The cost of expensive commercial textbooks a growing barrier to students’ success. Many institutions are now turning to freely available open textbooks and other open educational resources (OER) as a better alternative. Today, a growing number of colleges and universities are eliminating textbook costs in OER-based courses that give students free access to all course materials on the first day of class. This presentation, prepared by open education innovator Dr. David Wiley and Center for Excellence in Distance Learning director Dr. Kim Long discusses what is OER, how to find and use OER, and the linkage between OER and improvements in student success, with a particular focus on minority-serving institutions.

1. www.lumenlearning.com
Using Open Educational Resources to Improve
Affordability, Access and Student Success
Webinar
April 29, 2014

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Today’s Presenters
David Wiley
CAO and co-founder, Lumen Learning
Kim Cliett Long, Ed.D.
Director
Center for Excellence in Distance Learning at Wiley College

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What is Lumen Learning?
We provide support services for
institutions using open
educational resources (OER)
effectively to:
• Eliminate textbook cost as a
barrier to learning
• Improve student success
• Broaden access to educational
opportunity
we are:
• A company, partially owned by
a charitable foundation
• Formed in 2012
• Based in Portland, OR
• Founded through a series of
grant-funded projects
• Educators
• Innovators in OER adoption
• Currently working with 35+
institutions
• Educators

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What is the Center for Excellence in
Distance Learning at Wiley College?
We promote greater sharing
of resources, experiences
and best practices in distance
learning among the HBCU
community.
We provide an affordable
path to building online
education programs for
HBCUs.
we are:
• A non-profit membership
organization
• Formed in 2013
• Housed at Wiley College
(Marshall, TX)
• Three institutional partners
(currently)
• Support partner Lumen
Learning
• Seeking additional partners

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Today’s Discussion
• The Textbook Problem
• A Solution: Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Finding and Using High Quality OER
• Phenomenal Benefits of OER
• Using OER at minority-serving institutions
• Wiley College Experience
 Boosting affordability, access, tuition revenue
• OER and the Center for Excellence in Distance Learning
• Q&A

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$1200

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$0
$200
$400
$600
$800
$1,000
$1,200
$1,400
$1,600
$1,800
Tuition Textbooks
Annual Costs
$1288
$1666

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Textbook Pricing in Context
Provider Cost
Netflix – 20,000 Movies (and TV) $7.99 / month
Hulu Plus – 45,000 TV (and Movies) $7.99 / month
Spotify – 15M Songs $9.99 / month
CourseSmart – 1 Biology Textbook $20.25 / month

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60% Sometimes
23% Regularly
skip

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Open Educational
Resources

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

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Open Educational Resources?
1. Free and unfettered access, and
2. Free permission to engage in the
“5R activities”

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

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http://creativecommons.org/

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Finding and Using OER
• Over 500M OER online
 Google Advanced Search, discipline-specific collections
• Using OER effectively in the classroom
 What can you do differently when you can guarantee
that all students have access to course materials?
 What can you ask students to do differently when all
course materials provide 5R permissions?

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Examples of OER: Math

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Examples of OER: Psychology

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Examples of OER: Marketing

26. OER Benefits: Two Stories

27. Developmental Math
From textbook and MyMathLab ($170)
To OER and MyOpenMath ($0)

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% Completing with C or Better
48.4%
60.2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Spring
2011
No OER
Spring
2013
All OER

29. Associates of Business
“Z Degree”
Graduate without ever buying a textbook
World’s first “all-OER” degree

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% Dropping in Fall 2013
8.2%
2.3%
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
9%
Traditional
Sections
Z Degree
Sections

31. When a student drops, it..
Slows down their graduation
Costs the institution (refunded) tuition dollars

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OER and Minority-Serving Institutions
OER can help us address
unique challenges our students
face:
• Affordability
• Access to educational
materials
• Cultural relevance
• Differentiated learning styles
and needs
• Information / technology
literacy

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Wiley College’s Experience
• Our Challenges
 Lack of resources and expertise to develop robust
online courses and programs
 Students don’t purchase textbooks
 Commercial courseware and educational content isn’t
always the best fit for our students
 Need to teach technology and information literacy to our
students

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Wiley College’s Experience
• Goal: Build out distance learning programs designed with
HBCU students in mind
• Faculty initially started building courses using open
educational resources (OER) in 2011-2012
• Joined Kaleidoscope Project for faculty training,
professional development, collaboration opportunities using
OER
• Founded Center for Excellence in Distance Learning to
broaden HBCU collaboration

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Wiley College Results to Date
• Online courses. Collaborative development of courses
using high quality OER aligned to learning outcomes
• Cost Savings. Eliminate cost of expensive commercial
textbooks
• Access. Every student has free access to educational
materials from the first day of class
• Flexibility. Ability to add, modify, excerpt, remix and/or
rearrange materials to:
 Better align with learning outcomes
 Better address students’ learning needs
 Incorporate elements that encourage student success

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Wiley College Results to Date
Area Results
Online Courses 40+ courses have been redesigned to use only OER; more are
under development for summer 2014
Course Design Courses and content align closely to learning outcomes, making
it easier for students to engage, learn and persist
Affordability Zero textbook cost in all OER-based courses
Access Students have free access to all course materials on the first day
of class
Student Receptivity Students are enthusiastic about free textbooks and materials
Student
Engagement
With free access to courseware on day 1, students are more
engaged in course content, more quickly.
Learning Outcomes Anecdotal: Students are doing better
Data: Currently being evaluated

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Using OER-based Courses to Boost
Revenue and Expedite Completion
• Distance Learning Program Initiative
 Apply textbook cost savings to pay for online courses
 Discounted tuition for summer term
• Anticipated Results:
 Wiley College captures net new revenue from
students who leave during summer
 Attending year-round, students can earn a year’s
worth of credits and graduate earlier than planned

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Consider Joining Us
The Center for Excellence in Distance Learning at
Wiley College
An HBCU collaborative for effective, open online education programs and practices
Lumen
Learning
Dr. Kim Long,
Director
Wiley College
Institutional
Partners
Respective Strengths and Contributions
• Administration and
management
• Strategic planning
• Accreditation
• Faculty recruiting
• Relationships
• Distance learning policy, politics
• OER training, expertise
• Collaborative process
• Open courses, resources
• Faculty support
• Enhancements
• Links to innovation hubs
• Students
• Faculty
• Priorities
• Resources
• Experience
• Expertise

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The Center’s Work to Date
• Educators
Training and
Support
• Faculty training in
personal online
learning
• Training in OER
• Guidance finding and
mapping high quality
content
• Licensing and
attribution
• Instructional design
• Enhancements to
improve student
success
Collaborative
Process
• Identify priorities
• Connect faculty
• Map learning
outcomes
• Evaluate open
content
• Design courses
• Peer review
• Publish courses and
resources
• Teach
• Refine and enhance
over time
Outcomes
• Shared repository of
courses, resources
• OER-based courses
in high-demand
subjects
• Textbook cost savings
over 90%
• Enthusiastic faculty
• Grateful students
• Quicker path to
degree completion

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We Invite You to Learn More
Websites:
• Center for Excellence in Distance Learning:
www.cexdl.org
• Lumen Learning: www.lumenlearning.com
Contact:
• Kim Long (klong@wileyc.edu)
• David Wiley (david.wiley@lumenlearning.com)

41. www.lumenlearning.com
Q&A
Thank you!