I call this "food for thought". I want faculty to understand why it is important to convert their courses, which use a pricey textbook, to open educational resources (zero cost textbook for students). It isn't just about the money saved, it is also about educational equity.

1. OPEN
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
IN
PURSUIT OF
EDUCATIONAL EQUITY
Vee Herrington, Ph.D.Vee Herrington, Ph.D.
Adjunct Assoc. Professor /OER Librarian
Lloyd Sealy LibraryLloyd Sealy Library
John Jay College of Criminal JusticeJohn Jay College of Criminal Justice
Faculty Development DayFaculty Development Day
January, 2018January, 2018
““Food for Thought”Food for Thought”
1

2. PURPOSE OF THIS WORKSHOP
• Overview of OER
• Why should I care?
• How is CUNY and John Jay promoting OER?
• OER basics
• The 5 R’s
• Creative Commons
• AOR – Library licensed content which are zero cost to the student
• Searching for OER materials
• Repositories and LibGuides
• Putting it together, using information technology
• Searching activity
Open educational resources (OER) are free and openlyOpen educational resources (OER) are free and openly
licensed educational materials that can be used forlicensed educational materials that can be used for
teaching, learning, research, and other purposes.teaching, learning, research, and other purposes.

3. 2017 NATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION REPORT
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER)
• Bad news
• Only 10% of faculty reported that they were “Very
aware” of open educational resources, with 20% saying
that they were “Aware.”
• Good News
• The awareness and adoption levels may be low, but
they also show steady year-to-year improvements.
• OER also addresses a key concern of many faculty: the
cost of materials.
• The rate of adoption of OpenStax textbooks among
faculty teaching large enrollment courses is now at
16.5%, a rate which rivals that of most commercial
textbooks.

4. POLL: Rate Yourself
1. Novice 2. Emerging 3. Pretty Good 4. Expert
OER?OER?
Just
learning
Could use
some
advanced
knowledge
I am a
Pro!

5. John Jay does it differently!
•We are committed to educational equity
•We want to change the learning experience
•We are student centered
•Student success is our objective
•John Jay embraces innovation, technology, and
collaboration
PREMISES
These premises are a starting pointThese premises are a starting point
for embracing the OER movementfor embracing the OER movement!

6. THE BROKEN TEXTBOOK MARKET
• 65% of students choose not to buy a college
textbook because it’s too expensive
• 94% report that they suffer academically
because of this choice
• 82% of students say they would do significantly
better in a course if the textbook were free
online and a hard copy was optional!
Case studies at both Houston Community
College and Virginia State University suggest
that classes using open textbooks have higher
grades and better course completion rates
Textbook industry facts
•College textbook prices have increased
over 800% in the past ten years…this is
3x the rate of inflation
PIRG=Public Interest Research Group, 2014

8. • Textbooks are too expensive
•Average student spends as much as $1,200 each
year on textbooks*
• Students do not purchase textbooks and do
not like textbooks*
• If a course centers around a textbook, and
the students won’t purchase it, students will
not be successful!
• Inequality exists if some students can’t or
won’t purchase the textbook
*Source: NY EdTech Week, OER OpenLab,
12/20/17, Grand Central Tech

9. WHO IS ENGAGED IN OER? 300
institutions in
46 countries

10. CUNY AND OER
• In 2017, CUNY was granted $4 million from New York State to
create new open educational resources initiatives.
• These initiatives include:
• Convert high-enrollment courses to use OERs;
• Create "zero-degree" programs where an entire degree in
some majors are free of textbook costs;
• Support faculty to adopt and create OERs.
• There are over 200 courses that are listed in CUNYfirst as "z"
courses, courses without textbook costs.

11. WHAT IS JOHN JAY DOING TO PROMOTE OER?
“The Zero-cost Textbook Initiative”
• John Jay is promoting OER with the Course Conversion Project: An eight-
workshop OER conversion seminar focusing on course design, pedagogy and
the selection of identifying and compiling open/alternative materials for the
course
• Objective is to create at least 5 total zero cost sections of the course and
run the courses by fall 2018.
• 16 participants identified, so far. Stipend for the participants.
• The creation of an open access / zero cost John Jay College Justice eReader
• The Justice e-Reader will bring together a collection of key texts on the
topic of justice, broadly defined, that will function as an intellectual hub for
conversations about justice among undergraduate students and their
teachers across the college
Savings of $255,000 in text bookSavings of $255,000 in text book
costs for the students!costs for the students!

12. OER IS ABOUT SHARING
• Why does the principle of "open" matter to education?
• Because "openness" is about sharing
• Vision to not only save the students money, but to
enhance their learning experiences
• Use information technology to equalize the
distribution of high quality knowledge and educational
opportunities for all students
• Many colleges and universities are collaborating in
building OER
Let the learning outcomes, not a
commercial textbook, drive the
curriculum!
It isn’t just about the $$
It isn’t just about the $$

13. OUR DEFINITIONS!
• What is open?
• Content licensed for us to re-use
• What is free?
• Cost free to students
• What is alternative?
• Library licensed content
OER BASICSOER BASICS

14. READY-TO ADOPT OPEN CONTENT REPOSITORIES
OpenStax (Rice U)
https://openstax.org/
Open Textbook Library https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks /
(U. of Minnesota platform)
Merlot repository (Cal State)
https://www.merlot.org
Open Textbooks (Community College Consortium for OER).
https://www.oerconsortium.org/discipline-specific/
OER Commons https://www.oercommons.org/
SUNY Open Textbooks https://textbooks.opensuny.org

15. “At the heart of the open educational
resources movement is the simple and
powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is
a public good and that technology in
general, and the World Wide Web in
particular, provide an extraordinary
opportunity for everyone to share, use, and
reuse that knowledge”
Mike Smith, Director of the Hewlett Foundation Education Program, 2006.

16. Hewlett Foundation definition: https://www.hewlett.org/strategy/open-
educational-resources/

17. Open content is copyrightable work published freely under a
Creative CommonsCreative Commons license. Users have permission to:
•Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content
(e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
•Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g.,
in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
•Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content
itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
•Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with
other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the
content into a mashup)
•Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content,
your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the
content to a friend)
OPEN CONTENT The 5 R’s

18. CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CreativeCommons_license
1.2 billion Creative Commons1.2 billion Creative Commons
licensed works!licensed works!

19. ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
(AER): CONTENT LICENSED BY THE LIBRARY
• Videos
• Journal articles
• Encyclopedia articles
• Electronic books and e-book chapters
John Jay Library: http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/
AER is not open, but is zero cost to students!AER is not open, but is zero cost to students!
• Always use a Permalink to link to aAlways use a Permalink to link to a
copyrighted articlecopyrighted article
• Do not upload a copyrighted articleDo not upload a copyrighted article

20. SEARCHING FOR OER
• OER come in a wide variety of types:
•Individual media elements, such as photos,
graphics, videos, and audio
•Online curriculum modules to augment their
courses
•Complete eTextbooks to replace a publisher’s
textbook
•Curriculum for the complete coursework (called
open courseware).

21. WHERE TO FIND OER
•Use OER Repositories
•Use LibGuides
•Use Google
•Use Creative Commons search
Although not OER, don’t forgot theAlthough not OER, don’t forgot the
library licensed content, which arelibrary licensed content, which are
a zero cost to the studenta zero cost to the student

22. USE OER REPOSITORIES TO FIND OER
• OER Repositories
• OpenStax (Rice University) https://openstax.org/
• Open Textbook Library
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/
• Merlot Repository (Cal State) https://www.merlot.org
• Open Textbooks (Community College Consortium for
OER) https://www.oerconsortium.org/discipline-
specific/
• OER Commons https://www.oercommons.org/
• SUNY Open Textbooks
https://textbooks.opensuny.org

23. USE LIBGUIDES TO FIND OER
• Use LibGuides for OER
• John Jay:
Zero-Cost Textbook Alternatives and Discipline specific OER
http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/zerocost
• Other college and university OER LibGuides
Do a Google search (LibGuide OER Biology)

24. FINDING OER
• Search Google for OER with Creative Commons licensing
• Google‘Settings’ (bottom right hand side)
•Select ‘Advanced search’
•Filter for CC licensed content… scroll down in
advanced search and set “usage rights”
parameters to be “Free to use, share, or modify”.
• Use Creative Commons search
(https://search.creativecommons.org/
“I am looking for a free biology textbook”

25. CREATING A “VIRTUAL PLACE”
Think of the LibGuide as a class package or module…or even a mini-
website!
• Need a “virtual place” to host the course so the students
can easily access it
• Various platforms can be used to publish the course
(Blackboard, ePortfolio, WordPress, LibGuides), etc.
• With learning outcomes and a good syllabus, start building
the class using the LibGuides platform…revise and edit easily
• “Build” as you go…when you find an OER with possibility,
you will have a place to save it
The visual display of the course isThe visual display of the course is
motivation to keep building andmotivation to keep building and
editing!editing!
My favorite

26. Prototype created as an example of using LibGuides to
publish the course:
•OER: CSCI 171 Nature of Computers and Computation
http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/oer/CSCI171Hunter
Once you get started entering your content,Once you get started entering your content,
the visual display of the course is motivationthe visual display of the course is motivation
to keep building and editing!to keep building and editing!

27.  LET’S MOVE ON TO OUR OER SEARCHING ACTIVITY
Verlene Herrington (vherrington@jjay.cuny.edu) for assistance
identifying, using and displaying/hosting OER materials
212-237-8222 or 520-236-3997
Raymond Patton (rpatton@jjay.cuny.edu) for grant
administration questions
Contacts: