This document summarizes an information session on open educational resources (OER) presented at Sacred Heart University. It defines OER as educational materials that can be freely used and shared, including open textbooks. The session discussed the benefits of OER in reducing costs for students and increasing access and flexibility. It provided examples of OER repositories and publishers like OpenStax College and Lumen Learning. It also outlined Sacred Heart University's emerging plan to raise faculty awareness of OER and start piloting OER adoptions.

1. Information Session
by the Office of Digital Learning & Ryan Matura Library
Sacred Heart University, Connecticut
Presented at the Digital Pedagogy Summer Institute
May 20, 2016
OPEN EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES, FOCUS ON
TEXTBOOKS: AN
INTRODUCTION
By Jaya Kannan, Zach Claybaugh & Chelsea
Stone

2. •Why Open Educational Resources (OER) at SHU?
•Intro to OER with focus on OER Textbooks
•Potential Cost Savings to Students
•What’s Happening at SHU?
•OER Resources: OpenStax College & Lumen Learning
•Plan of Action
Overview of Today’s Session

3. Why Open Educational Resources (OER) at
SHU?
As an institution, we are interested in exploring OER
options as a means to:
• alleviate student expenses
• increase pedagogical flexibility
• offer possible avenues for the university to take a
leadership role in OER production

4. •What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?
• “OER are educational materials produced by one party that are licensed to be used
free of charge by others. OER come in many forms—from curriculum to homework
assignment to textbooks. And OER exist for all levels of education, from kindergarten
through college” (Wiley, et al., 2012, p. 1).
•OER Textbooks
• “In brief, open textbooks are faculty-written, peer-reviewed textbooks that are
published under an open license – meaning that they are available free online, they
are free to download, and print copies are available at $10-40, or approximately the
cost of printing” (Senack, 2015, p. 5).
• OER Textbooks provide a no-cost/low-cost solution to the growing problem of rising
textbook prices.
• Analysis by Senack posits that students in the U.S. would save $128.00 per course, by
instructors adopting an open textbook over a traditionally published text (2015, p. 5).
OER Textbooks – Introduction

5. Goals:
1. Increases access to and usage of textbooks in
class
2. Lowers/eliminates textbook costs for students
3. Increases faculty control over instructional
resources
4. Enhances pedagogical practices
Adoption of OER Textbooks

6. What we need to find out:
-Faculty awareness and use of
OER
-Faculty perceptions of OER
-Faculty willingness to
participate in OER
initiatives
What’s Happening at
SHU?What we know:
-Sacred Heart University
Library has compiled a
listing of OER Textbooks
available for use by
instructors in every
department across
campus
-Some instructors, such as
Steve Michels from
Politics & Global Studies,

7. As part of the Third Open Government National Action Plan, the Obama
Administration emphasized the importance of OER:
(Open Government Partnership, 2015, p. 3)
OER – Federal Govt.

8. -As part of its #GoOpen campaign, the U.S.
Department of Education proposed a new regulation
that requires Department grant-funded intellectual
material be made available to the public through an
open license (Press Office, 2015).
-Additionally, 13 states have joined the #GoOpen
initiative. This initial cohort of states will develop
technological strategies that feature OER, develop
OER repositories, and jointly share resources and
strategies with one another (Zubrzycki, 2016).
OER – Federal Govt. (cont.)

9. What is OpenStax College?
 Non-profit publisher of OER Textbooks
 Hosted on Rice University’s Connexion Platform
 Supported by a number of philanthropic organizations,
including receiving major support from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation
 Includes a collection of 19 peer-reviewed, OER textbooks
that cover a range of introductory courses. OpenStax plans
to have 21 total titles available by 2017 (OpenStax College,
2014).
 All textbooks are freely available online to all. Students can
download their free textbook on their electronic devices, or
they can purchase a print copy of the textbook through
Amazon or the university bookstore for around $50.00.
 Hundreds of institutions worldwide are using OpenStax
textbooks: https://openstaxcollege.org/pages/adoptions

10. What is Lumen Learning?
 Organization that assists institutions with
adoption of OER
 Offers complete, fully-customizable catalog
of courses in more than 60 subject areas
that are designed using OER
 Works directly through campus LMS for
ready access
 Compiles and analyzes course data to
track student success
 For more information on Lumen Learning,
see: http://lumenlearning.com/

11. UCONN Leading CT OER Textbook
Charge
• University is leading an effort approved by the general assembly
• Efficiency of using open textbooks
• Reducing Student Cost
• “State Rep. Gregg Haddad (D-Mansfield) championed legislation creating a task force of faculty,
administrators, and students representing UConn, the Connecticut State University System, and the
Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium, along with representation from the state Office of Higher
Education.”
• Grant of nearly $100,000 from the Davis Educational Foundation
• University Libraries involvement
• survey faculty about the use of open textbooks
• Create online workshops for faculty development adapt an existing general chemistry textbook
• Help raise awareness about open textbooks – first used last year
• Initiated by students in the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and UConn Public Interest
Research Group (UConnPIRG)

12. Emerging Plan of Action: 2016-
2017
Awareness
Building
Involve
Faculty
Leadership
Start with a
Pilot
Expand
scope of
adoption
Create OER
texts in niche
areas

13. OER Adoption - Resources
OER Professional
Services
-Lumen Learning: OER
Advisory Services and
Open Courseware
Vendor
http://lumenlearning.com/
-ISKME: OER
Professional
Development and
Training
http://www.iskme.org/ser
vices/oer-support
OER Textbook Publishing
-OpenStax College
https://openstaxcollege.org/
-Open SUNY Textbooks
http://textbooks.opensuny.or
g/
-Boundless
https://www.boundless.com/
-Saylor Academy
http://www.saylor.org/books/
-Wikibooks
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki
OER Collections
-BC Campus OpenEd
https://open.bccampus.ca/
-Cool4Ed
http://coolfored.org/about.html
-Merlot
https://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.ht
m
-OER Commons
https://www.oercommons.org/
Open Textbook Library
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/

14. References
 Best, Kenneth (2016, February 2). UConn Leading State’s Open Textbook Initiative. Storrs, CT: UConn Communications. Retrieved from
http://today.uconn.edu/2016/02/uconn-leading-states-open-textbook-initiative/
 Garg, K., & Chien, C. V. (2014, September 26). Promoting Open Education to Help Teachers and Students Around the World [Web log post]. Retrieved from
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/09/26/promoting-open-education-help-teachers-and-students-around-world
 Open Government Partnership. (2015, October 27). The Open Government Partnership: Third Open Government National Action Plan for the United States of
America (United States of America, White House Office). Retrieved March 8, 2016, from
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/final_us_open_government_national_action_plan_3_0.pdf
 OpenStax College. (2014, August 25). Rice's OpenStax College will add 10 new titles by 2017 [Press release]. Retrieved March 8, 2016, from
https://openstaxcollege.org/news/rice-s-openstax-college-will-add-10-new-titles-by-2017
 Press Office, U.S. Department of Education. (2015, October 29). U.S. Department of Education Launches Campaign to Encourage Schools to #GoOpen with
Educational Resources [Press release]. Retrieved March 8, 2016, from http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-launches-campaign-
encourage-schools-goopen-educational-resources
 Regulations.gov (2015). Open Licensing Requirement for Direct Grant Programs. Retrieved from https://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=ED-2015-os-
0105
 Senack, E. (2015, February). Open textbooks: The billion-dollar solution (Rep.). Retrieved March 8, 2016, from The Student PIRGs website:
http://studentpirgs.org/sites/student/files/reports/The%20Billion%20Dollar%20Solution.pdf
 U.S. Government (2016). Analytical Perspectives: Budget of the U.S. Government (pp. 287-292) (United States, Federal Government, Office of Management
and Budget). Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2017/assets/spec.pdf
 Wiley, D., Green, C., Soares, L., & American Progress, C. F. (2012).Dramatically Bringing down the Cost of Education with OER: How Open Education
Resources Unlock the Door to Free Learning. Center for American Progress. Retrieved March 8, 2016, from ERIC.
 Zubrzycki, J. (2016, February 26). 13 States Join Federal Open Resource Initiative [Web log post]. Retrieved March 8, 2016, from