The session will focus on the exploration and adoption of OER content and possible adoption of OER in Texas. Delivered by Gary Abernethy & Nate Angell, 30 March 2016 at the Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA) 2016 Conference in San Antonio, TX.

1. 1
Open Education for Texas
Virtual College of Texas (VCT)
Lumen Learning

2. 2
Why OER?

3. 3
OER Impact on Texas Students

4. 4
A.S. Business Degree Textbook Cost OER (Lumen)
English Comp I $64.50 $5
English Comp II $129.85 $5
US History I $47.00 $5
US History II $115.00 $5
College Success $0.00 $5
Biology I $249.35 $5
Biology II $198.00 $5
American Lit $63.00 $5
British Lit $58.00 $5
Microeconomics $137.75 $5
Macroeconomics $184.65 $5
US Government $79.85 $5
Texas Government $106.45 $106.45
Art History $165.00 $5
Business Principles $73.50 $5
Bus. Computer Apps $187.65 $5
Business Calculus $158.65 $5
Financial Accounting $165.00 $5
Managerial Accounting $183.65 $5
$2,366.85 $196.45

5. 5
$-
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
$4,000
$5,000
$6,000
$7,000
$8,000
In District Current In District Lumen ECHS Current ECHS Lumen
$7,212
$5,042
$2,367
$197
30% reduction in
cost of degree
92% reduction in
cost of degree
Tuition and Fees
Textbooks
A.S. Business
Austin Community College

6. 6
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Availability of OER for
Texas Core Curriculum Courses
# Courses Required
# Available as OER

7. 7
Recent Efforts in Texas
• Achieving the Dream Texas Grant Team
• Austin
• Alamo
• El Paso
• San Jacinto
• VCT – parallel OER adoption efforts

8. 8
Open educational resources (OER):
allow all students to have
day 1 access to learning materials
give faculty full control
of their learning resources
address affordability and access issues
by reducing the cost of
an Associate’s degree by 30%

9. 9
Textbook Costs Negatively Impact Success
60%+ do not purchase textbooks at
some point due to cost
35% take fewer courses due to
textbook cost
31% choose not to register for a
course due to textbook cost
23% regularly go without textbooks
due to cost
14% have dropped a course due
to textbook cost
10% have withdrawn from a course
due to textbook cost
Source: 2012 student survey by Florida Virtual

10. 1 0
OER Impact on Student Success, 2014-2015
78%
93%
74%
85%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
C or Better Completion
Sample: 4,909 open course students, 11,818 traditional course students, 50 different undergraduate courses, 130 teachers, 8 institutions.
Method: Quasi-experimental design with: Propensity Score Matching, Post Test Only.
Dependent variables: Completion; C or Better; Credits Enrolled This Term; Next Term, Independent variable: Textbook condition, 3 covariates:
including age, gender, and race.
13
1111
9
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Current Term
Credits
Next Term
Credits
Open Courses Traditional Courses
9% reduction in
drops and W’s
5% increase in
passing rates
18% more credits
this term
22% more credits
next term

11. 1 1
Lumen’s Support

12. 1 2
Lumen Provides and Experienced Partner
Emphasis is working within institutional processes to
achieve greatest possible impact on student success using
OER
• Training and guidance for faculty, leadership, and support
staff
• Access to best prior work from peer institutions
• Tools to share courses and materials across different
learning management systems
• Knowledge and guarantees in open licensing
• On-going sustainability through content and technology
updates

13. 1 3
Selection of Lumen Customers

14. 1 4
Finding the OER impact sweet spot
Curated Open
Courses
High-Enrollment
Courses
Engaged
Faculty

15. 1 5
Project Overview
Training
1-2 days
Course
selection
+1-3 weeks
Content review
& alignment;
fill gaps
+1-4 weeks
Configure
courses in
LMS
+1-3 days
Teach OER
courses
start of term
Set up LTI
Integration
+1 hour
LMS course
imports
+1 day
Faculty Participation
LMS/Tech Support
Institutions often begin offering open courses six weeks after an initial workshop.

16. 1 6
Cumulative Cost Savings: Lumen Learning
$0
$2
$4
$6
$8
$10
$12
$14
Spring 2014 Fall 2014 Spring 2015 Fall 2015 Spring 2016
Millions
Term by Term Cumulative
$11 million+ in textbook savings since 2014

17. 1 7
Key Projects
• Kaleidoscope Next Generation Learning Challenges
Lumen was formed to support the scaling of a grant that explored effective practices in
using OER to improve success for at-risk students. The grant impacted over 160,000
students, with statistically significant improvements to success in 9 of 15 courses.
• Virginia OER Degree Programs
Lumen supported Tidewater Community College in developing the first Associate’s
degree program that used only OER as learning materials. Lumen worked with Northern
Virginia Community College to enhance and share two additional degree programs.
Today Lumen supports the Zx23 program to bring OER degree programs to all 23
community colleges in Virginia.
• Gates Next Generation Courseware Challenge
In late 2014 Lumen was awarded a significant grant to develop courseware for gateway
courses that provides new approaches to personalized learning. Lumen’s design takes
on Benjamin Bloom’s 2-sigma problem, and seeks to increase both the level of mastery
in the learning process and the quality of personal interaction between students and
community college faculty members.

18. 1 8
Recent Efforts in Texas
• Achieving the Dream Texas Grant Team
• Austin
• Alamo
• El Paso
• San Jacinto
• VCT – parallel OER adoption efforts

19. 1 9
Common Questions
• Copyright liability
Lumen guarantees the licensing of all resources that it provides, and the appropriate
application of open licenses.
• Accessibility
Lumen has a partnership with the Inclusive Design Research Centre to review and
implement best-in-class accessibility solutions and the platform and content level. As
faculty customizations inevitably introduce new accessibility issues, we work with the
institution to review and address issues in all courses.
• Privacy/FERPA compliance
The Lumen platform does not capture, transmit or store student data. When the
institution participates in research facilitated by Lumen only de-identified student data
is exchanged.
• Flexibility
All content and resources are openly licensed. The institution pays a support fee to
have these hosted and supported in Lumen’s platform, which integrates with the
institution’s LMS. Should the institution choose not to work with Lumen in the future it
would be free to use the open resources, but would need to provide a new approach or
platform for delivery.

20. 2 0
Contact Information
• VCT-
• Gary Abernethy -Director VCT
• Lumen Learning
• Nate Angell - “Doorman” (nate@lumenlearning.com)