus Groups – Impediments
• Confusing “open” with “free”
• Assume all free resources are OER
• Confuse “open resources” with “open source”
• Assume OER refers only to open source software”
What is OER?
What format do you prefer?
• Most students prefer to work with a print version than an
electronic version
• Probable causal factors: Print is a better medium for reading
and studying, students studying habits, and information
literacy
• Note: based on STEM 2014 survey – does this differ for other
non-STEM disciplines?

29. Source: Waters, J. et al. (2014). A Comparison of E-book and Print Book Discovery, Preferences, and Usage
by Science and Engineering Faculty and Graduate Students at the University of Kansas.

30. Information Literacy
A large number of open textbooks are accessed and/or used in digital
format (ePub, PDF, wiki, etc.) It is assumed that an individual’s
information literacy will have an impact on the effective use and
enjoyment of electronic open educational resources.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHZOBveUV5I&feature=youtu.be

31. Source: Allen, E., & Seaman, J. (2014, October 1). “Opening the curriculum: Open Educational Resources
in Higher Education” 2014. http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthecurriculum2014.pdf

32. How about creating an OER Textbook?

33. Other initiatives
Find more OER sources:
https://libguides.libraries.wsu.edu/affordablelearning/opentextbooks

34. Looks like the Texas
legislature followed the
California legislature’s
imperative for OER
availability

35. At St. Edward’s University!

36. Further Inquiry – Questions to Consider:
• Usability and information literacy: How did the
professor use the open textbook to prepare his/her
class?
• Third person effect? Has any of your colleagues
shared their open textbook experiences with you?
How did it go for them?
• Awareness of new textbooks: How does the
awareness of a new textbook begin? How do you
get to learn about new textbooks?
• If I were to contact you about an open textbook,
what would be the best way to go about it?
• What things do you consider when you decide to
review in detail a possible new textbook? For
example, do you start by looking at the publisher?
The table of contents? Other professors?

37. Released April 1, 2016
Permalink for online version: http://tinyurl.com/WPOERAdoption040116
Printable PDF version with Appendices: http://tinyurl.com/WPOERPrintVersion2
Video Synopsis: https://youtu.be/vwVIrv0iSgE

38. Final Progress Report
California Open Educational Resources Council
Submitted to the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates
December 1, 2015
(rev 4/15/16)
Permalink: http://tinyurl.com/FPRCAOERC41516
Printable PDF Version: http://tinyurl.com/FPRCAOERC41516pdf

39. Released April 1, 2016
Permalink for online version: http://tinyurl.com/WPOERAdoption040116
Printable PDF version with Appendices: http://tinyurl.com/WPOERPrintVersion2
Video Synopsis: https://youtu.be/vwVIrv0iSgE

40. CSU * AB 798 * Affordable Learning $olutions
The CSU campus-based AL$ programs (23) reported over $18M student savings and the
bookstores saved our students over $26M with their cost-cutting programs. The potential
course materials savings for CSU students was over $45M because interested faculty
stepped up to redesign their courses to incorporate low or no cost materials.
https://als.csuprojects.org/node/176

41. CSU’s AL$ on all 23 Campuses through Library
Partnerships – but it took a 5-year plan
Source: https://als.csuprojects.org/node/31

42. CSU’s COOL4Ed Showcases + OER Search
Source: http://coolfored.org/

44. Released April 1, 2016
Permalink for online version: http://tinyurl.com/WPOERAdoption040116
Printable PDF version with Appendices: http://tinyurl.com/WPOERPrintVersion2
Video Synopsis: https://youtu.be/vwVIrv0iSgE

45. CSU’s AL$ on all 23 Campuses through Library
Partnerships – over 5 years
Source: https://als.csuprojects.org/node/31
1. Partner with libraries on interested campuses – start slowly – 1 or 2
departments in a year
2. Work directly with 1 library liaison who will make contact with interested
faculty
3. Identify high-impact, highly enrolled courses in those departments
4. Make contact directly with that faculty member
Working with a Cohort of Faculty
1. Each campus offered stipends for faculty to revise a particular course with
OER (~$500-1000)
2. Liaison works closely with this cohort of faculty over 1 semester (with
structured meetings to gauge progress & ensure benchmarks are met)
3. Selection of faculty based on the course as part of the proposal; this means
working with dept chairs to ensure that the course can be offered the following
semester after the OER work
4. Faculty create a course showcase to demonstrate the changes
5. Course showcase is available in each library’s repository and also posted on
the main AL$
6. After the course has been offered, faculty update their course showcase

46. Thank you!
Questions?