2014-03-18 us oer policy overview for #oerpolicyworks

#oerpolicyworks@txtbks @sparc_na

Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition

U.S. OER PolicyNicole Allen

Director of Open Education, SPARC

OER Policy Workshop (#OERPolicyWorks)

March 18, 2014 Warsaw, Poland



SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an international alliance of academic and

research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication.



Policy Levels

• Federal• State• Institutional



Legislative

(makes laws)

Executive(enforces laws)

Judiciary(interprets laws)

Congress

Bills (Laws)

Resolutions

The President

Regulations

Courts

Case Law

Executive Actions

House Senate Agencies

U.S. Federal Structure

Plans



U.S. State Structure (Same)

Legislative

(makes laws)

Executive(enforces laws)

Judiciary(interprets laws)

Legislature

Bills (Laws)

Resolutions

Governor

Regulations

Courts

Case Law

Executive Actions

House Senate Agencies



U.S. K-12 Textbooks

• Publishing market $18.3 billion (2011)

• Textbooks are selected and purchased by states or districts

• No federal control over curriculum

• 45 states have adopted the “common core”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_the_United_Stateshttp://www.aepweb.org/aepweb/?p=3261&option=com_wordpress&Itemid=68

http://www.corestandards.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_the_United_States


http://www.aepweb.org/aepweb/?p=3261&option=com_wordpress&Itemid=68

http://www.aepweb.org/aepweb/?p=3261&option=com_wordpress&Itemid=68





Common Core Adoption






U.S. Higher Ed Textbooks

• Textbooks & supplies ~$1,200 per student per year

• Textbook market is $8.8 billion per year

• Textbooks selected by individual professors and purchased by individual students

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_the_United_Stateshttp://www.nces.ed.gov/programs/digest



http://www.nces.ed.gov/programs/digest






“Broken Economics”



http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-368





“65% of students said that they had decided against

buying a textbook because it was too expensive… 94% were concerned that doing so would hurt their grade.”

-- 2014 report by U.S. PIRG

http://www.studentpirgs.org/reports/sp/fixing-broken-textbook-market





U.S. OER Advocacy

• Policy driven by problems in the system

• Wide variety of policies at many different levels

• Most victories spearheaded by small coalitions or individual groups

• OER Advocacy listserv & monthly call



Policies Investing in OER



Types of OER Policy

1. Invest resources explicitly in the creation or adoption of OER

2. Inject open licensing into systems that create educational resources

3. Endorse or call for OER4. Remove barriers to OER

* This is a working theory, let’s see if it holds true outside the U.S.

*



Federal Agency Program (2010)

http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct/






Federal Agency Program (2010)





Federal Bill (proposed 2013)

http://www.sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/act

Affordable College Textbook Act







Affordable College Textbook Act

(3) OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE- The term `open educational resource' means an educational resource that is licensed under an open license and made freely available online to the public.

(4) OPEN LICENSE- The term `open license' means a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable copyright license granting the public permission to access, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display, adapt, distribute, and otherwise use the work and adaptations of the work for any purpose, conditioned only on the requirement that attribution be given to authors as designated.





State Bill (2012)

Open source textbook bill passes state Legislature

http://www.dailycal.org/2012/09/05/open-source-textbook-bill-passes-state-legislature/





State Bill (2012)

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=2337&year=2011





Open Licensing Policies



Institutional Policy (2013)

http://www.californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/Portals/0/DocDownloads/PressReleases/SEP2013/

PRESS_RELEASE_CreativeCommonsBY_090913_FINAL.pdf

http://www.californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/Portals/0/DocDownloads/PressReleases/SEP2013/PRESS_RELEASE_CreativeCommonsBY_090913_FINAL.pdf





Federal OER Licensing Bill?

SPARC supports FASTR, a bill to expand open access to federally funded research. We are working to build interest in a similar policy for educational resources.

http://sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/fastr

http://sparc.arl.org/advocacy/national/fastr



Policies Endorsing OER



Federal Tech. Plan (2010)

4.3 Support the development and use of open educational resources to promote innovative and creative opportunities for all learners and accelerate the development and adoption of new open technology-based learning tools and courses.

The value of open educational resources is now recognized around the world, leading to the availability of a vast array of learning, teaching, and research resources that learners of any age can use across all content areas. Realizing this value will require new policies concerning the evaluation and selection of instructional materials so that digital resources are considered and processes are established for keeping educational resource content up to date, appropriate, and tagged according to identified content interoperability standards.

http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/executive-summary






Transforming Education through Technology Act

http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/521





State Resolutions (2013)

http://openstates.org/nd/bills/63/HCR3009/documents/NDD00006411/





Institutional Policy (2004)

http://faculty.deanza.fhda.edu/PublicDomain/stories/storyReader$7





Student Resolution



Policies that Remove Barriers

to OER



Federal Bill (2008)

http://www.studentpirgs.org/news/congress-moves-cut-textbook-costs-landmark-bill





Notable Programs



State Program (2012)

http://utahopentextbooks.org/2012/01/25/114/





Provincial Program (2012)

http://open.bccampus.ca/





Institutional Program (2013)

http://www.tcc.edu/news/press/2013/TextbookFreeDegree.htm





Library Program (2011)



U.S. OER PolicyNicole Allen

Director of Open Education, SPARC

OER Policy Workshop (#OERPolicyWorks)

March 18, 2014 Warsaw, Poland

2014-03-18 us oer policy overview for #oerpolicyworks

Education

academic resources

open educational

open license

open education

remove barriers

interprets

makes laws

enforces laws