Impact

Assessing the Impact of OER with C. EDWARD WATSON

C. Edward Watson was interviewed in a Teaching in Higher Ed podcast about his research when he was at the University of Georgia where he conducted a study about OER and equity.

Quote around the 19-20 minute mark:
“We found that course grades improved at greater rates for nonwhite students and Pell eligible students. In other words, those that we thought that a free textbook would help. Those folks really saw a difference. We also saw significant decreases in DFW rates, a greater rates for nonwhite and Pell eligible students. In fact, looking just at those subgroups, we saw DFW rates drop by a third. So, it really is sort of the notion that that OERs are doing more to make the classroom more equitable, more fair. “

"Maybe this is more than just about saving students money -- maybe this is a new kind of equity issue that we;re thinking about." C. Edward Watson

Assessing the Impact of Open Educational Resources

Inside Higher Ed 11/01/2017 — OER: Bigger Than Affordability

Thoughtful reflections on the diminishing federal and state support of higher ed which leads to private interests taking hold on campuses ($$$), increases in costs for students ($$$), and how faculty are now engaging in many ways to help students get that education AND still have a bed to sleep in and food to eat. OER and other open practices is a gateway to this new reality where faculty are key change agents. ~Kathy

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OER: Bigger Than Affordability

Open education resources can catalyze a much-needed national conversation about what we mean by “public” higher education, Robin DeRosa writes.

By Robin DeRosa

November 1, 2017

. . .

I began considering the larger role of open in a social justice agenda targeted at public higher education in the United States, where I live and teach. First, I looked to Sara Goldrick-Rab’s research on how the hidden costs of attending college make college graduation an unattainable goal for such a large portion of our nation’s population. If 50 to 80 percent of the total sticker price of college is coming from nontuition costs, as she demonstrates, we need to confront the complete set of material conditions that constrain students.

Not only can OER drive down the real cost of college, but thinking about textbook costs can propel faculty, in particular, to think about how course and program design can be adapted to make access — more broadly writ — a priority. Is food insecurity on the radar of your chemistry department? If OER is appealing because they can help make knowledge more accessible, then we must care about the myriad issues — from child care to transportation — that prevent our potential students from even coming to our classrooms in the first place.

. . .

Read the entire entry at https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2017/11/01/oer-catalyst-national-conversation-about-public-higher-education

Open: so much more than saving money

From the Digital Pedagogy Lab written by two intensely open engaged writers, Rajiv Jhangiani and Robin DeRosa.

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When faculty use OER, we aren’t just saving a student money on textbooks: we are directly impacting that student’s ability to enroll in, persist through, and successfully complete a course. In other words, we are directly impacting that student’s ability to attend, succeed in, and graduate from college. When we talk about OER, we bring two things into focus: that access is critically important to conversations about academic success, and that faculty and other instructional staff can play a critical role in the process of making learning accessible.

Read the entire post at Open Pedagogy and Social Justice

Need more reason to go affordable? Read about the Undergrad Survey @ UMass

UMass Amherst Libraries Releases Results of Open Education Survey

  • Seven faculty were awarded grants of $1,000 to $2,500 in the spring of 2016
  • Four hundred fifty eight students from courses in Physics, Kinesiology, Astronomy, French, German, and Human Development

In addition to the cost benefit, other students said the OER materials made their class experience more enjoyable

  • “The readings that were presented catered more to a student attempting to understand the material in a way that is more learning-friendly.”
  • “I was able to better understand the content we were learning, because the best reading possible was selected [by the professor] to explain a concept, as opposed to just following a textbook where some content may be explained more clearly than others.”

See the original press release at Results of Open Education Initiative survey announced

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Open Education: International Perspectives in Higher Education

Blessinger, P., & Bliss, T. J. (Eds.). (2016). Open Education: International Perspectives in Higher Education. Open Book Publishers.

Cover of book Open Education International Perspectives in Higher Education
CC-BY collection of research articles on many aspects of open pedagogy
“The importance of openness in education is only now beginning to be appreciated, and I hope this volume can increase the pace of its spread. This volume contains stories of people and institutions around the world acting in accordance with the value of openness, and relates the amazing results that come from those actions. I hope it will inspire you. I hope that as you read these stories you will feel an inward stirring of gratitude for what you have received from those giants who went before us, and that out of the rich soil of that gratitude will grow a commitment to share – a commitment to openness.”  —  David Wiley

A 2016 collection of articles on open pedagogical topics by leading scholars worldwide. All licensed CC-BY.

Foreword
David Wiley
Preface
Patrick Blessinger and TJ Bliss

1. Introduction to Open Education: Towards a Human Rights Theory
Patrick Blessinger and TJ Bliss

2. Emancipation through Open Education: Rhetoric or Reality?
Andy Lane

3. Technology Strategies for Open Educational Resource Dissemination
Phil Barker and Lorna M. Campbell

4. Identifying Categories of Open Educational Resource Users
Martin Weller, Beatriz de los Arcos, Rob Farrow, Rebecca Pitt and Patrick McAndrew

5. Situated Learning in Open Communities: The TED Open Translation Project
Lidia Cámara de la Fuente and Anna Comas-Quinn

6. Educational Policy and Open Educational Practice in Australian Higher Education
Adrian Stagg and Carina Bossu

7. The Identified Informal Learner: Recognizing Assessed Learning in the Open
Patrina Law

8. Transformation of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education towards Open Learning Arenas: A Question of Quality
Ebba Ossiannilsson, Zehra Altinay, and Fahriye Altinay

9. Three Approaches to Open Textbook Development
Rajiv S. Jhangiani, Arthur G. Green, and John D. Belshaw

10. What Does It Mean to Open Education? Perspectives on Using Open Educational Resources at a US Public University
Linda Vanasupa, Amy Wiley, Lizabeth Schlemer, Dana Ospina, Peter Schwartz, Deborah Wilhelm, Catherine Waitinas and Kellie Hall

11. Expanding Access to Science Field-Based Research Techniques for Students at a Distance through Open Educational Resources
Audeliz Matias, Kevin Woo, and Nathan Whitley-Grassi

12. A Practitioner’s Guide to Open Educational Resources: A Case Study
Howard Miller

13. Open Assessment Resources for Deeper Learning
David Gibson, Dirk Ifenthaler, and Davor Orlic

14. Promoting Open Science and Research in Higher Education: A Finnish Perspective
Ilkka Väänänen and Kati Peltonen

15. Credentials for Open Learning: Scalability and Validity
Mika Hoffman and Ruth Olmsted

16. Open Education Practice at the University of Southern Queensland
Ken Udas, Helen Partridge and Adrian Stagg

On the creation of Open CourseWare (OCW) at MIT in 2000

MIT’s Open CourseWare (OCW) is visited by over 1 million people every month. In this interview with Shigeru Miyagawa, chair of the MIT OpenCourseWare Faculty Advisory Committee from 2012-2013, he describes the development of an open education mindset at MIT as this became a part of the institutional mission.

Shigeru Miyagawa, MITIn what ways do you think Open Education (OE) has impacted Institutional practice, reputation and culture of MIT? 

OCW was definitely a huge paradigm shift. From looking at one’s teaching materials as solely for the use of our students inside the walls of our Institution to saying here is part of our education that we want to share with the rest of the world. Anyone is free to use it. This is a complete shift in how we view what we’ve produced as teaching material. This really started the OE movement. From people trying to sort of keep it inside or trying to charge for it in order to make money to saying that it is good, in fact it is part of our mission to share what we have produced with the rest of the world.

Read the entire interview at Open Education Consortium’s collection of interviews with administrators and faculty on the impact that open education projects and practice has had on their institutions.

Impact of Openness on Institutions

 

More than 1.5 million students have used OpenStax’s free textbooks

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More than 1.5 million college students have used a free textbook from OpenStax, the Rice University-publisher announced today. The number of students using OpenStax textbooks has more than doubled since January, and OpenStax estimates it will save students $70 million in the 2016-17 academic year.

Source: More than 1.5 million students have used OpenStax’s free textbooks