Location
KIPJ Room EF
Session Type
Workshop
Start Date
23-4-2018 1:00 PM
End Date
23-4-2018 4:00 PM
Abstract
Open textbooks can significantly reduce costs for students, while giving faculty greater control of their course content. The Babson Survey Research Group found a majority of faculty classify cost as “very important" for their selection of required course materials. Yet in that same report, only 10% of faculty reported that they were “very aware” of open educational resources (Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2017). Knowing this disconnect, how can we encourage higher education to move towards open?
The answer is… one textbook at a time. The Open Textbook Network (OTN) is a community of more than 600 institutions that offers organized programmatic support to increase open textbook adoptions on their local campuses. In addition to building adoption programs, the OTN recently launched The Publishing Cooperative, which supports local open textbook publishing programs. By focusing on open textbooks as a method for moving open education forward, the community has created measurable outcomes that include $8.5 million in student savings, and a plan to create 20 new open textbooks in two years.
In this workshop, participants will learn more about open textbooks, including how to develop faculty engagement programs and overcome barriers to adoptions. The Open Textbook Library, a comprehensive referatory that makes discovery and access easier, will also be introduced as a key engagement method and resource. Participants will take away strategies for answering tough questions, including those about quality and sustainability.
Creative Commons License
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To Encourage is to Organize: Moving Higher Education Towards Open
KIPJ Room EF
Open textbooks can significantly reduce costs for students, while giving faculty greater control of their course content. The Babson Survey Research Group found a majority of faculty classify cost as “very important" for their selection of required course materials. Yet in that same report, only 10% of faculty reported that they were “very aware” of open educational resources (Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2017). Knowing this disconnect, how can we encourage higher education to move towards open?
The answer is… one textbook at a time. The Open Textbook Network (OTN) is a community of more than 600 institutions that offers organized programmatic support to increase open textbook adoptions on their local campuses. In addition to building adoption programs, the OTN recently launched The Publishing Cooperative, which supports local open textbook publishing programs. By focusing on open textbooks as a method for moving open education forward, the community has created measurable outcomes that include $8.5 million in student savings, and a plan to create 20 new open textbooks in two years.
In this workshop, participants will learn more about open textbooks, including how to develop faculty engagement programs and overcome barriers to adoptions. The Open Textbook Library, a comprehensive referatory that makes discovery and access easier, will also be introduced as a key engagement method and resource. Participants will take away strategies for answering tough questions, including those about quality and sustainability.
Comments
Karen Lauritsen is managing director with the Open Textbook Network, where she collaboratively builds vision and strategy to support open education. She has an MA in Education from UC Berkeley and a for fun degree in improvisation from Second City. She’s given talks at TEDxUCLA, Vancouver Public Libraries, and VALA: Libraries, Technology and the Future, in Melbourne.