The Open Course Library is a project to design and share 81 high-enrollment gateway courses across Washington state community and technical colleges to improve completion rates and lower textbook costs for students. Phase 1 made 42 courses available in 2011 using various tools, while Phase 2 will deliver 39 more courses in 2013 using Google Docs for a more collaborative design process. Adopting the free open educational resources from these courses could save students up to $41 million per year in textbook costs if 25% of faculty adopt them. Lessons from Phase 1 informed improvements to project timelines and use of a single collaborative tool for Phase 2.

1. Open Course Library UpdateFall 2011 Tom Caswell Open Education Policy Associate WA State Board for Community & Technical Colleges

2. Background Open Course Library Goals Design and share 81 high enrollment, gatekeeper courses Improve course completion rates Lower textbook costs for students (<$30) Provide new resources for faculty to use in their courses Fully engage our colleges in the global open educational resources discussion.

3. Timeline Phase 1: 42 courses Available October 31, 2011 at http://opencourselibrary.org Phase 2 : 39 courses Available Spring 2013

4. Design Process 81 courses built by our own faculty Define learning objectives Use existing, quality Open Educational Resources (OER) Fill in gaps with their own content

5. Potential Savings 81 courses = 411,133 enrollments / year Textbook savings up to $41M+ in / year At 25% adoption (faculty decision), savings to students will be $7.2M / year. Completions rates may also increase when all students can afford course materials

6. Next Steps Driving Open Course Library Course Adoptions Regional conferences and workshops New faculty trainings Building open sharing into existing teaching workflows and technologies Next LMS will have “open sharing” feature Explore open sharing via Tegrity

7. Lessons Learned Phase 1 Faculty Concerns: Project timelines and deliverables not clear Many were unfamiliar with ANGEL LMS No way to compare work between course teams Too many websites to keep track of Phase 2 Adjustments: Timelines and deliverables made clear in RFP Using Google Docs to collaborate & share as we go All project information in one Google Site

8. Why Google Docs? Pros: Collaborative, consistent, simple tool Similar to Microsoft Word Broader adoption base – not limited to specific LMS communities (LMS-neutral) Allows for easier viewing, sharing, saving copies Cons: No automated quizzed & assessments Designers can link to other tools or type up questions Extra step for adopters using an LMS: move OCL resources into LMS

9. Why Google Docs? What About OCL Phase 1 Courses? Remember: Not just building open courses – exploring new processes. Both phases are useful: Phase 1: less structured; developed with several tools Phase 2: leverage a common tool; streamline process Migrate Phase 1 from ANGEL to next LMS Next LMS will include open sharing features If Google Docs works best, we’ll figure out how to move phase 1 courses

10. Tom CaswellOpen Education Policy Associate, State Board for Community & Technical Colleges tcaswell@sbctc.edu http://opencourselibrary.org Slides at: http://slideshare.net/tom4cam