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Driving adoptions through communities of practice
This document summarizes presentations from an Open Education Week event about driving adoptions of open educational resources (OER) through communities of practice. It describes communities of practice at College Open Textbooks focusing on open textbooks, and examples of communities in water technology, developmental mathematics, American government, and educational psychology that have collaborated to develop open educational resources.
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Driving adoptions through communities of practice
- 1. Driving Adoptions ofOER through Communities of Practice Open Education Week March 11, 2013
- 2. Presenters Charles Key Director of College Open Textbooks, Open Doors Group Marguerita Sasser Senior Manager for Communities, Open Doors Group Regina Blasberg Chair, Engineering Technologies Department, College of the Canyons Mike Alvord Director of Operations, Newhall County Water District Adjunct Faculty, College of the Canyons Donna Gaudet Faculty, Mathematics, Scottsdale Community College Mirya Holman Assistant Professor, Political Science, Florida Atlantic University Lisa White-McNulty Professor, College of Education, University of St. Francis
- 3. Communities of Practiceat College Open Textbooks • College Open Textbooks (COT) Community: Online community for people who develop, use or want to learn more about open textbooks. Initial focus on US, but now expanding globally Initial focus on community colleges, but now expanding to 4-yr universities • 1600 members strong for collaboration • Content highlights: – Listing of upcoming open textbooks and related OER events – Links to past event replays, discussion threads & resources – Place to share best practices, lessons learned, post questions & solicit feedback – Groups focused on specific subjects including US History, Algebra, Business Communications & others. COT Community Senior Managers: Kathy Hooper kathy.hooper@opendoorsgroup.org Marguerita Sasser marguerita.sasser@opendoorsgroup.org
- 4. Water Technology Community ofPractice Regina Blasberg Chair, Engineering Technologies Department, College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, CA Regina.Blasberg@canyons.edu Mike Alvord Director of Operations, Newhall County Water District Adjunct Faculty, College of the Canyons Michael.alvord@canyons.edu
- 5. COC Water TechnologyProgram • Structure – 21 units requiring a total of 7 courses – 5 courses mandatory, option for other 2 courses – either beginning/advanced treatment or beginning/advanced distribution • Courses offered in multiple formats: – Online – Hybrid - Onground • Program now offered 100% online • Program Focus – Water Operators
- 6. Community of Practice •Faculty – Full-Time – Part-Time • Industry – Partnerships – Advisory Committee • Goals – Well-trained students and productive employees – Lower educational costs and provide greater access to education
- 7. The Problem • Costsof Textbooks and Materials – Texts from American Water Works Association (AWWA) – WSO: Basic Science Concepts and Applications, 4th Edition $146 plus bookstore markup • Quality of Textbooks and Materials – Although there is some good content, materials are typically not set up for instruction • Access to Materials
- 8. The Solution • Water030 Textbook • Water 031 Textbook • Printing: – Students can print – Arrangement with on-campus repro and the bookstore to provide bound copy
- 9. Successes/Lessons Learned • Costsavings – On average a savings of $5250 to students each semester the course is offered • Student input • Easy to revise • Importance of answer key
- 10. Developmental Mathematics Community of Practice Donna Gaudet Faculty, Department of Mathematics, Scottsdale Community College, Arizona donna.gaudet@scottsdalecc.edu
- 11. History • Hybrid classeswere the genesis of our efforts • Need for student resources • Desire to save students money • Began with a couple of faculty creating materials separately (2008 – 2012) • Began with a couple of faculty creating materials separately (2008 – 2012) – Some were creating videos – Some were creating written materials – Some were researching open source textbooks – Some were investigating an open online assessment tool
- 12. Evolution • Spring 2012two faculty members put the pieces together and piloted all the pieces – Student Workbook with lesson videos – Open Source Textbook – Open Source online assessment tool • Summer 2012 – Team of about 8 faculty worked to restructure materials and create instructor guides
- 13. Fall 2012 Implementation •Completely open source for Arithmetic through PreCalculus classes • 42 instructors (full time and adjunct) • 65 sections (around 1820 students) • Roughly $182,000 student textbook dollars saved Fall 2012 alone
- 14. Community Development • Oureffort would not have been successful without the work of many people • Team approach to materials development was critical • Resulting materials were at a higher level than an individual could do alone • Team members participated in areas of strength (i.e. videos, writing materials, editing, etc…)
- 15. Sharing Resources/Processes • Dropbox – Critical tool for developers – Sharing of resources and collaboration documents • Online Site – Discussion forums for faculty – Errata, use of materials, other suggestions • Twice a month meetings – Discuss errata, changes, how things are going
- 16. Instructor Text FundingResources • COT Adopter Communities Small Grant • 25% (of $2500) funds used to purchase materials (textbook + workbook) for ALL faculty teaching OER courses – Fall 2012 • ~ 22 faculty for MAT 09x Beginning Algebra • ~ 20 faculty for MAT 12x Intermediate Algebra • Only Beg Alg was initially proposed, but we expanded to Int. Alg • Remaining funds were used in Spring 2013 and will be used in Fall 2013 for revised sets of materials
- 17. Thorns and Roses Thorns Roses • Huge amount of • Cost savings for students development time • Department community • Maintenance and updates building and support • Distribution (bookstore!) • Energy of the new users • Adjunct faculty buy-in • Support of department and administration • Introduction of creative teaching approaches • Revamp of the curriculum • Working as a team made the product better
- 18. American Government Community ofPractice Mirya Holman Assistant Professor, Political Science, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL mholman5@fau.edu
- 19. Basic Process • Ourproject is to develop and improve an e-text for our Introduction to American Government classes. • The text is already written and now we are working on the ancillary materials and revisions (based on peer review)
- 20. Work on Project •Redesign and formatting • Incorporate changes recommended by external reviewers • Development of ancillary materials – Test bank – Primary materials supplement – Powerpoints – Blackboard ready Excerpt from Ideology chapter
- 21. Stage of Work • Students with design skills worked on finished product Redesign and formatting • Have responded to formatting, organizational, and material suggestions Responses to • Text has been edited by faculty and students review • Test Bank: Developed • Primary Materials: In process Ancillary • Powerpoints: In process Materials • Blackboard ready: Developed
- 22. What We Learned! •Have a point person in charge of community • Encourage student involvement • Use surveys and routine evaluations by students and users to improve product • Self-promote! Let your university know the work you have done!
- 23. Educational Psychology Community ofPractice Lisa White-McNulty Professor, College of Education, University of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois lwhitemcnulty@stfrancis.edu
- 24. Project Goals • Augmentthe available open-access resources in our discipline (Educational Psychology) • Starting point: Seifert and Sutton’s open source text • “Textbook plus”
- 25. Pilot Project • Developmodules for common topics taught by members • Peer review by Working Group • Pilot modules in our courses • Assess student preferences and learning • Funding from College Open Textbooks • Published in Connexions Open Access Repository: cnx.org
- 26. Pilot Modules • Motivationand the Learning Environment – Lisa White-McNulty • Information Processing – Brian Beitzel • Introduction to Assessment – Nathan Gonyea
- 27.
- 28. Project Assessment • Surveyof students’ opinions of open source materials • Assessment of academic performance on topics in which open source materials were used
- 29. Project Results • 88percent of students preferred online readings over textbook • No significant differences in students’ performance on assessments
- 30. Feedback most welcome! •Brian Beitzel & Nathan Gonyea – SUNY-Oneonta • Lisa White-McNulty – University of St. Francis • Kelvin Seifert – University of Manitoba (emeritus) • Una Daly, – Open Courseware Consortium • Zsuzsanna Szabo – Marist College • Gene Loeb – Roosevelt University (retired), journal editor • John Connor – Daytona State University
- 31. Contact Us About Communities of Practice Open Doors Group http://www.opendoorsgroup.org College Open Textbooks http://collegeopentextbooks.org College Open Textbooks Communities http://collegeopentextbooks.ning.com/ Charles Key Director of Adoptions, College Open Textbooks, and Grants charles.key@opendoorsgroup.org Marguerita Sasser Senior Manager for Communities marguerita.sasser@opendoorsgroup.org