Presentation at Dream2020

1. The LibreTexts Project
Delmar Larsen
Executive Director, Libretexts
University of California Davis
dlarsen@libretexts.org
Josh Halpern
Outreach Team Chair
jhalpern@libretexts.org
https://LibreTexts.org
Biology Business Chemistry Engineering Geosciences Humanities
Math Health Physics Social Sciences Statistics Workforce
Christine Barrow
Dean, STEM Division
Prince George’s Community College
BarrowCE@pgcc.edu
info@libretexts.org
https://twitter.com/LibreTexts
https://facebook.com/LibreTexts
Kevin Flash
Dean, Learning Resources Office
Sacramento City College
FlashK@scc.losrios.edu
Supported by
@JoshHalpern5

2. “In an effort to develop OER content that can be
disseminated to the widest possible audience for the
largest possible savings, the department plans to
award grants to one, two or three consortia that each
include at least three higher education institutions,
subject matter and technology experts, and an
advisory group of at least five employers or work-
force representatives.”
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/07/30/department-education-sets-september-
date-one-three-oer-grants-5
https://federalregister.gov/d/2018-16264
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
Open Textbooks Pilot Program

3. LibreTexts Impact
• More than 100 million pageviews per year ~10 million per month
• 33% increase over previous year
• Greater than 700 textbooks and growing fast
Support LibreNet Institutions
DREA
M

4. LibreTexts is a Community of Faculty
Christine Barrow
PGCC
Josh Halpern
Howard U
PGCC
Delmar Larsen
Director
UC Davis
Kevin Flash
Sacramento City
Jennifer Rogers
Grossmont CC
Ron Rusay
Diablo Valley CC
Mojdeh
Mehdizadeh
Contra Costa CC
Larry Green
Lake Tahoe CC
Jessica Cappola
Sacramento City
Paul Seeburger
Monroe CC
Christina Moon
Chabot College
Alejandro Lee
SantaMonica College
> 100 Involved
Full Time Faculty
All Part-time OER developers
Many At Community Colleges
And many more in CCs, PUIs and R1s

5. Agenda
• Introduction
• Guide to LibreTexts
• LibreTexts as it assists community colleges with OER
• Contextualization for CC is powerful
• Discussion (10 minutes)
• Getting started
• How to use LibreTexts
• Wrap up discussion

6. EdTech
Today’s Textbook Market
• Publishers profits and income are lower
• Publishers are transforming into EdTech companies
• Digitization substitutes AI homework sizzle for textbook steak
• Inclusive access to kill off online pdfs, rentals and used books
• OER is a potential disruptor – sustainability is key and unknown
June Jamrich Parsons – The 2017 Book Report – Text and Academic Authors Conference 2017 also updates at link
https://www.slideshare.net/junejamrichparsons/the-digital-book-report-2017-educational-publishing-and-edtech

7. “Before writing off ChemWiki as something that can't possibly work in
practice, consider how Wikipedia was viewed when initially launched.
... the economic model on which the current system of textbook
publication is based may not remain viable for much longer. ChemWiki
offers an intriguing alternative”. -- Rich Apodaca (2008)

8. Our Mission
Implementing a Community built OER resource/
platform/portal that is Comprehensive and can be
Curated at multiple levels.
We need you
Free
No gaps, technically advanced
Living curated Library

9. The OER Universe

10. Centralized vs. Decentralized Approaches:
Decentralized PlatformCentralized Platform
Efficient
High Stability
Pooled Resources
Effective Community Sharing
Flexible
Fragmented Ecosystem
Independent Resources
Inefficient

11. • Libraries span the undergraduate curriculum
• Can be used by faculty with minimal computer experience to
quickly create custom OER for their classes and students
• Facilitates collaborative and distributed OER building
• Instructors can remix and add content quickly and simply
• Advanced features eclipse PDF or paper-based books
• Zero cost to students and faculty
• A uniform cloud-based infrastructure
• No local IT costs
• Allows data driven improvement OER to optimize learning
Why LibreTexts

13. Accessibility – the right to READ content
Uniform formatting allows rapid introduction of software across all Libretexts
• Jupyter for computation
(and to create 3D tactile models of Figures in Texts)
• Hypothes.is for annotation and feedback
• BeeLine Reader to enhance reading
• Testing with ClaroRead
• Testing with Dragon for speech recognition
Uniform formatting allow automation of accessibility improvement/implementation
Testing with SiteImprove for
• JAWS and NVDA screen reader optimization
• Improved from 40 to 70% within months and increasing

14. Availability – the right to REACH content
• Cloud based IT through Mindtouch 99.4% uptime
• No local IT needed, web available
• Viewable on any HTML5 capable device
• All LibreTexts one click importable to local LMS via the LTI cartridge
• All pages one click printable as pdfs
• All LibreTexts books available as files from
online Download Center for just in time printing
• LibreTexts-in-a Box where Internet
is not available
• Easy port to SD cards

15. Free
• Available for ALL means FREE
• UNESCO defines OER as being free
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and
research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside
in the public domain or have been released under an open license
that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by
others with no or limited restrictions.
https://en.unesco.org/themes/building-knowledge-societies/oer

16. 7
Reach:
the right to
access
content
The right to
reach
content
Read:
StudentRights

17. OER
Libraries
Scaling the LibreVerse

18. LibreTexts
Libraries
Javascript
Server
Jupyter
Notebook
(executable
code)
Query
Homework
Learning
Analytics
Bot
Curation
Server
LMS
LT LMS
Annotation
Hypothesis
Note bene
Scaling the LibreVerse

19. WeBWorkMyOpenMath
Independent
Student
Machine
Learning/AI
Adaptive
Feedback
LMS /
Classroom
Grade Book
Modules
Due Dates
LMS Tools
Instructors
Roster/Students
LOR
LT Content
Interactive Tools
Common Cartridge /
Deep Linking
LTI Advantage
with Grade
Return
Campus
Analytics
Activity Data
Caliper /
xAPI
MOOC
LT Content
Grade Book
LMS Tools
Interactive Tools
Community
LMS
LT Content
Grade Book
LMS Tools
Interactive Tools
Roster
Independent
Instructor-led
Course
LibreTexts Learning
Activity Data
Caliper / xAPILTI Advantage
with Grade Return
H5P
Anonymous
Students
Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Student 5
Exercise Delivery Applications
Need more than a Textbook: QUERY

20. LibreText @ Prince George’s Community College
• Deep Data Dive as part of Achieving the Dream and Guided pathways
• Started small with on course CHM 2000, then modernizing
Engineering curriculum
• Student Success is Strategic Priority #1, Scaling OERs is key
• Building institutional capacity to scale OER
• Professional Development
• Student engagement
• Model development, processes, policies
• Staffing
• Celebrate along the way

21. LibreText and OER for Community Colleges
Why this matters to me
Success Rates of OER Courses
• 6% greater success rate for African American
• 4% greater for Latinx
• 13% greater for Pacific Islanders
OER Adoption is one way faculty can address equity
issues and increase student success
Equity - Improving Success Rates
Sacramento City College Research

22. Why this matters to faculty, students and administrators
● Textbook Savings
○ Access - Reducing students cost of attendance
○ Preparedness - Students have materials on first day
● Equity
○ Student Success in DI groups
○ Lack of representation in material
○ Contextualization - Making materials relevant
LibreText and OER for Community Colleges

23. Equity – OnCampus Research ®
Reasons faculty use OER
#1 Reason: Reduced Cost
#2 Reason: Ability to Customize
Over 25% of faculty who used OER customized
2019 study of 21 two and four year institutions

24. Barriers to faculty OER Adoption
• Not enough resources for my subject (49%),
• Too hard to find what I need (48%)
• There is no comprehensive catalog of resources (45%)
• Need an online homework systems and other support
Opening the Textbook - Babson Survey Research Group 2016
Onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthetextbook2016.pdf
LibreTexts helps

25. Student Behavior When Textbook $$ Increase
Experienced increased stress due to textbook costs 89%
Did not have a textbook on the 1st day of class due to cost 80%
Did not buy a textbook at all due to cost 65%
Did not buy a textbook due to cost and felt it limited learning 56%
Avoided taking a class due to textbook costs 12%
Failed a class due to textbook costs 9%
CSU - Channel Islands (2019) Survey on textbook affordability
N = 700 undergraduate students

26. Need for OERs - $$ & Equity Gaps
CSU - Channel Islands (2019) Survey on textbook affordability
N = 700 undergraduate students
White: Latinx:
Experienced increased stress due to textbook costs 85.7% 91.1%*
Ratings of stress level on Likert-type scale 1-10 6.5 7.2***
Did not have the textbook on the 1st day of class
due to cost
75% 83.6%*
Avoided taking a class due to textbook costs 22.6% 30.7%*
Failed a class due to textbook costs 4.4% 12.3%**

28. Materials Lack Diverse Representation
● In traditional learning materials.
● In non-traditional learning materials.
● Lack of contextualization in traditional and non-traditional
learning materials.
Unlike traditional learning materials, OERs can be legally edited,
remixed, and added to.

29. Equity – Customizing and Contextualization
Contextualization
The concept of relating subject matter content to meaningful
situations that are relevant to students’ lives. It offers one
promising approach to helping students learn more
effectively.

30. What is the point? Relevance

31. Relevance – Teaching to the student!

32. Freeing the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education- Babson Survey Research Group 2018
https://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/freeingthetextbook2018.pdf
Skipped Sections of the Textbook
Taught Topics in a Different Order
Replace Content with their Own Material
Replaced Content with Material from Other Sources
Corrected Inaccuracies in the Textbook
Revised Edited Material in the Textbook
Other
How Faculty Customize Textbooks

33. OER, Guided Pathways and Meta-Majors
First Year Experience
At Sacramento City Colleges first year in college students
take a course in college success in their broad meta-major
5 Meta Majors
Similar curriculum
Customized for the students Meta Major
Sacramento City College is in the process of creating an OER LibreText
Textbooks for these courses, free for students, and customized for their
meta-major. We are planning on the first version to be focused on
materials for students in our Health & Health Professions

34. LibreText: OERs that Matter
• Rich set – over 700 books
• Free for Students
• Printed Copies
• Easily Customizable
• 3,038 days of student reading (8.32 years)
• 1.75 miIlion pageviews read by SSC student the past 5 years
Sacramento City College Chemistry

35. LibreTexts OER On Ramp - Engaging Faculty
1. Engaging Faculty - Why should faculty adopt OER?
2. Training Faculty - Learning all things OER
3. LibreTexts - Course Reports / Customized OER Textbook
Attend
OER
Institute
Identify
Topics
Locate OER
for Topics
Evaluate
Create OER
Map for
Course
Identify
Gaps
Analyze
Accessibility
Identify
Course
Librarian
Create
LibreMap

36. Training Faculty - Learning All Things OER
Workshop: LibreTexts Institute
● 3 hours
● Professional Development Credit
● OERs and related information
● Grant details
● Sign up for grant (PEX paperwork)
Attend
OER
Institute
Identify
Topics
Locate OER
for Topics
Identify
Course
Librarian

37. Workshop Topics - What is OER & Need
● Define Open Educational Resources
○ Note differences between OERs and other online, free materials
● Textbook prices
● Student socioeconomic issues (in LRCCD specifically)
● ⅔ of students don’t purchase textbooks due to price
● Local student success data and OER usage

38. Workshop Topics - Copyright & Fair Use
● All material that exists in a fixed
medium is automatically
protected under copyrighted
○ Yes, blogs, random uploaded
pictures, etc.
○ Yes, even when no there is
no copyright symbol
Fair Use* - is any copying of
copyrighted material done for a
limited and “transformative”
purpose
● Comment
● Criticize
● Parody

39. Workshop Topics - Creative Commons
● What is Creative Commons?
● CC licenses build on copyright
● Allow creators more control
of how their works are used
by others

40. Workshop Topics - OERs & CC licenses
CC licenses are the most common type
of license associated with OERs.
Faculty Training CC & OERs:
● Recognize different CC licenses
● Recognize the various levels of
openness in CC licenses

41. Workshop Topics - Accessibility Concerns & OERs
● ADA Accessibility
● Online Education Initiative Rubric
● CA Online College Course Exchange
● Digital inclusion issues

42. ● Alt image tags?
● WAVE tool?
● Ally?
● PDF = 👎
Quick Accessibility Checks:
In the LibreTexts editor
In HTML

43. Workshop Topics - OER Repositories
● LibreTexts
● OpenStax
● OER Commons
● MERLOT
● Skills Commons
Faculty Activity:
● 45 minutes
● Pick one OER repository
● Find a few OERs in subject
area
● Identify any CC licenses
● Accessibility?
● Quality of content
● Questions

44. Workshop Topics - LibreTexts Grant
● 20 hours of work
● 0.033 FTE (important for adjunct faculty workload)
● Deliverable - Course Report / Textbook Outline
● Commitment form for PEX
● Resume and timesheets to support PEX paperwork

45. Deliverable - Textbook Outline
● List of OER sources
○ OER licenses (usually CC licenses)
○ Links to OERs
● Textbook Outline
○ List of chapters/modules from OERs
Attend
OER
Institute
Identify
Topics
Locate OER
for Topics
Create OER
Map for
Course
Identify
Course
Librarian

46. Conclusion:
1. Engage Faculty
a. Flex events, meetings with the Chancellor, department
meeting visits, AERC meetings, DO OER Taskforce, ASCCC
OERI, Academic Senate, Student Senate, Department Chairs
Council, and more.
2. Train Faculty
a. 6, 3 hour workshops, at 3 colleges (thus far)
3. LibreTexts Grant - Course Report
a. Approximately 85 course reports submitted.

47. LibreTexts OER On Ramp
Evaluate
Create OER
Map for
Course
Identify
Gaps
Analyze
Accessibility
Create
LibreMap
• OER Map sent to LibreTexts
• Remixed into customized textbook

48. LibreMaps:
An Organizational Tool for Content Construction

49. • Simple, self-service, drag
and drop app for building
LibreTexts.
• We will try and build a
simple remix on line
Step 1: Remixer

50. Step 2: Clear the Remix Panel

51. Step 3: Select LibreText to start Remix

52. Step 4: Drag what you want to new book

53. Step 5: Add or delete pages in chapters

54. Step 6: Add from other libraries

55. Step 7: Publish

56. Step 8: Finish

57. Step 9: Results

58. Workshop
The Getting Started Guide WHICH WILL BE USED in the Workshop
https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Remixer_University/Getting_Started/Getting_Started
Complete Construction Guide at
https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Remixer_University/Construction_Guide
Videos at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP7H_PcHpiINWs8qpg0JaNg

59. Guide for the Dream 2020 Workshop is at Getting Started
https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Remixer_University/Getting_Started
Activity 1
•Login
Activity 2
•Navagate to the sandbox
•Take ownership of your sandbox in the Workshop Area
Activity 3 (learn how to work in your sandbox)
•Create a LibreTexts book in your sandbox
•Create a Chapter in your LibreTexts book
•Create a page in your LibreTexts chapter
Activity 4 (learn how to edit)
•Edit page (Edit your page)
•Make hyperlink
Activity 5 (learn about properties in the Title Area)
•Add Authorbar to a page
•Add Copyright to a page
Activity 6
•Export pdf File
Workshop

60. Go to LibreTexts.org
Pull down the menu for Explore the Libraries
Select Social Sciences
& Left Click
Go to the Website

61. Enter User ID: Dream 2020
Enter pwd: Welcome7!
Press Sign in
Sign in
Gray bar when
not logged in

62. Signed in
Black bar when
logged in
Select the
Workshop
Area

63. Go to the Achieving the Dream Workshop
Select the
Achieving the
Dream Workshop

64. Scroll down to your Sandbox and select it
Select the Sandbox
with the number on
the cover page of
your handout
Nav bar

65. Take ownership of your Sandbox
Hold the pointer at the end of the Title and rt click
Change the title to 19: Sandbox of YOUR NAME
Left click on Update Title

66. Let’s look at a page with content
Here is a chapter
Here is a page
Select the page

67. We want to edit the page Select edit

68. Edit the page

69. Start a new chapter Click here to go
back to your
Sandbox

70. Start a new chapter
2. Select Chapter
3. Select create
1. New

71. Title your chapter and save
Type in the name of your college here
2. Then Save
Never change this it controls the file system

72. Select guide format
1 Click here 2 Select
3 Click

73. Adding a page for content 1 Click on
new
2 Select Page
3 Click on Create

74. Adding a page for content
2 Save
1 The area you are interested in

75. Adding content
Add Text or copy
and paste then Save
Select edit

76. Congrats

77. Faculty
“Course
Reports”
LibreMaps
Remixing
Maps
Published
LibreTexts
OER
Remixer
LibreNet Consortium
Classrooms
Team
(Hack-a-
thons
& Sprints)
Development
Team
Training Support
Course Shells
Printed Books Dissemination
Accessibility
Analytics
Bookstore
Priority
Building Your LibreTexts

78. Base Membership
Single Sign On
Institutional Portals
Branding of Physical Texts
More than 10 Course Shells
One click ordering from LibreTexts Print Bookstore
Access to Development, Technology & Assessment Teams
Closed course annotation (hypothesis and note bene)
Advanced Membership
On Campus Training
Accessibility review
Support for OER construction
Ancillary materials (Homework systems, test banks, etc.)
Priority access to
Development, Technology & Assessment Teams
Public Access
OER Remixer access
Hosting of OER materials
Up to 10 course shells in a Campus Hub
Printing-on-demand Files for physical texts
Individual Annotations (hypothesis and note bene)
Sustaining the LibreNET Consortium

79. Let’s Work Together

80. Join the LibreTexts Network
https://LibreTexts.org
jhalpern@libretexts.org
@JoshHalpern5