Open Education 2017

Moving from a focus on saving students money on textbooks to a system that supports open pedagogy and innovative approaches to education is challenging and rewarding. In 2016, our campus renewed its focus on creating a more affordable learning experience through reducing the cost of textbooks. The first steps of this effort occurred with minimal work. Faculty were eager to join the project. In some cases, the mere act of showing faculty the cost of their textbooks was enough to get them to investigate new options. For others, conversations with peers or students did the trick. In one semester, we were able to get a commitment from faculty to save the students over $73,000.

As we moved towards this goal, we learned that much more can be gained if we go beyond affordable and dive into the benefits of open. We learned by focusing on OER and open pedagogy, that we not only can save students money, but also enhance their overall learning experience via improved digital literacy and increased classroom engagement. Our pivot proved to be the easy step. New challenges arose when we removed the concept and structure of the well loved textbook from our message.

Our team has landed on a approach that supports those that are ready to reduce cost, while also encouraging faculty that are ready to explore concepts of open. During this presentation, we will share our approach and ideas for how we are helping faculty move from affordable to open.