Presentation
Addressing Student and Instructor Needs through Library Support for Open Educational Resources
ansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section (CULS) Spring Conference
(2017)
Abstract
"The cost of textbooks and other learning materials have increased rapidly, causing students across institutional size, profile, and socio-economic status to resort to coping strategies: not purchasing required textbooks, choosing courses based on required materials and text cost, using outdated versions of textbooks, and using financial aid to cover costs of texts, contributing to increased student debt. Kansas State University (KSU) Libraries and University of Kansas (KU) Libraries are responding to this pressure on students through initiatives supporting the use of open educational resources (OER), particularly open textbooks. 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” (Hewlett). Open textbooks are a form of OER: an openly licensed, typically digital, and typically free textbook, such as the 32 OpenStax texts, all of which are consumable via the Web, downloadable as PDF or iBook, and/or as a low-cost print version (between $30 - $60). In this presentation librarians leading open education initiatives at KSU and KU will share strategies to increase awareness, adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER deployed at their respective institutions. Both KSU and KU are members of the Open Textbook Network, an alliance of higher education institutions committed to improving access, affordability, and academic success through the use of open textbooks, and both manage grant programs to incentivize and support the implementation of OER. Participants will learn the costs and benefits of various strategies, how they were informed by local circumstances, and lessons learned to date.
Disciplines
Publication Date
May 4, 2017
Citation Information
Josh Bolick and Rebel Cummings-Sauls. "Addressing Student and Instructor Needs through Library Support for Open Educational Resources" ansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section (CULS) Spring Conference (2017) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/rebel_cummings-sauls/25/