One of the attractions of Virginia’s Community Colleges is the low cost of tuition. Providing an affordable pathway to a college education is an essential part of the overall mission of Virginia’s Community Colleges. Students who attend one of Virginia’s community colleges can receive a quality education at about ⅓ of the cost of a public four-year college in the Commonwealth. However, many first-time community college students suffer something akin to sticker shock when they discover that much of their savings in tuition are eaten up to pay for textbooks. The rising cost of college course materials is not unique to community colleges, or to Virginia. Over the last decade, the average cost of college textbooks has risen at four times the rate of inflation. If you look back a few more decades, the statistics are even more striking: since 1978, the price for educational books has risen a staggering 812%, more than the cost of medical services, new home prices, or the consumer price index. During this session you will find out what Virginia’s community colleges are doing to reduce the cost of college course materials, from expanding bookstore textbook rentals and library resources to developing free course materials for high enrollment courses. Student participants will also find out ways that they can organize to advocate for expanding efforts to reduce textbook costs across the state.

1. Your Textbooks Cost
Too Much
What The VCCS Is Doing About It & How You
Can Help

2. “It is our misfortune, as a historical generation, to
live through the largest expansion in expressive
capability in human history, a misfortune because
abundance breaks more things than scarcity.”
-Clay Shirky

4. Blue Pill

5. How much do college
textbooks cost?
$ 1200/year

6. Why do textbooks cost so
much?

16. Why expensive textbooks are
bad*
*especially for community college students

20. What can be done
to lower textbook
costs?

21. Increase selection
and use of “e-books”

22. Increase selection and
use of textbook rentals

23. Increase awareness and
use of library resources
http://library.vccs.edu/reference/locate.html

24. http://vccs.libguides.com/

25. Increase availability and
use of used textbooks

26. Increase use of
EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES

27. Open Educational Resources
Open educational resources (OER) are
teaching, learning, and research resources
that reside in the public domain or have been
released under an intellectual property
license that permits their free use and
repurposing by others.

28. CREATIVE COMMONS
www.creativecommons.org

29. ©copyright
Use this to prevent sharing

30. Use this to enforce sharing

31. THE 5Rs
RETAIN Make & own copies
REUSE Use in a wide range of ways
REMIX Combine two or more
REVISE Adapt, modify, and improve
REDISTRIBUTE Share with others

32. Virginia Community College System
• Chancellor’s OER Adoption Grant
• CIF Grant
• Textbook Costs & Digital Learning Resources
Group
Tidewater Community College
• Z-Degree Project
Germanna Community College
• General Education OER Certificate
J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College
• General Education OER Certificate

33. Developmental Math
Textbook and MyMathLab ($170)
To OER and MyOpenMath ($0 / $3)

34. Withdrawing (%) | Fall 2013
8.2%
2.3%
9%
8%
7%
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
Traditional
Sections
Z Degree
Sections

35. Associate of Business
Administration
World’s first “all-OER” degree
Z Degree°

36. What can YOU do
lower textbook
costs?

37. Ask your professors
to investigate the use
of OER*

38. http://bit.ly/VCCS_OER_Courses

45. Organize!

46. “To expand the use of open textbooks in order to achieve
savings for students.”
Talk to your
representatives about
the Affordable College
Textbooks Act

47. % Completing with C or Better
48.4%
60.2%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Spring
2011
No OER
Spring
2013
All OER

48. When a student drops,
it..
Slows down their graduation
Costs the institution tuition
dollars

49. Contact me
• Richard Sebastian, Ph.D.
• Director of Teaching and Learning
Technologies
• (804) 819-4795
• rsebastian@vccs.edu
• http://edtech.vccs.edu
• @rasebastian