Open education takes the spirit of sharing, creativity, and transparency and leverages those with the flattening capabilities of the Internet, the portability of mobile computing, and the wider freedoms of flexible copyright to improve accessibility, enrich content, and foster creative collaboration. Come hear one educator’s experiences with open education and why he believes that librarians are integral to the success of this grand project. There will be generous time for questions.

1. Why Open Education is the Best Way Forward
Game of Tomes - Beyond Hope 2017, Winterfell
Dr. Farhad Dastur (farhad.dastur@kpu.ca)
House of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, King’s Landing, Westeros
June 13, 2017
Unless otherwise specified

2. Thank you to the organizers and sponsors of…
And a special thanks to…
Gordon Yusko
Assistant Director, Community Engagement
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre | UBC Library
for funding my participation

3. OUR ROAD MAP
• What is open education?
• My values as an open
educator
• The Problem
• What about Quality?
• What can Librarians do?
3

5. What is Open Education?
5
“Open education takes the spirit of sharing, creativity, and transparency and leverages those
attributes with the flattening capabilities of the Internet, the portability of mobile computing,
and the wider freedoms of flexible copyright and copyleft to achieve dramatic
improvements in accessibility, content control, and creative collaboration.”
Sources:
Quote: Dastur, F. 2017. How to Open an Academic Department. In: Jhangiani R. & Biswas-Diener R, Open. London:
Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.m
Licensed under CC 4.0 BY
Image: “Rush Tree Clouds Bank Old Birds Landscape Book” by Max Pixel is licenced under CC0 1.0

6. What is Open Education?
“Proponents of open education believe
everyone in the world should have access
to high-quality educational experiences
and resources, and they work to eliminate
barriers to this goal. Such barriers might
include high monetary costs, outdated or
obsolete materials, and legal mechanisms
that prevent collaboration among
scholars and educators.”
Source: Opensource.com

7. Cape Town Open Education Declaration, 2007
“We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning.
Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational
resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These
educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth
can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge.” 7

8. Open Education = FREE + FREEDOM
Beyond providing FREE access; OERs also provide the FREEDOM
to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute works such as articles,
chapters, books, music, films, etc.

10. Creative Commons Licensing
http://creativecommons.org
“Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of
their works by offering them for use under generous,
standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of
works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis.”
“Wanna Work Together?” (3 minutes)
https://youtu.be/P3rksT1q4eg
10

14. 14
When you think of the 5R’s, think
music....
Gostan is a French DJ and producer known for his
chilled melodic house music.
Gostan - Klanga (Official Video) (3:50 minutes)
https://youtu.be/iIj1mEIVPg8
[Pep & Rash Remix ]
https://youtu.be/3s-DMB4bH1g
[De Hofnar Remix ]
https://youtu.be/VREoSPYVsYs
[Henri PFR Remix ]
https://youtu.be/FDLcAcw-z14
Kennedy’s 1963 “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech
https://youtu.be/BTLznS6APl4
Standard YouTube License

15. 15
My Values as an Educator Mirror the Values of
the Open Education Movement
Education is fundamentally an act of generosity:
the sharing of knowledge, skills, values, and wisdom
Education can be given without being given away

16. 16
“Everyone has the right to education… higher education shall be
equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”
--Article 26.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 1948

17. 17
The Problem:
The Cost of Commercial Textbooks is an Obstacle to Higher Education

18. Students, however...

19. Incidence and Average Amount of Undergraduate Debt at Graduation
in 2005, by Province (in 2011 Dollars)
Source: http://higheredstrategy.com/a-closer-look-at-student-debt-postscript/

21. 21

22. Amazon.com’s Top 100 textbooks sold in Spring 2010
(Source: https://www.textbookequity.org)
• Median price = $US 133; Range = $65 - $256
• Top 3 disciplines: (1) Business, (2) Psychology, (3) Biology
• 13 publishers account for these 100 textbooks. However, when
combined into their parent companies, there are only 5 publishers.
• The top 3 of these 5 account for 85% of the top 100 textbook sales. 22

23. Do students perform differently when using open vs.
traditional textbooks?

24. DIGITAL PRINT
OPEN
OpenStax
1st edition
2014
TRADITIONAL
Myers
10th edition
2013
Worth Publishers
Three textbook
options in the study
24

25. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Exam 1 Exam 2 Exam 3
PercentCorrect
Traditional
Open Print
Open Digital
25
Exam Performance for RL’s Students
Traditional vs. Open Print vs. Open Digital
p < 0.05 ns ns

26. Not at all
1 2 3 4 5 6
Very Much
7
Writing is clear
Writing is engaging
Research examples helpful
Everyday examples relevant
Everyday examples helpful
Adequate number of study aids
Helpful study aids
Note: All differences significant at p < .05
Traditional
Open Print
Open DigitalPerceptions of the Textbook
26

27. What Librarians can do: Self-Education
Educate yourself and your colleagues about the value, availability, and power of
open education
• What are OERs?
• Technological concerns
• How to use open licenses
• Certification and accreditation
• MOOCs vs. OERs
• Open data, Open Science, Open government

28. Places to learn about Open Education
BC Open Education Librarians
SPARC Open Education Fact Sheet
Creative Commons page on Open
Education
Open Education Resources universitas
UNESCO info on OER
KPU Library’s Open Education Primer
Open Education Consortium

29. BCcampus’Top 40 high enrollment courses
http://open.bccampus.ca
29

30. BCcampus’ Open Textbooks in Trades, Technology, & Skills
Training
High volume/strategic foundational trades
Oil and Gas courses and programs focused on supporting the Natural Gas industry;
Tourism/Hospitality programs;
Adult Basis Education essential skills for trades and tech programs
Mining related programs;
Healthcare programs (e.g., Health Care Assistant, Practical Nursing and Registered
Nursing)
30

31. What Librarians can do:
Advocate and Educate Others about OERs
Open Textbooks are available in many disciplines
Many are high-quality textbooks written by subject matter experts and come with
teaching aids, exams, and other resources
Admittedly, a few are poorly written, dense, and do not have much resource support
In other words, in terms of quality, open textbooks can be just like traditional
textbooks
31

32. What Librarians can do:
Work with the innovators and early adopters
32
The Technology
Adoption Curve

33. Educators may ask:
“Why Should I Adopt an Open Textbook?”
1. Open Textbooks increase access for learners
2. Many Open Textbooks exist
3. The quality is good and getting better
4. You can do things with openly licensed, digital works that you can’t do with
print or e-textbooks
33
The New Question:
Why NOT Adopt an Open Textbook?

34. “It’s not where you take things from—
it’s where you take them to.”
--Jean-Luc Godard

36. Questions?
Contact Info:
farhad.dastur@kpu.ca
@fdastur
Unless otherwise specified