SFSS OER Advocacy
Presented by Chardaye Bueckert
@chardayeb and
Brady Yano @bradyyano

My Story
O 2013: BC Open
Textbook Program &
open textbooks as a
“no brainer”

O 2013-2014:Outreach
and awareness

“What Have You Done to
Avoid Paying for a
Textbook?”Some extreme:
• Picking classes based on book costs
• Dropping classes because of books costs
• Cramming with a shared book
• Translating
• Going without the book
• Using secondary sources for primary source
analysis
• Going without the book
• International travel

OpenCon 2014

What We Did
O Student outreach
O Faculty & administration engagement
O Discussion with government
O Library collaboration
O Liaising with other student unions

Challenges
• Lack of uptake at SFU and other research
based institutions
• Publisher pressure
• Lack of awareness amongst students and
faculty
• Academic freedom

Lessons Learned
O Allies abound!
O There is always more to learn
O There is always room for one more
O Open as the future

Success as a Next
Step

#textbookbrokeBC
OInspired by the USPIRG campaign
OUndergraduate student collaboration
between BC’s largest PSI’s - SFU and UBC
OLeveraging social media as both a free and
open platform

Opportunities
O Student union collaboration
O Cross border collaboration
O Canadian institutional champions
O Celebrating successes
OOpen textbooks became a hot topic in the
2015 SFSS elections

Thank You!
Any questions?