Oregon college and university representatives attended and presented at the 2019 Open Education Conference. This event, organized by Lumen Learning, is the biggest North American OER meeting. Attendees learned on the first morning of the conference that next year’s Open Ed will have a different format and structure, still TBD.
Oregonians were represented on the program. Here is a list of the abstracts and presentation materials created by our colleagues:
Better than Free: The Equity and Open Education Faculty Cohort Jen Klaudinyi, Portland Community College
Over the past academic year, I have designed and facilitated a professional development experience offered to the faculty at my community college: the Equity and Open Education Faculty Cohort. In this presentation, I plan to describe our collaborative exploration of open education, culturally responsive teaching, universal design, and the positive impact that this cohort has had on our institution’s open education initiative.
Here at PCC, we have had an organized OER initiative for the past 5 years. Like many initiative coordinators, I struggle to strike a balance between advocating about affordability issues and the pedagogical opportunities provided by open licenses, open pedagogy, etc. Additionally, like many other institutions, our diverse student body is not served equitably by traditional course materials, and we see concerning opportunity gaps in student success measures for traditionally underserved students. I wanted to help our faculty explore the opportunities for pedagogical shifts afforded by openly licensed materials and open practices, especially related to culturally responsive teaching and universal design.
We were able to successfully pitch for internal institutional funding, and the Equity and Open Education Faculty Cohort was born. I facilitated a 2-part cohort each term. Faculty could participate from anywhere (our college has 4 campuses and many part-time instructors), and much of the content took place online, though cohort members were required to take part in a once-weekly synchronous discussion with 3-4 other participants. During the the first part, “Explore,” participants read, watched, reflected and discussed materials related to open education, copyright, culturally responsive teaching, universal design, and open pedagogy. During Part 2, “Implement,” instructors were invited to incorporate the concepts and approaches that we explored into a 2-week chunk of their curriculum and share that with an open license. We were able to provide stipends for both parts.
To design this experience, I spoke with PCC leaders in social justice education and universal design. It was crucial to me that the design of this experience would facilitate meaningful reflection, community building as well as sharing. I engaged other instructors already taking this work on in their own classes and invited them to share their experiences, and I also included our fantastic director of disability services as a guest facilitator for part of the cohort. As I facilitated our cohorts, I was careful to position myself as a collaborator, and fellow explorer, instead of an expert.
In this presentation, I plan to (briefly!), talk about this experience, share some the lessons learned and the impact that I have seen on our broader open education initiative at the college. I am also happy to present the curriculum and design of the cohort, which is openly licensed.
Presentation slides
Poster presentation
How do students view OER versus traditional textbook in college introductory biology courses? Dr. Carol Ferguson, Southern Oregon University
Faculty at institutions of higher education prioritize student learning. However, the escalating costs of textbooks can sometimes impact students’ ability to access necessary resources that support student learning. The purpose of this research was to consider the adoption of an OER for high enrolled introductory or general education biology courses for non- science majors (average enrollment per class ca. 145 students) to save student textbook costs without negatively impacting learning. This research was supported by a grant established by Oregon legislation, House Bill 2871, and sponsored by the House Committee on Higher Education, Innovation and Workforce Development. In the 2018 to 2019 academic year, approximately 445 students registered in five introductory biology classes at Southern Oregon University were solicited to take a pre -course survey to ascertain their attitude about using an OER as opposed to a traditional biology textbook and a post-course survey to determine how useful students thought the resources were to their learning. The surveys were administered electronically by the Office of Institutional Research to students in both OER only sections and traditional biology textbook only sections within the first two weeks of each course (pre-course survey) and within the last two weeks of each course (post-course survey). Ultimately, the study will evaluate data to determine whether the use of an OER biology text produces comparable student success (measured in terms of number of students earning a final grade of C or better) to students using traditional textbook as a measure of student learning. The study is ongoing but preliminary results from the Fall 2018 term suggests that an equal number of students (N = 170) would choose an OER as would choose a traditional text book. The majority (ca. 60%) would rent used versions of the traditional text book or download free version as opposed to buying a book. This was born out in the post-survey where a majority of students’ enrolled in the OER course opted to use the free OER online versus purchasing a print version of the OER at a nominal rate ($20) from the campus bookstore. The preliminary post-survey results also showed that the majority of students using the traditional textbook used it at least four times in the term, with ca. 47% using it more than ten times in the term while a lower percentage of students using the OER used it at least four times in the term, with ca. 31% using it more than ten times in the term. However, 88% of the students who used the OER found it either somewhat helpful or very helpful while about 79% of the students using the traditional textbook did. Before adopting an OER for college courses it is valuable to ascertain the students view of OERs and to monitor their success when using them versus a traditional textbook.
OER Design, Creation, and Adoption: Comparing Student Outcomes, Retention, and Perceptions of a Traditional Text with a Newly Created OER Jennifer Lantrip, Umpqua Community College
The OER creation and adoption process is complex and involves many factors. Instructors must consider designing, creating, formatting, and editing the text and ancillary materials to meet the needs of their students. This includes meeting accessibility standards, offering the text in print and digital formats, teaching their students digital literacy skills for accessing and utilizing the digital text and tools, and making updates and edits after the first pilot.
This research study compares student success and retention in two face-to-face sections of the same course taught at an Oregon community college during Fall 2018: one with the traditional textbook and the other with an OER that the instructor had created and designed specifically for his course outcomes and the needs of his students.
Students were surveyed at the end of the term to learn of their perceptions of the textbooks. Withdrawal rates, course grades, and enrollment intensity the following term were compared for the two sections while accounting for student-level variables including prior GPA, prior college experience, and enrollment intensity that term.
Learn about the creation process, student feedback about quality and usefulness of the traditional and OER texts, and the differences in student success and retention between the two sections Discussion will include challenges and considerations for OER creation and adoption for faculty and support staff such as librarians and instructional designers.
This research project was funded by the Open Education Group’s OER Research Fellowship 2018-19.
Presentation slides
Presentation notes
Encouraging a Culture of OER: Experiences and Perceptions of Faculty Innovators at Oregon Community Colleges Jennifer Lantrip, Umpqua Community College, and Jacquelyn Ray, Walla Walla Community College
Despite increasing evidence supporting the value of OER, encouraging a culture of OER remains a challenge at most institutions. We’ll present a picture of what is needed to support and sustain campus-wide efforts from the perspective of faculty who were early OER adopters at Oregon community colleges.
This study for the Open Education Group’s OER Research Fellowship 2018-19, included qualitative data gathered from a survey of faculty at 16 Oregon community colleges who identified themselves with Oregon’s Statewide OER Coordinator as willing to share their experiences and participate in further research about OER.
The audience will gain an understanding of faculty motivation for adopting OER, course redesign processes, changes in pedagogy, and challenges they experienced in the implementation process. Learn how both faculty innovators perceive OER quality, their experiences with OER in the classroom, student preparedness, and engagement post-adoption. Our discussion will also include faculty perceptions of institutional support for OER, and what they believe is needed to support a sustainable culture of OER on their campuses.
Presentation slides
Presentation notes
Defining OER Publishing: How do we determine our capacity and vision? Karen Lauritsen, Open Textbook Network; Maira Bundza, Western Michigan University; Emily Frank, LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network; Amy Hofer, Open Oregon Educational Resources; Allison Brown, SUNY Geneseo
Faculty want to create OER and we want to support them. What does that look like? For librarians, project managers and others who find themselves developing and managing OER publishing programs, we first have to define publishing based on local capacity and vision.
There are many productive ways to publish and many platforms to choose from. In fact, ‘platform’ and ‘publishing’ have in some ways become synonymous. However, it takes more than a platform to produce a valuable resource, and working with a team can lead to a stronger outcome. Yet budgetary and environmental restraints mean that we’re all looking for creative ways to get the work done. Likely you’ll need to leverage existing resources and strategically prioritize which services to develop and when — whether it’s a publishing platform, a faculty compensation program, or editing, design, and production services, among other possibilities. Your choices will impact the resources created, and how your service model evolves.
So how do you define publishing for your program, and what support to offer faculty authors? In this session, facilitated by Karen Lauritsen at the Open Textbook Network, a panel of emerging and established OER publishing professionals will discuss the opportunities and challenges of setting up publishing programs at the institutional, state and consortial levels. They’ll think out loud about how they evaluated their contexts, and designed programs for their environment. They’ll discuss how their programs and services may have been imagined at the outset, and how those expectations have evolved with experience and time. Panelists will talk about the role that community has played as they’ve made their ways forward, and share their favorite resources and recommendations. Finally, they’ll highlight the importance of communicating their publishing program vision and capacity to various stakeholders, including faculty authors.
Price Transparency: State Approaches to OER/No Cost/Low Cost Course Schedule Designators Kevin Corcoran, Connecticut State Colleges & Universities; Jeff Gallant, University System of Georgia; Amy Hofer, Open Oregon Educational Resources; Boyoung Chae, Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges; Ann Fiddler, City University of New York; Michael Daly, State University of New York; James Glapa-Grossklag, College of the Canyons; Michelle Reed, University of Texas at Arlington
The practice of adding either OER or no-cost / low-cost materials designators in course catalogs is on the rise, aiming to give more visibility and transparency to students and administrators as to which courses offer these more affordable options. Panelists representing system-wide and state-wide efforts from California, Connecticut, Georgia, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington will share their experiences and expertise in implementing systems and processes to put these new designators in place. The panelists will share the drivers behind these efforts, challenges faced along the way, and what institutions, higher education systems, and state-wide organizations should keep in mind when starting their own course marking projects.
