Open Education 2017

Commercial publishers, many re-focused under new missions as "learning science companies," have been rightly criticized for strolling unannounced into the Open Education space with products and services that belie the mission and value of open content. These early attempts should not be reason to dismiss a future in which a shared vision to support teaching and learning features complementary work from commercial education companies and the Open Education community. This presentation will discuss ways in which learning tools, both commercial and free, protected and open, are complementing one another in many classrooms; a look into ways in which that relationship can grow (and the risks of how it can go awry); and will explore how data analytics and learner insights provide a prime opportunity for commercial education companies to become good citizens of the Open community. The talk will be constructed to provide time for Q&A.

During the past 15 years, the open education movement has built and contributed to dozens of open textbook repositories and referatories. Today the challenge is to sustain, improve, and build upon these resources.

According to Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education 2015-2016 released by the Babson Survey Research Group, almost half of American faculty surveyed cited lack of resources for their subject area as a barrier to adopting open educational resources for the classroom. Canadian instructors expressed similar concerns in the 2016 Exploring Faculty Use of Open Educational Resources at British Columbia Post-Secondary Institutions with 58% stating relevant OER materials were difficult to find as well as those of high quality (49%).

Join us in this guided workshop as we explore the challenges of sustaining and growing an open textbook collection. Issues include discoverability, peer review, adoption data, user experience, as well as how to define the book of record, especially when there are derivatives in addition to new editions.