Posts made by Mary Burgess

Hi Everyone and welcome to week three. This week we'll delve into some of the issues around individual and institutional readiness for adopting and adapting Open Textbooks. While there are certainly some huge benefits to doing that, there are also some things to think about ahead of time.

This week, once you've viewed the resources,  I encourage you to think through the scenario of your adoption of an Open Textbook and what institutional roles might be impacted by that decision. Consider your students, your faculty colleagues, your librarians, your helpdesk, your senior management team. It's also important to consider yourself. What does adopting an open textbook look like for you? Is it as simple as finding one and sending the link to your students? What institutional support would be helpful for you? 

At a broader level, what is the culture at your institution with respect to sharing and intellectual property? Would your adoption of Open Textbooks and other OER be philosophically supported? 

You're absolutely right Shivanand, new models of acquiring resources are a threat to the traditional revenue stream of bookstores, and thus the revenue stream of the institution overall. Open textbooks are not the only pressure; students are also buying their books from places like Amazon more and more, and the use of electronic resources further reduces the funding generated by book sales. 

What I've heard from bookstore staff who have attended our face to face workshops is that they are actively seeking new ways to maintain relevance, as in the case of the SFU Document Solutions group you mentioned in your other post. In the case of Oregon State U's Open Textbook project, the document solutions group was one of three groups on campus who actually initiated the project. To me this seems like a good potential path forward.

I find myself conflicted about this issue because on the one hand, it is obviously hugely problematic to rely on revenues taken from students for grossly over-priced textbooks. On the other hand, some of those revenues support the provision of services for students and removing them would have a negative impact on the student experience.  

That sounds great Steve! We would very much like to work some Textbook Zero scenarios into our project as well. Do you anticipate being able to find enough existing open textbooks to cover off what you need for the degree? 

For those who don't know, the idea of Textbook Zero is that for an entire program, a committment is made to students that they won't have to pay for textbooks as only open resources will be used. You can read more about it here: http://www.lumenlearning.com/textbookzero. From an institutional perspective, it not only provides a significantly reduced cost to students, it also provides a marketing angle for those looking for a business case for OER. 

Good for you Chris! The conversation has to start somewhere, and for many instructors, administrators and others, this is a brand new concept. 

You've hit the nail on the head with your comment that departments need to allow instructors time to work on this. For that to happen, there has to be buy-in at the institution, and for that in turn to happen, we need advocates like you to tell the story of why it matters. Bravo!!!