Librarians: Transforming Textbooks at a System-Wide ScaleNew England Library Association Fall Event: Open AccessNovember 13, 2015

Jeff GallantALG Visiting Program Officer for OERUniversity System of Georgia / GALILEO

A bit about me… Born in Gardner, MA Bachelor of Music: University of Massachusetts at Amherst Master of Music: Northwestern University MSLIS: Simmons College Moved to GA in 2010, Reference Librarian at Valdosta State University Part of ALG pilot team in 2013 New USG role started July 2014

Overview What is “Open?” What is an OER? Where are the OER? What does ALG do? What is New England doing? What can you do?

What is “Open?”(THIS MAY BE A REVIEW FOR YOU.)

Original infographic: http://visual.ly/what-creative-commons

Original infographic: http://visual.ly/what-creative-commons

For more on copyright… Free course on copyright for educators and librarians: https://www.coursera.org/learn/copyright-for-education

How do these licenses make something “Open?”

The “5 R’s” of Open (in education)Open licenses give users the power to: Retain the content (hard drive, bookshelf, etc.) Reuse the content (not a rental, no expiration) Revise the content (for your course, for an update) Redistribute the content (to students, friends, etc.) Remix the content (with other content)

From David Wiley’s definition of Open: http://www.opencontent.org/definition/

Original infographic: http://visual.ly/what-creative-commons

What is an OER?

OER Definition from Hewlett: Open Educational Resources (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.

http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education-program/open-educational-resources

OER = Educational Resources + 5 R’s◦Open textbooks◦Open videos◦Open music◦Open lecture slides◦Open tests and quizzes ◦Usually w/ instructor-only vetting

◦Open images and photography

Why are OER Important? The average annual student budget for books and supplies in AY 2015-2016 is $1298 at a four-year public college, with a four-year cost of $5192. Since 1978, textbook costs have risen at over three times the rate of inflation.

http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimated-undergraduate-budgets-2015-16

What do Students Do in Response? Students try to save on textbook costs by: Not purchasing textbooks for the course Dropping/Withdrawing from courses Not registering for a course with an expensive textbook Taking fewer classes Using the library’s “lifeline” of print reserves Selling Used, Renting Digital, “Disappearing Ink”

http://www.openaccesstextbooks.org/pdf/2012_Florida_Student_Textbook_Survey.pdf

OER Can HelpOER, and specifically Open Textbooks, provide a free and open option to instructors.

http://www.openstaxcollege.org/

A Glance at an Open Textbook OpenStax College Concepts of Biology: https://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/concepts-of-biology UGA Adaptation: https://openstaxcollege.org/pages/GeorgiaBiology

Open PedagogyOpen Pedagogy is teaching with OER while maximizing the benefits of open resources in class.

“When an educator makes the choice to adopt open educational resources they are choosing an airplane that can actually be flown. They are putting themselves in a position where the entire, unbounded possibility of the internet lies open before them.”

David Wiley, “The Importance of Getting in the Air”http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3761

A Glance at Open Pedagogy Project Management for Instructional Designers: http://pm4id.org/ • Remix of an open textbook licensed under

Creative Commons by an anonymous author• All revisions by students, with instructor as editor• Motivation for students to do great work by

publicly available, open status of their work

Where are the OER?

Start with small collections… OpenStax College Textbooks

◦ http://www.openstaxcollege.org/

UMN Open Textbook Library◦ http://open.umn.edu/

SUNY Open Textbooks◦ http://opensuny.org/omp/index.php/SUNYOpenTextbooks

ALG Top 100 Courses List ◦ http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/find_textbooks/alg_top_courses

Then move to bigger collections… OpenStax CNX

◦ http://cnx.org/

MERLOT◦ http://www.merlot.org/

OER Commons:◦ https://www.oercommons.org/

Also explore these options… Open Courseware Open-Access Articles Google Images: Search Tools > Usage Rights YouTube: Filters > Features > Creative Commons

search.creativecommons.org Plain-old Google searching (“open textbook” [subject], “open course” [subject]) Library and GALILEO Resources No-cost but copyrighted resources

What does Affordable Learning Georgia do?

But first, what is the USG? USG = University System of Georgia

◦All GA public higher education institutions with one Board of Regents

◦Board of Regents offices include IT, Academic Affairs (includes Library Services), and more

◦30 (soon to be 28, consolidations) institutions◦About 300,000 enrolled per academic year

What is GALILEO? GALILEO = Georgia’s Virtual Library (GA Library Learning Online)◦System-wide support for electronic resources, discovery, and ILS

◦Print resource sharing support◦Digital Library of Georgia, Georgia Knowledge Repository◦ In 2014: Affordable Learning Georgia added

The USG includes: Research Institutions (Georgia Tech, UGA) Comprehensive Institutions (Kennesaw State, Valdosta State) State Universities (Albany State, Savannah State) State Colleges (Dalton State, Georgia Gwinnett)

Affordable Learning Georgia aims to: Lower the cost of textbooks for USG students and increase student success Promote Equal, Day-One, No-Cost or Low-Cost Access Leverage Open, Shareable, Remixable Content Use High-Quality Library Course Materials at No Cost (to Students) through GALILEO

Aligned with the USG Strategic Plan USG Strategic Plan includes the Complete College Georgia initiative, based on Complete College America, meaning the USG is focused on student success, affordability, equal access, and retention.

FY 2014 FoundationsFY 2015 FundedFY 2016Funded Second YearDirector:Lauren FancherVisiting Program Officer: Jeff Gallant

Partners

Projects

Website

Orange Icons by Freepik and provided by http://flaticon.com

Why did Georgia choose GALILEO for ALG? The USG Office asked the USG Libraries, through Library Services, to lead the effort because of GALILEO. The libraries were chosen because of the history and successes of GALILEO, which has provided a platform, an authentication method, and the licensing of library materials to make research affordable throughout the state.

It’s a Choice, Not a Mandate ALG ensures that all institutions and faculty are allowed academic freedom – we do not support mandates. We think that raising awareness and growing the program organically will lead to more and more advocates and more successful projects.

Why Librarians? Librarians’ roles in OER projects include:

Directing OER projectsSearching for and evaluating OER and affordable materialsAssisting with access to no-cost-to-students library materials(Permalinks, unlimited-user eBook licenses, etc.)Organizing course content in an open-access area (such as LibGuides) Hosting created course content in a digital repositoryAssisting with copyright and open licensing practices

Changing Roles of Librarians: Skills Needed for OER Leadership

Common: Evaluating Information Providing Access Repository Administration Strategic Planning Marketing and Liaising Advocacy and Networking Customer Service Copyright & Open Licensing Web UX/Usability

Not as common: Managing (More) Ambiguity Instructional Design Graphic Design Web/Document Accessibility Data Analysis Professional Reporting Event Planning Grants Administration

Champions and Coordinators Each USG institution has an: ALG Campus Champion: Connect faculty and staff with ALG efforts as an advocate, provide presentations and workshops on ALG and OER, promote Textbook Transformation Grants program.

ALG Library Coordinator: Consult with faculty and staff in searching for and evaluating OER and other affordable resources. Work with Campus Champion on presentations and workshops.

Campus Champions and Library Coordinators meet monthly with Jeff and Lauren.

Textbook Transformation Grants

ALG Textbook Transformation Grants◦Pilot different approaches for textbook transformation including adoption, adaptation, and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) and/or identification and adoption of materials already available in GALILEO and USG libraries.

◦Provide support to faculty, libraries, and their institutions to implement these approaches.

◦Lower the cost of college for students and contribute to their retention, progression, and graduation.

Why Grants? Finding, modifying, and implementing affordable resources takes extra time and training – sometimes more than a commercial textbook adoption. Textbook Transformation Grants allow for:

◦Course releases or extra-workload compensation for faculty to allow for review of current resources, creation of ancillary resources, course redesigns, research

◦Assistance from librarians, instructional designers◦Support for training session travel

Ensuring Collaboration and Community Each round of Textbook Transformation Grants has a required in-person Kickoff Meeting in Macon, GA, a central location in the state.

As of Round Four (Fall 2015)…◦Total Textbook Transformation Grants Projects: 96◦Total Participating Institutions: 27◦Total Team Participants: 286◦Total Number of Courses Addressed: 128◦Total Funding Awarded to Date: $1,561,749◦Total Projected Savings to Date: $11,709,589◦Total Annual Students Affected: 85,884

Grant Proposal Rounds Round One: Fall 2014 - Spring 2015 (Complete) Round Two: Started Spring 2015 Round Three: Started Summer 2015 Round Four: Started Fall 2015 Round Five: Starting Spring 2016 All proposals, Final Reports, and created materials: http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/about/textbook_transformation_grants

Round One as a “Pilot” Compressed and fixed timeline Implementation one semester, teaching one semester One mid-point status report (a formal check-in) All final reports submitted by June 1, 2015 Future rounds let teams select the project’s final semester, allows for more time for creation/implementation

Assessment: What is an OER Success?

Topics we needed to evaluate: Student Savings (Affordability) Student Satisfaction (Retention) Student Learning Outcomes / Success Metrics (Progression) Drop/Fail/Withdraw Rates (Retention) Problem: Our institutions and their departments are very different from each other, and have different measures, demographics, projects, and past data for comparisons.

Was it the OER, or…? Covariates are very tough to take into account when you have this many projects reporting with significantly different methods of quantitative and qualitative measures. This happens in part because the USG is a system, not one institution with one type of data gathering, retention, and disclosure policy.

Round One Solution: Narrative Final Reports Faculty reported on the student affordability, retention, and progression metrics they described in their original proposals. Due to multiple methods of reporting, overall data of using OER & affordable resources was tough to report. Future rounds will include more direct, quantifiable questions to faculty in the Final Report.

Final Report Links (Newer) Final Report Narrative Template: http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/documents/ALG_Grant_Final_Report.docx Final Report Submission Page: http://affordablelearninggeorgia.org/site/final_report_submission

OER Research Fellows Many Round One grantees are now part of the national OER Review Project’s Research Fellows program, which will lead to more scholarly research on the results and experiences.

Savings: Round One◦$303,390 awarded to grantees ◦4,950 students affected ◦$760,000 saved in one semester

Student Satisfaction◦23 teams (85% of students affected) reported an overall positive response to new materials.

◦Four teams (14% of students affected) reported an overall mixed response to new materials.

◦Two teams (2% of students affected) experienced an overall negative response to new materials.

Student Success: Grades / Outcomes◦Seven teams (22% of students affected) experienced an overall significant positive on student learning outcomes over previous semesters.

◦17 teams (69% of students affected) experienced neither a positive or negative impact on student learning outcomes.

◦Four teams (9% of students affected) experienced an overall significant negative impact on learning outcomes.

Student Success: DFW Rates◦Five teams (8% of students affected) experienced an overall significant positive comparative impact on DFW rates.

◦15 teams (72% of students affected) experienced neither a positive or negative comparative impact on DFW rates.

◦Four teams (10% of students affected) experienced an overall significant negative comparative impact on DFW rates.

Neutral = Success?Project teams often saw both positive and neutral outcomes results as successes within the project, due to the materials being more affordable to students and the high level of satisfaction from students in courses with affordable materials.

How does this line up with current research?

“The biggest impact of OER use [is] not on grades but on increased interest in the subject, satisfaction with the learning experience and enthusiasm for future study.” OER Research Hub 2015 Formal Learners Data Report

“None of the nine studies that measured efficacy had results in which students who utilized OER performed worse than their peers who used traditional textbooks.” The Review Project 2015, Open Education Group

Round One: Other ALG Advantages

Taken from reports, interviews, and quotes provided by Round One teams.

A Diversity of Educational Resources

“[This project] increases the availability to those students… to a diversity of materials that would relate to their particular learning styles, perhaps, or their particular circumstance.”-Anthony Scheffler, Round One Grantee

“A [commercial] textbook is great but it only provides us with one perspective of [the] material; it does not let us see other examples of problems in human factors that are available to us. This also opens the door for us to explore different material because we are exposed to stories, reports, and actual occurrences that would only be filtered in a textbook.”-Student of Dr. Young-Mi Choi, Round One Grantee, Georgia Institute of Technology

A Sign of Engaged Professorship“They do contribute, I think, to building a greater sense of community between students and each other, as well as students and the professor, by showing students that professors actually care about them and their personal finances.”-Dr. Seneca Vaught, Round One Grantee

“[The new set of materials] makes the class more personable with the professor and allows us to gain a different style of learning.” “This is something that should have been done long ago. The online material is much more comprehensive and clear than a paper textbook would be.” -Students of Dr. Christine James, Round One Grantee, Valdosta State University

A Reason for Students to Engage“All students talked extensively about the videos chosen for the LibGuide and some even talked about their favorite video of the semester. One student said that the videos kept him interested. Several students also talked about being able to access the LibGuide from anywhere.”

A Reason for Students to Engage“Another student said that the LibGuide forced him to do work - several other students concurred. When I asked the students to elaborate on this response they said that they had no excuse not to do their work since the LibGuide was so accessible.” -From Dr. Kimberly Wheeler and Sarah Hepler’s Round One Final Report

Lessons Learned: Faculty, Librarians, and Designers Align all course materials in a redesign Organize materials chronologically Involve students in material reviews Adjust materials based on student feedback and performance If possible, select open textbooks without a No Derivatives clause

Lessons Learned: Grants Administrators An email proposal system is not enough Triple-check estimates and numbers in proposals Have a preliminary administrative review for completeness Ensure higher-level administrative support for projects

Lessons Learned: Grants Administrators Provide and promote training opportunities Set up project team reports in a summary-friendly way Organize data to be ready for any impromptu report requests

Round One Final Report Summary:

affordablelearninggeorgia.org/documents/ALG_R1_Final_Report.pdf

Future Plans

ALG Bookstore Program Affordable Learning Georgia is working with campus-run bookstores to keep them competitive and help them retain their customers. The Bookstore Program involves providing access to Verba, a platform that allows for comparative shopping, dynamic pricing, and revenue sharing.

eCore: Open Textbooks in All Courses

Affordable Learning Georgia has partnered with eCore, Georgia’s Online Core Curriculum, to make free and open textbooks available for all eCore courses. eCore currently has open textbooks in 22 courses, and plans to have all 26 courses implemented by 2016.

Top 100 Undergraduate Courses

Total, In-Person and Online: ◦ 1,075 attendees trained

Online Training and Development Series: ◦ 460 attendees since 3/12/2015

Online Information Sessions:

◦ 197 attendees since 3/20/2015

Training and Development Series

What is New England doing?

Adoption and Adaptation: UMass Amherst

UMass Amherst Open Education Initiative: http://www.library.umass.edu/services/teaching-and-learning/oer/open-education-initiative/ Library-driven, low-cost or no-cost adoption-based funding Saved students over $1.5 million so far Marilyn Billings, Scholarly Communication and Special Initiatives Librarian

Jeremy Smith, Digital Projects Manager in Scholarly Communication

And more… Boston College: Competitive grants for affordable materials adoption projects started this year:

http://libguides.bc.edu/affordable University of New Hampshire OER Ambassador Program: http://www.unh.edu/it/unh-oer-ambassador-pilot University of Connecticut Open Education: http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/oer Open UMass Boston: http://open.umb.edu/

Creation: MIT MIT OpenCourseWare: One of the first efforts to make education open via the Web http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm Includes open textbooks: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/online-textbooks/ UMass Boston OpenCourseWare: http://ocw.umb.edu/

Consortial Advocacy: Boston Library Consortium Open Educational Resources workshop with David Ernst in September Sent signed letter to President Obama: Federally-funded materials should be available as OER

What Can You Do?

Jump into the Twitter discussion!

David Wiley: @opencontent Lumen Learning

Nicole Allen: @txtbks SPARC

Ethan Senack:@HigherEdPIRG StudentPIRGs, #TextbookBroke

Nicole Finkbeiner: @nfinkbeiner OpenStax College

Cable Green: @cgreen Creative Commons

Clint Lalonde:@clalonde BCcampus

Join the SPARC Libraries and OER discussion!

http://groups.google.com/a/arl.org/group/sparc-liboer/

Attend conferences! Open Education Conference (OpenEd) Online Learning Consortium (OLC Innovate)

◦Both online learning and OER, sponsored by MERLOT Share your experiences at state and regional library / teaching and learning conferences Open Textbook Network Annual Meeting

Ask for help! Usually, people involved in OER are happy to help whoever they can and let you use their instructional materials with attribution. Contact UMass Amherst (Jeremy Smith, Marilyn Billings) Contact me! Jeff.Gallant@usg.edu Contact CSU Affordable Learning Solutions (Leslie Kennedy, Gerry Hanley)

Use our stuff! http://affordablelearninggeorgia.org Find Textbooks: pages to help you get started Help: Two modular tutorials on finding/evaluating, creation/adaptation About: Textbook Transformation Grants, Advocacy Kit Events: All upcoming and archived events open to

You’re never alone: partner up! CSU Affordable Learning Solutions: http://affordablelearningsolutions.org/ Rice University’s OpenStax College: http://openstaxcollege.org/ UMN Open Textbook Network: http://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/ Lumen Learning: http://lumenlearning.com/

Find your champions! Instructional Faculty who will support the project and communicate information from the project to their peers.

Administrators, Deans, and Department Chairs who would see an OER/affordable learning project as part of the strategic plan.

Teaching and Learning Center Staff who can assist with instructional design.

More Librarians who will support the project, give workshops, consult with instructors on subject-specific resources, etc.

Target your top courses! If possible, look at enrollment data and course textbook pricing. Where can you make the most impact? ALG’s Top 100 Undergraduate Courses list serves this purpose.

Then come up with a plan… SPARC Open Education Action Plan template: https://bitly.com/open-education-action-plan Planning at this level is highly involved and time-consuming! Be sure to have ideas prepared before you meet with a group to complete this form.

…and report everything. ALG’s 8-page summary of Round One Final Reports: http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/documents/ALG_R1_Final_Report.pdf

This is a lot of stuff to do. It takes sustained determination and the help of many partners.

But as we librarians know, if you love what you’re doing,

you’ll have a good time.

The final rundown! What is “Open?” What is an OER? Where are the OER? What does ALG do? What is New England doing? What can you do?

Take my slides – please! http://tinyurl.com/jg-nela-keynote

Questions?

Thank you!Contact: Jeff.Gallant@usg.edu