This document discusses the high costs of textbooks for students and the barriers this creates to accessing education. It presents open educational resources (OER) as a solution, which are teaching materials that are free to access and use, with permission to revise and remix. OER can save students billions by eliminating textbook costs. Studies show OER have equal or better learning outcomes compared to traditional textbooks. Government policies should support publicly funding open licensing of educational resources.

1. Dr. Cable Green
Director of Global Learning
cable@creativecommons.org
twitter: @cgreen
Open Education: The
Moral, Business &
Policy Case for OER

2. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

3. 1 US Dollar = 1.55 New Zealand Dollar

6. $2731 $1,133
Tuition and Fees Books & Supplies
Cost of U.S. Community College
Source: College Board, Trends in Higher Education Report, 2011
https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/trends-2011-community-colleges-ed-enrollment-debt-brief.pdf

8. Incredible Financial Pressure
Incredible Financial Pressure

9. Source: Student PIRGs: http://www.studentpirgs.org/sites/student/files/reports/A-Cover-To-Cover-Solution_4.pdf

10. Physics: Principles With Applications, 7th Edition by Douglas C. Giancoli

14. Nicole Allen, SPARC: CC BY

15. 65%
of students decided against buying a
required textbook because of cost
US PIRG Report, 2014
http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market

16. 50%
of students said that cost of
textbooks impacted how many and
which classes they took
US PIRG Report, 2014
http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market

17. 82%
of students felt they would do
significantly better in a course if
textbook was available for free
US PIRG Report, 2014
http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market

18. How are 2/3 of students
supposed to learn with
materials they can’t afford
and are not buying?

19. High textbook costs
Decrease student access
Increase student drop rates
Decrease student success and learning

20. Does it make any sense WA State and K-12
Districts together spend $130M/year
on textbooks and the results are:
• Books are (on average) 7-10 years out of date
• Paper only / no digital versions.
• Students can’t write / highlight in books
• Students can’t keep books at end of year
• All rights reserved… teachers can’t update
• Parents often pay for lost paper books…

21. http://k12oercollaborative.org

22. Cost of “Copy”
For one 250 page textbook:
• Copy by hand - $1,000
• Copy by print on demand - $4.90
• Copy by computer - $0.00084

23. Cost of “Distribute”
For one 250 page textbook:
• Distribute by mail - $5.20
• $0 with print-on-demand (2000+ copies)
• Distribute by internet - $0.00072

24. Handwriting Printing Press Internet
Copying
a book
$1000s per
copy
$1s per copy $0.0001s per
copy
Distributing
a book
$1000s per
copy
$1s per copy $0.0001s per
copy

25. Copy and Distribute (and storage) are
“Free”
This changes everything…

26. Internet
Enables
Copyright
Forbids

27. Open Educational Resources
Any kind of teaching materials –
textbooks, syllabi, lesson plans,
videos, readings, exams

28. Open Educational Resources
(1) Free and unfettered access, and
(2) Free copyright permissions to
engage in the 5R activities

29. open ≈ free

30. free is assumed online

31. open > free

32. open = free + permissions

33. • Make and own copiesRetain
• Use in a wide range of waysReuse
• Adapt, modify, and improveRevise
• Combine two or moreRemix
• Share with othersRedistribute
The 5Rs

34. retain is fundamental

35. retain is prerequisite
to revise and remix

36. Open
1. Free and unfettered access
2. Perpetual, irrevocable 5R permissions

37. “Faux-pen”
1. Free (possibly gated) access
2. All rights reserved (or stronger)

38. Cost to
Students
Permissions
to Faculty
and Students
Commercial
Textbooks
Expensive Restrictive
Library
Resources
Free Restrictive
Open Educational
Resources
Free 5Rs

40. Nonprofit organization
Open copyright licenses
Founded in 2001
Operates worldwide

42. Step 1: Choose Conditions
Attribution
ShareAlike
NonCommercial
NoDerivatives

43. Step 2: Receive a License

44. most freedom
least freedom
Not OER
OER

47. Washington Community Colleges
English Composition I
• 62,000+ enrollments / year
• x $128 textbook
• ≈ $8 Million every year

48. opencourselibrary.org

49. $32M saved in 2 years
+ $25M in 2015-2016

50. Received funding to provide faculty
development on your campus:
- The impacts of high textbook costs
- Open textbooks as a solution
- Stipends for faculty reviews of open
textbooks
The Open Textbook Initiative
University of Minnesota
For more information: http://z.umn.edu/opentextbooks

51. OER-based Degree
When elective and required courses
adopt OER so a student can
graduate without ever buying a
textbook

52. The Z-Degree
REMOVING TEXTBOOK COSTS AS A
BARRIER TO STUDENT SUCCESS
THROUGH AN OER-BASED CURRICULUM
Decreased cost to
graduate by 25%
Increased
pedagogical flexibility
Improved course
completion rates

55. Lumen Learning
$ Cut total spend on
textbooks by 90%
Measurable
increase (5-10%)
in student success
Open licensing
of all new content
Data-driven
course updates
Smooth faculty
transition to
open content
Student access
to materials
from day 1

56. OER Potential in U.S. Higher Education:
Save Students: Billions / year
If every:
Open textbook saves $128 per course / student

57. 11 Peer Reviewed Studies:
OER Outcomes vs. Traditional Textbooks
http://openedgroup.org/

58. 48,623 Students
http://openedgroup.org/

59. 93% Same or Better Outcomes
http://openedgroup.org/

60. 9 Peer Reviewed Studies of
Perceptions of OER Quality
http://openedgroup.org/

61. 4,510 Professors and Students
http://openedgroup.org/

62. 50%
Same35%
Better
15%
Worse
http://openedgroup.org/

63. “what does open allow me to do?”

64. Disposable Assignments
Students hate doing them
You hate grading them
Huge waste of time and energy

65. Renewable Assignments
Students see value in doing them
You see value in grading them
The world is a better place at the end

66. Publicly funded
resources should be
openly licensed
resources.

67. White House issues directive supporting
public access to publicly funded research

68. $2 billion: new academic programs @
700+ Community Colleges
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) required
SkillsCommons.org

69. California Community Colleges require
Creative Commons Attribution for all
Chancellor’s Office Grants & Contracts

70. letter:oerusa.org

71. openpolicynetwork.org

72. the opposite of open isn’t “closed”

73. the opposite of open is “broken”

75. Dr. Cable Green
Director of
Global Learning
cable@creativecommons.org
twitter: @cgreen

76. Credits
● Open Policy Network slides – from Tim Vollmer @ Creative Commons
● Big idea Icon - from the Noun Project, Public Domain
● Blueprint Icon - by Dimitry Sokolov, from The Noun Project - CC BY
● Check List Icon - by fabrice dubuy, from The Noun Project - CC BY
● Hackathon - by Iconathon 2012 - CC0
● Question Icon - by Rémy Médard, from The Noun Project - CC BY