Is Free Feasible?The Student Demand for Open Source Texts!

• Kathleen ClowerFl State College at Jacksonville

• Katherine DavisDistance Learning SpecialistNCCC System

NC3ADL Conference Nov. 15, 2010

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Is this the scene at your college?

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Sticker Shock

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Oh, my aching back...

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The Students’ Lament…

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Outdated

and

Poor Quality

Textbook

Students don’t like traditional texts because they are…

• Too expensive• Too heavy• Outdated• Can’t be resold • Not dynamic

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Instructors Aren’t Happy Either!

• No textbook fits exactly.• It’s all or nothing.• Students complain

if only a few chapters are used in a high-priced book.

• Publishers come out withnew editions too soon.

• Too many resources, too little time to decide what’s fair to use and what’s illegal….

Short Term Solutions

• Rental programs• Putting more books in the library on reserve• Sharing books• Illegal copying • Stealing?

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Unfortunate Consequences

• Students don’t sign up for the course

• Students buy older (cheaper) editions

• Students order cheaper texts online; try to get international editions

• Students try to get by without a text

Missed opportunity; graduate later

Content is not current; grades suffer

Longer time to receive text, no text at beginning of term

Missed content

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FLDLC Textbook SurveyPreliminary Results 11/1/2010

n = 7,681

• Textbooks bought Fall– 1 – 3: 37.7%– 4 – 7: 50.9%

• $ spent on textbooks– $201 - $300: 18.6%– $301 - $400: 20.1%– $401 - $600: 17.8%

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Survey continued…

• % covered by financial aid– None – majority of the students (<4,000)

• Cost caused me to– Not register for a course – Withdraw from a course– Not purchase the textbook

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Better yet… Why not an open textbook?

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An open textbook is…• Often modifiable by the

instructor (modular & adaptable)

• Free – or nearly free– With computers and internet

access– Printable for free or a small fee

(costs for ink and paper)– Often available in bound copies

for $10-$40

• Easy to get, use & pass around

• Accessible for adaptive technologies

Labeled for reuse by MrKCoolsPhotostream

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Seven Myths aboutOpen Textbooks

1. Open Textbooks and eBooks are the same.2. Creators never receive monetary

compensation for open textbooks.3. All open textbooks are crowd-sourced,

i.e., created by anonymous amateurs.4. Campus bookstores suffer from the use of open textbooks.

A fact, not a myth but we are working to change this.

5. Derivatives damage the author’s reputation.6. Open textbooks are low quality or out-of-date with

expired copyrights.7. Publishers are enemies of open textbooks.

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Benefits of Open Textbooks• High efficiency in use of modules

– Resources can be created once and widely used rather than locked up All Rights Reserved in a 300-page $200 textbook

• Adaptable to learning styles, cultures, geographies, and more

• Use only what is needed: saves paper, toner, and weight and avoids confusion

• Far more feedback from teachers and students to the creators (authors, illustrators, publishers, editors, technologists, etc.)

• Global textbook improvement• Even classes without open

textbooks benefit because students can afford to take more classes

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Photo by Fragmented CC licensed 2008

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An open textbook has been…

Changed by the creators from

• Copyright All Rights Reserved to

• Copyright Some Rights Reserved under an open licensee.g., Creative Commons License

From the Creative Commons store

Creative Commons

• CC – Creative Commons License• BY – Open with Attribution by• SA – Share Alike • ND – No Derivatives• NC – Non-Commercial• NCSA – Non-Commercial Share Alike

http://creativecommons.org http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses

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Creative Commons Examples• Sociology Text http://freebooks.uvu.edu/SOC1010/ • Western Art History - dynamic enhancements

http://www.smarthistory.org • Audio Books

http://literalsystems.org/abooks/index.php/Audio-Book/Audio-Book?from=Site.Titles

• Public Literature http://publicliterature.org/online-book-catalog/

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Musical Works Examples

• Duckett (2010). Wired But Disconnected. Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) Creative Commons. http://dig.ccmixter.org/podcast_music?offset=0

• Scottaltham (2010). Hear Us Now (Poptastic mix). Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) Creative Commons. http://dig.ccmixter.org/podcast_music?offset=0

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What’s in it for…

Instructors/Faculty?• Select content from

reviewed list• Customize text (add, delete,

combine)• Make content dynamic• Change & update often

Students?• Low to no cost• Ability to annotate &

personalize content• No heavy books to carry

around• Send content to multiple

devices

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Erik ChristensenPhysics Professor, South FL CC

• "Open Textbook Testimonial" (TRT 7:48)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBDC4Qvxw60

Professor Erik Christensen discusses the benefits to himself and his students of adopting an open physics textbook. The customization of the open textbook with his own teaching materials made physics "more fun and interesting" – and more affordable!

Costs to students dropped from $178.00 to $13.00.

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Educational Psychology

• Please comment on the textbook in terms of availability (and cost), readability, and content. Would you recommend open source texts in some of your other courses?

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Response 1

• “I wish all of my textbooks were available online! At first, it took awhile to adjust to the idea and how to use the text book to the best advantage but once I got the hang of it, I loved it. In completing the weekly chapter terms and people, it was nice to be able to copy and paste their definitions and examples into a format that is easy for me to study with. …

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Feedback….

• I feel like I saved so much more time having a text book online than actually having it in person. The content, readability, and having it cost nothing was all great. I would recommend an online text book in other classes.”

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More Feedback….

• “I loved the fact that we had an open source textbook in this class. It was the first time I have ever used one, but I found it to be very convenient both in availability and price. Textbooks are way too expensive and on top of that you have to carry all of them around with you. I liked that I was able to download a copy of the book to my laptop and take it where ever I wanted to go. I would strongly recommend this type of textbooks for all of my other courses. “

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And more…..

• “Of all my text books this was the least expensive. I really loved that it was on-line as well. It really means a lot to a student when a free version is available on line when you have to buy books for 5 classes each semester!”

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What about…

Authoring?• Contributions are free• Payment is received only

when content is printed• Some authors have bought

back rights (statistics)• Grant-produced materials

may be contributed– NSF grant for calculus based

physics

The Bookstores?• More money made on

teddy bears & tee shirts than books (?)

• Open source books may be preordered by POD in bulk– Bookstore receives discount– Bookstore adds mark-up– Student cost the same

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Who Reviews the Content?

• Faculty Peer Review– See CCCOER

• Students– See Flatworld

Knowledge

• Publishers– See UPF

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Discover, but not this way

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  Chemistry search = 130,000,000 results

Discover open textbooks this way…

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Resources

• Connexions (Rice University) http://cnx.org/

• Orange Grove Texts Plus (FL Distance Learning Consortium & University Press of FL) www.upf.com and www.openaccesstextbooks.org

• MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning & Online Teaching) www.merlot.org

• Flat World Knowledge www.flatworldknowledge.com

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More Resources

• Global Text Project (University of Georgia) http://globaltext.terry.uga.edu/books

• OER Commons http://oerconsortium.org www.oercommons.org/courses/material_types/textbooks

• Textbook Revolution http://textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Book:Lists/Subjects

• USG Share http://usgshare.org/logon.do

• Community College Open Textbooks http://collegeopentextbooks.org/textbooks/textbooksbysubject.html

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Connexions is…

a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute:

• authors create and collaborate• instructors rapidly build and share custom

collections• learners find and explore content04/19/23 How to Adopt an Open Textbook 33

Connexions cnx.org

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Ohio Digital Bookshelfhttp://ohiodigitalbookshelf.ning.com

Strand 1 – Work with traditional commercial publishers – 70% discount

Strand 2 – Engage OERStrand 3 – Introduce PLE

Stephen AckerResearch Director eText Ohio ProjectOhioLINK

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Ohio Digital Bookshelf Participants

• Introductory Psychology – 70K students• Incentive Programs

– Faculty Innovator Program• $10K allocated annually to 10 awardees• Stitz & Zeager examplars – 600 page algebra text

– Affordability Grants• $50K allocated to 5 faculty led projects• Statics course – 3 universities, still under development

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Flatworld Knowledgewww.flatworldknowledge.com

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Orange Grove FDLC

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FLDLC & UPF Partnership

• Repository of digital learning resources

• Statewide search for courses & content

• Active contributing membership

• Common course numbering system

• Traditional university publisher

• Editors to review content

• Vetted books• POD resources

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Collaboration is Key to Sustainability and Success

• Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) – 97+ colleges join to give 2-year schools a big voice in open textbooks and more

• Community College Open Textbooks Collaborative: – A group of 12 organizations (FHDA, FDLC, CNX and more) funded by the William and

Flora Hewlett Foundation to increase the demand and supply of open textbooks

Take a look

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CollegeOpenTextbooks.org

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CCCOER oerconsortium.org

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Next Steps: Step 1: Select an Open Textbook

• Read the peer reviews; talk to other adopters or users

• Compare your selections on quality, fit, interoperability, accessibility, printability, cost for printing, cost for bound copies

• Select the best fit remembering that you can make it fit better!

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For reuse by sp3ccylad's photostream

Read the Reviews

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Full review available with comments and ratings for each chapter

Compare & Contrast

Traditional Text Open Textbook Subjects

Anthropology ArtBiology ChemistryComputer ScienceEducationEnglish and CompositionHistory , Languages and CommunicationsLiterature MathPhysics Political SciencePsychologyScienceSociologyStatistics and Probability

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Step 2: Adopt and Use• Plan the class• Choose the parts of the

textbook that fit• Add other open

resources• Announce to the

stakeholders

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Labeled for reuse by Cimm's photostream

Wortle provided this graphic How to Adopt an Open Textbook 47

We will answer your questions…

Artwork courtesy of Wordle

Contact!

Kathy Clowerkclower@fscj.edu

904-632-3042

Kathy Davisdavisk@nccommunitycollege.edu

919-807-7109

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The end.

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