The BC Open Textbook Project: More than Saving Students Money. In the fall of 2012, the BC Ministry of Advanced Education announced funding to support the development of open textbooks. The primary goal of the project is to save post-secondary students money by promoting the adoption of free, open textbooks. But there are additional goals and benefits of the open textbook project that will benefit the post-secondary system in BC and beyond. In this presentation, Clint Lalonde from BCcampus will give an update on the BC Open Textbook project, and talk about some of the other open educational goals of the project that go beyond saving students money.

1. BeyondFree
The BC Open Textbook Project
Clint Lalonde
Manager, Curriculum Services & Applied Research
Uvic Open Access Week Oct 25, 2013
Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Feel free to use, modify or distribute any or all of this presentation with attribution.
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2. “Connect the expertise, programs, and
resources of all BC post-secondary
institutions under a collaborative service
delivery framework”
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Curriculum Services & Applied Research
Collaborative Programs & Shared Services
Student Services & Data Exchange
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3. “Connect the expertise, programs, and
resources of all BC post-secondary
institutions under a collaborative service
delivery framework”
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Curriculum Services & Applied Research
Support & promote the development & use of Open Educational Resources
Support instructors who want to use technology in their teaching practice
OER Global Logo by Jonathas Mello is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Unported 3.0 License
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4. What are OER?
―OER are teaching, learning, and research resources
that reside in the public domain or have been released
under an intellectual property license that permits their
free use and re-purposing by others.‖
William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education-program/open-educational-resources
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5. What are OER?
―Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of
educational materials that are in the public domain or
introduced with an open license. The nature of these
open materials means that anyone can legally and
freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them.‖
UNESCO
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/access-to-knowledge/open-educationalresources/what-are-open-educational-resources-oers/
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7. Reusability Paradox
The more context
a learning object
has, the more (and
the more easily) a
learner can learn
from it.
To make learning
objects maximally
reusable, learning
objects should
contain as little
context as possible.
The Reusability Paradox image by David Wiley used under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 3.0) Retrieved from
http://cnx.org/content/m11898/latest/
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8. ―Therefore, pedagogical
effectiveness and potential for reuse
are completely at odds with one
another, unless the end user is
permitted to edit the learning object.‖
Source: The Reusability Paradox, David Wiley, Connexions. http://cnx.org/content/m11898/latest/
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10. Some Rights Reserved
Creative Commons logo by Creative Commons used under under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
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11. Image from Copyright in Education & Internet in South African Law
http://education-copyright.org/creative-commons/
Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 South Africa license
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12. Beyond Free Benefit #1
Faculty have full legal control to
customize & contextualize
learning resources
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13. Online Program Development Fund (OPDF)
2003-2012
$9 million invested
153 grants awarded
100% participation across system
83% partnerships
47 credentials developed in whole or part via OPDF
355 courses, 12 workshops, 19 web sites/tools and 396
course components (learning objects, labs, textbooks,
manuals, videos)
100% open license for free & open sharing & reuse by all
BC post-secondary
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14. solr.bccampus.ca
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15. What is an Open Textbook?
A textbook licensed under an open
copyright license, and made available
online to be freely used by students,
teachers and members of the public.
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16. Where do they come from?
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17. 40 free and open textbooks
available for the highest
enrolled 1st & 2nd year postsecondary subjects in BC
First province in Canada
Visual notes of John Yap announcement, Giulia Forsythe http://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/8094691691/
Used under Creative Commons attribution share-alike license
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18. Why are we doing this project?
To increase access to higher education by reducing student costs
To improve student learning by removing barriers to resources
To give faculty more control over their instructional resources
Images from Oxfam.org CC-BY and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Daniel_Mietchen/Talks/World_Open_Educational_Resources_Congress_2012
/How_Open_Access_and_Open_Science_can_mutually_fertilize_with_Open_Educational_Resources CC-BY
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19. Students spend $1200/yr on textbooks
4x rate of inflation over past 20 years
70% students have not purchased textbook for a
course because of price
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20. Free is more than just a good deal
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21. There is a direct relationship between textbook
costs and student success
60%+ do not purchase textbooks at
some point due to cost
35% take fewer courses due to
textbook cost
31% choose not to register for a
course due to textbook cost
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23% regularly go without textbooks
due to cost
14% have dropped a course due
to textbook cost
10% have withdrawn from a course
due to textbook cost
Source: 2012 student survey by Florida
Virtual Campus
Slide: CC-BY Cable Green, Creative
Commons via http://www.projectkaleidoscope.org/
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22. ―My textbook is…
…back-ordered
…in the mail
…out of stock
…the wrong edition
…on hold until my student loan arrives‖
How often do students start the term
without the resources they need?
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23. What students think of textbooks
―The price of textbooks has influenced my decision to take classes. When the
same class is offered by three different instructors, I check which book is the
cheapest, and even though the professor might not be good, I’m forced to take that
class because the textbook is the cheapest.‖
―I was in lab one day and the guy sitting next to me had the PDF version of the
book opened on his computer. And I was like, Oh, can I have a copy? And he sent
it over to me.‖
―I have a friend who actually didn’t spend any money last year for books because
he went to the library at the beginning of the quarter, borrowed books, scanned
everything, and had the PDF file.‖
―My most expensive class was clinical psych, because she writes the textbook
herself, and it has a new edition every semester or something ridiculous. So it was
like almost $200. And the thing is that you can’t use the previous edition, because
she changes it herself because she knows the textbooks sell well. It’s like so
manipulative.‖
Students Get Savvier about Textbook Buying,
The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2013
http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Get-Savvier-About/136827
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24. Source: http://www.wmnf.org/news_stories/usf-student-shows-his-peers-how-to-download-textbooks-online-for-free
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25. Source: http://thesheaf.com/2013/10/20/an-open-textbook-policy-is-a-must/
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26. Beyond Free Benefit #2
Improved learning
Day 1 access
Customized resources
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27. Virginia State University School of Business
Open Textbooks in 9 courses (Flat World Knowledge FWK)
“Students in courses that used FWK textbooks tended to have
higher grades and lower failing and withdrawal rates than those
in courses that did not use FWK texts.”
Andrew Feldstein, Mirta Martin, Amy Hudson, John Hilton III, & David Wiley. Open Textbooks
and Increased Student Access and Outcomes. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from
http://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&article=533
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28. Utah Open Textbook Project
1 year pilot 2000 students
10 high school science
teachers adapt CK12
textbooks
Cost US $4.99/book
printed & delivered (US
$80)
5.9% gain in standardized test scores
Source: http://bccampus.ca/2012/10/29/questions-and-answers-on-open-textbooks-part-1a/ http://utahopentextbooks.org/
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29. Houston Community College
Psychology Department modifies an existing open
textbook to create custom textbook
“During the fall semester 2011, 690 students used this book.
Compared with students using a traditional text in the spring of
2011, students who used the free online textbook scored higher
on departmental final examinations, had higher grade point
averages in the class and had higher retention rates.
Source: One college’s use of an open psychology textbook, John Hilton III, Carol Laman,
Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning Volume 27, Issue 3, 2012
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30. Beyond Free Benefit #3
Opportunities for
Authentic Learning
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31. launched in 2008 on a shoestring budget, now nets over
2 million visitors a month, making it the most visited
domain among the university's websites.
Delmar Larsen now offers extra credit to students who submit entries, occasionally
holding pizza parties to bring in volunteers to write or review pages. He assigns a
rating system to new articles based on the author's expertise and experience, with
articles moving up as they are edited and vetted.
ChemWiki recently received its first major funding — a grant
of $250,000 from the National Science Foundation
http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/
Source: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10748
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32. http://pm4id.org/
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33. Beyond Free Benefit #4
Collegial collaboration
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34. HCC & Utah
http://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/robert.morecook/psyc-2301-student-supplements-for-stangor-text
http://utahopentextbooks.org
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35. The HoTT book
―We are a group of two dozen mathematicians who wrote a
600 page book in less than half a year. This is quite amazing,
since mathematicians do not normally work together in large
groups. ―
―..the spirit of collaboration that pervaded our group at the
Institute for Advanced Study was truly amazing.
We did not fragment. We talked, shared ideas, explained things
to each other, and completely forgot who did what.
If we can get mathematicians to share half-baked ideas, not to
worry who contributed what to a paper, or even who the authors
are, then we will reach a new and unimagined level of
productivity. Progress is made by those who dear (sic) the
break rules.‖
Andrej Bauer, University of Ljubljana
Source: The HoTT book, Mathematics and Computation http://math.andrej.com/2013/06/20/the-hott-book/
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36. ―Rather than working as employees on by-the-piece rates
for global companies like Pearson, faculty members can
assume the role of publishers.
Using free content-management systems like Joomla,
Drupal, or WordPress in conjunction with inexpensive web
hosting packages, we can build communities around our
educational materials.‖
―We need to realize our power as authors and publishers.
Working collaboratively, we can create dynamic teaching
and learning environments.‖
Joe Moxley, University of South Florida, http://writingcommons.org/
Source: Open Textbook Publishing, Joe Moxley, World.edu http://world.edu/open-textbook-publishing/
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37. Beyond Free Benefits
1. Faculty have full legal control to customize
& contextualize learning resources
2. Improved learning: Day 1 access &
customized resources
3. Opportunities for Authentic Learning
4. Collegial collaboration
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38. open.bccampus.ca
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39. Project Phases
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Phase One: Launch (March -August 2013)
Phase Two: Adapt (Sept 2013-Sept 2014 underway)
Phase Three: Create (January 2014-Sept 2014)
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40. Image: Don’t reinvent it by Andrea Hernendez used under CC-NC-SA license
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41. Available in many formats
www, ePub, PDF and print
Small, curated collection
Locally peer
reviewed
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42. 1
Phase One: Launch (March -August 2013)
Identify Top 40 Subjects
Environmental scan of existing OTB: goal 10
BC Faculty reviews of 10 OTB
System Outreach
Early Adopter
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43. http://bccampus.ca/top-40-courses
Source: BC CDW & BC Research Institutions
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44. 1
Phase One: Launch (March -August 2013)
Example of BC reviews of
Collaborative Stats book
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45. 1
Phase One: Launch (March -August 2013)
Early Adopter: Dr. Takashi Sato Physics KPU
Students: 60
Previous Textbook: $187
OpenStax Textbook: $0
Student savings: $11,200
College Physics textbook cover image by OpenStax College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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46. 1
Phase One: Launch (March -August 2013)
Early Adopter: Dr. Takashi Sato Physics KPU
Students: 60
Previous Textbook: $187
OpenStax Textbook: $0
Student savings: $11,200
1 class 1 institution 1 term
College Physics textbook cover image by OpenStax College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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47. 2
Phase Two: Adapt (Sept 2013-Sept 2014 underway)
Adaptations – 2 types: Existing & New
More textbooks (13 new)
More reviews
More outreach: Libraries & Bookstores
Technology (PoD, PressBooks, Connexions)
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48. 2
Phase Two: Adapt (Sept 2013-Sept 2014 underway)
Type 1: New
Suggest a textbook & modifications for a subject area
we have not found existing textbooks.
Anthropology
Applied Science
Commerce
Criminology
Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Science
Geography
History
Kinetics/Kinesiology
Political Science
Visual Arts, Media & Design
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49. 2
Phase Two: Adapt (Sept 2013-Sept 2014 underway)
Type 2: Existing
Introduction to Psychology
The faculty who reviewed this text felt that it needed to be adapted to reflect a Canadian context, that it
required the addition of a chapter on stress, health, and coping, and an overview of all the major
psychological perspectives in the first chapter of the text. The BC Open Textbook project will fund a
subject matter expert $7500 to complete this work. Technical support and editing services will be
provided.
Introduction to Sociology
This book received a good overall rating, however the faculty who reviewed it felt that it required
adaptation to reflect a Canadian context and the insertion of content about Feminist Theory. The BC
Open Textbook project will fund a subject matter expert $7500 to complete this work. Technical support
and editing services will be provided.
Introduction to Chemistry
Reviewers of this text found it was missing content about Kinetic-Molecular Theory and
Thermodynamics. In addition it is lacking a glossary. The BC Open Textbook project will fund a subject
matter expert $5000 to add the additional content and create a glossary.
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50. 3
Phase Three: Create (January 2014-Sept 2014)
Produce as few textbooks as possible from scratch
Create 1 exemplar e-textbook
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51. Thank you!
Clint Lalonde
clalonde@bccampus.ca
@clintlalonde @bccampus
http://open.bccampus.ca
Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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