OER Research on Open
Textbook adoption and Librarians
CCCOER Webinar
December 2014
Beck Pitt
The Open University (UK)

Background

CC-BY 4.0 Bea de los Arcos
oerresearchhub.org
#oerrhub @OER_Hub
• 2-year open research project funded by William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Aiming to build the most comprehensive picture of OER impact
• Open collaboration model across different educational sectors
• Global reach but with a USA focus
• Fellowship Scheme
• Researching openness in the open

Keyword Hypothesis
Performance OER improve student performance/satisfaction
Openness People use OER differently from other online materials
Access OER widen participation in education
Retention OER can help at-risk learners to finish their studies
Reflection OER use leads educators to reflect on their practice
Finance OER adoption brings financial benefits for students/institutions
Indicators Informal learners use a variety of indicators when selecting OER
Support Informal learners develop their own forms of study support
Transition OER support informal learners in moving to formal study
Policy OER use encourages institutions to change their policies
Assessment Informal assessments motivate learners using OER

OER Impact Map
http://oermap.org

Project Co-PILOT

Open Textbooks: OpenStax College
Questionnaire

OpenStax College Overview
http://openstaxcollege.org/faculty
Saved students over $30
million since June 2012
From 40 adoptions in 2012 to
1061 by 2014
1 million downloads of
OpenStax materials
Image and information from OpenStax College’s 2014 Progress Report:
http://openstaxcollege.org/news/our-textbooks-have-saved-students-30-million
CC-BY
First textbook published June 2012
9 open textbooks published to date
iBooks available in 32 countries

Open Textbook Overview
• On average total textbook costs are around $1200 each year in the United
States
• In the United States “…Textbook wholesale prices have risen more than four
times the rate of inflation over the last two decades (1990-2009)”
(Student PIRGs research)
• “…the textbooks actually cost more than
the tuition for most students.”
(Barbara Illowsky, author of Collaborative Statistics)
• 63% of respondents to the 2012 Florida
Student Textbook Survey “…reported not
having purchased the required textbook
because of the high cost…”
Picture credit: Huffington Post
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/college-textbook-
prices-increase_n_2409153.html)

Educator Sample: OpenStax College
• 77 Respondents in total (have used/use OSC textbooks)
• 73.7% Male (n=56) and 26.3% Female (n=20)
• Over 85% of respondents live in the United States (88.2%, n=67)
• Over 55% of respondents work in a HE/University context (57.1%, n=44)
• 76.6% of respondents do F/T face-to-face teaching (n=59)
• Nearly 70% of respondents have been teaching for more than 10 years (67.1%, n=51)
90.9% of respondents told us they have adapted open educational resources to fit their
needs (n=70)
Finding resources of a sufficiently high quality was the top challenge most often faced by
educators when using OER (65.3%, n=49)

Impact on Educators and Students

“In what ways, if any, has using OpenStax College textbooks
impacted on your own teaching practice?”

Based on your experiences as a teacher, to what extent do
you agree with the following statements?
% of educators who strongly agree or agree with the following statements:
"Use of Open Educational Resources (e.g. OpenStax College textbooks) in the
classroom...”
Allows me to better accommodate diverse learners’ needs (67.1%, n=49)
Increases learners’ satisfaction with the learning experience (66.2%, n=49)
Increases learners’ experimentation with new ways of learning (64.4%, n=47)
Increases learners’ engagement with lesson content (61.6%, n=45)
Develops learners’ increased independence and self-reliance (58.1%, n=43)
Increases learners’ interest in the subjects taught (54.1%, n=40)
Leads to improved students’ grades (50.7%, n=37)
Increases learners’ participation in class discussions (47.3%, n=35)
Increases learners’ enthusiasm for future study (47.3%, n=35)
Builds learners’ confidence (45.8%, n=33)
Increases collaboration and/or peer-support among learners (45.8%, n=33)
Leads to learners becoming interested in a wider range of subjects than before
they used OER (42.5%, n=31)

“In what ways, if any, has using OpenStax College
textbooks impacted on your students?”
“Students seem
somewhat more
engaged.”
“more student engagement
in lab activities and lecture
presentation”

In what ways, if any, has using OpenStax College
textbooks impacted on your studies?
“Saved my back, I already have so many
other books in my backpack and using my
computer for more info saved additional
stress that would have been on my back.”
(College student)

“As a result of using OpenStax College (OSC) textbooks, are
you more or less likely to do any of the following?”
96.1% of educators who use OSC textbooks are more likely to
recommend OpenStax College textbooks to fellow educators/teachers
(n=73)
92% of respondents are more likely to make an OSC textbook the
required text for their students (n=69)
80% of respondents are more likely to discuss using OSC materials with
their institution’s administrators (n=60)
Nearly 80% of respondents who use OSC textbooks are more likely to
use other OER for teaching (79.5%, n=58)

Librarian Questionnaire

Project Co-PILOT
“Project Co-PILOT (Community of Practice for Information Literacy Online Teaching)
seeks to promote internationally the sharing of over 50 UK OERs on digital and
information literacy which were developed as part of the DELILA project.”
(http://delilaopen.wordpress.com/project-co-pilot/)
Photo credit: CC-BY 4.0 Beck Pitt
Special areas of interest (CoPILOT):
• Encourage creation and sharing of OER
• Curating & sustaining OER
• Closing training gaps

Librarian Overview
• Nearly 40% of respondents have adapted OER to fit their needs
(39.4%, n=85)
• 31.9% of respondents have created OER for study or teaching
(n=69)
Top three challenges faced when using OER:
Knowing where to find resources (60.6%, n=120)
Finding resources of a sufficiently high quality
(60.1%, n=119)
Finding suitable resources in my subject area
(56.1%, n=111)
Over 85% of respondents said that
they would be more likely to select a
particular resource when searching for
OER if it had been created/uploaded
by a reputable/trusted institution or
person (87.4%, n=180)

Use and Creation of OER
14.8% of respondents have created resources themselves and published them
on an open license (n=32)
78.1% of respondents who have created
resources and published them on an open
license say open licensing is “very
important” or “important” to them when
using resources in their teaching (n=25)
87.5% of respondents who have created
resources and published them on an open
license told us they have seen the CC
license and know what it means (n=28).

Librarian Overview
Main purposes for using OER in the context of Librarian role:
To help find available content for learning, teaching or training
(72.5%, n=124) and/or to get new ideas and inspiration (72.5%,
n=124)
As a result of using OER as a respondents strongly agreed or agreed that …
• Nearly 70% make use of a wider range of multimedia (13.1%, n=19 &
56.6%, n=82 respectively)
• Almost 60% have a more up-to-date knowledge of their subject area (16.8%,
n=24 & 42.7%, n=61)
• 47.3% have improved ICT skills (10.8%, n=16 & 36.5%, n=54)

Creating OER and measuring its
impact

Do you measure the impact of the open educational
resources you create?
Of the respondents who create OER for study or teaching
and/or create OER and publish them on an open license,
nearly 30% told us they measure the impact of the OER
they create (29.7%, n=22)
• 60.8% of respondents who create OER do not measure
the impact of the OER they create (n=45)
• Nearly 10% of respondents who create OER don’t know
if they measure the impact of the OER they create
(9.5%, n=7)
Image credit: Public Domain
https://openclipart.org/detail/38527/-by-rejon-38527

Please tell us more about how you share the open educational
resources you create
“Upload to
YouTube”
“Via the NHS e-learning
repository and from our
organisational website.”

Please tell us more about how you measure the impact of the
open educational resources you create
Respondents who told us
how they currently
measure impact:
60.9% look at
statistics/usage/analytics
(n=14)
13.0% Feedback (n=3)
26.1% Both analytics and
feedback (n=6)
“At a rather trivial level, I check
how many times resources are
accessed.”

Institutional Policies and Openness

Source: Infographic created by Eleni
Zazani CC-BY 4.0
In the context of your role as librarian, what kinds of
policies would help you to be more open?

Concluding Remarks

Conclusion
• What do we mean by “measuring impact”?
• How is quality currently understood? (Changing perceptions)
• Finding resources remains a pertinent issue across the board: visibility
• Librarians working in “silos”… educators too
• Further work with OpenStax College, surveyed Siyavula educators in South Africa, working
with BCcampus Open Textbooks project in Canada
What do you think?
Do these findings resonate
with you?
We need you! Looking for YOUR best examples of impact...
http://oermap.org
Read our overall findings in our OER Evidence report 2013-2014:
http://oerresearchhub.org/2014/11/19/oer-evidence-report-2013-
2014/

Bibliography and Acknowledgements
Bueno-de-la-Fuente, G. (2012). The roles of libraries and information professionals in open educational resources (OER)
initiatives.. Available from: http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2012/492. [Accessed 23 November 2013].
De Beer, T. (2012). SCORE library survey report. Available from: http://www.open.ac.uk/score/news/score-library-survey-report.
[Accessed 23 November 2013].
De Los Arcos, B. Farrow, R. Perryman, L-A, Pitt, R & Weller, M OER Research Hub: OER Evidence Report 2013-2014.
Available from: http://oerresearchhub.org/2014/11/19/oer-evidence-report-2013-2014/ (accessed 8 December 2014)
Graham, N., and Secker, J. (2012). Librarians, information literacy and open educational resources: report of a survey. Available
from: http://delilaopen.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/findingsharingoers_reportfinal1.pdf. [Accessed 23 November 2013].
Harris, S. (2012). Moving towards an open access future: the role of academic libraries. London. Available from:
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/pdf/Library-OAReport.pdf. [Accessed 23 November 2013].
Taylor & Francis. (2013). Facilitating access to free online resources: challenges and opportunities for the library community.
Available from: http://www.tandf.co.uk/libsite/pdf/TF-whitepaper-free-resources.pdf. [Accessed 23 November 2013].
TBI Communications on behalf of InTech. (2012). Assessing the role of librarians in an Open Access world. Croatia. Available
from: http://www.intechopen.com/js/ckeditor/kcfinder/upload/files/Role of the Librarian_Survey_Findings_Jun12.pdf. [Accessed
23 November 2013].
Zazani, Eleni. The Emerging Information Professional: 21st Century attitudes, technologies and practices. Chandos publishing
(forthcoming)
Creative Commons logo: http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.large.png
These slides were created by reversioning two previous presentations: Librarians Perceptions of OER and Open Access Week
2014: Open Textbook Research Overview. Both slidedecks are available from: http://www.slideshare.net/OER_Hub

Thanks for listening!
oerresearchhub.org
http://oermap.org
Twitter: @OER_Hub @BeckPitt

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