Promoting Textbook Affordability Through Open Educational Resources
Affordable Learning Georgia, led by Program Manager Jeff Gallant, has been at the forefront of addressing rising textbook costs since 2004. Initiatives include the development of open textbooks, faculty training on open educational resources, and collaboration with institutions like GALILEO to promote textbook affordability. Reports suggest that open textbooks could reduce student spending by 80% annually, highlighting the importance of exploring innovative strategies to make education more accessible.
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Presentation Transcript
ALG 101: An Introduction to Affordable Learning Georgia Jeff Gallant Program Manager, Affordable Learning Georgia
Group Question! Since 1977, the Consumer Price Index (all items) has risen 308%. This is normally seen as overall inflation. How much has the cost of textbooks risen in the same period of time? A. 308% B. 452% C. 689% D. 1,041% E. 3,141.59% F. Trick Question, it decreased! Answer: D
A Quick History: Textbooks and the USG 2004: Chancellor creates a Textbook Task Force to address rising textbook costs 2004-2005: Textbook Task Force holds meetings with stakeholders, conducts research 2005: Chancellor approves a policy to give the USG authority to create guidelines for USG institution bookstore sales. 2006: Guidelines implemented, but costs still rose 2006-: No news on the guidelines after this point
In the meantime The USG Office of Faculty Development did the following: USG SHARE Learning Object Repository Password-protected, USG only USG Open Textbook Publishing Model Partnership with eCore and UPNG Developed an open textbook for US History I as a proof of concept (partnership with eCore) Provided faculty OER training, support, and advocacy Regents Academic Committee on Libraries (RACL) also discussing OER projects
In the meantime 2011: Report on Textbook Costs and Trends for Delivery and Cost Reduction by Marie Lasseter, Office of Faculty Development A recent study suggests that one of these options, open textbooks, could reduce the average amount students spend on textbooks by 80% a year. Further investigation is needed to study the impact of recent developments on textbook affordability and emerging strategies for reducing costs, including the use of open textbooks.
GALILEO: Leading the New Charge When the USG started Complete College Georgia in 2012, an effort to raise retention, progression, and graduation in the state, they contacted GALILEO and USG Library Services to create and pilot a new project on textbook affordability. GALILEO was selected due to its experience as the provider of affordable electronic resources for (at the time) almost 20 years, and also because libraries have been at the forefront of the OA and OER movements. Affordability is part of the USG s Strategic Plan, aligned with the Complete College Georgia initiative.
Textbook Transformation Grants Grants awarded to teams of faculty and professional staff with a plan to adopt, adapt, and create open and/or affordable educational resources to replace a commercial textbook Grant methodology based on preserving academic freedom with incentives, not mandates, peer review selection process, about 50% acceptance rate Funding model based on average cost of course release with flexibility to institutions
Grant Outcomes COUP Framework: Cost, Outcomes, Usage, Perception Cost and # students Learning Outcomes Retention: Drop, Fail, Withdraw (DFW) rates Summarized at completion of a round of grants R1 & R2: Positive student satisfaction, positive or neutral student learning outcomes, positive or neutral DFW http://affordablelearninggeorgia.org/documents/R2_Summary.pdf
Current UNG Press Open Textbooks World Literature I US History I World History I Art Appreciation Music Appreciation American Literature Human Communication (coming soon) eCore project Six more planned, to be created by end of 2018
GALILEO Open Learning Materials Digital repository for all OER created by ALG projects and grants Contains all UNG Press Textbooks, all grant reports/syllabi, all ancillary materials, all grant-created textbooks Over 10,000 full-text downloads since launch in October 2016
Partner: eCore Georgia s Online Core Curriculum Worked with ALG and UNG Press Open and Free Textbooks for all courses Spanish and Human Communications in- progress Does not include online STEM labs High-impact implementations, at-scale OER validation
Partner: eCore FY2014-2015: 16 OER Courses, $836,000 in textbook cost savings FY2015-2016: 21 OER Courses, $1,794,500 in textbook cost savings FY2016-2017: 29 OER Courses, $2,406,200 in textbook cost savings
Raising Awareness, Providing Support Campus Champions and Library Coordinators Online Training and Development Series Promotional Videos In-person symposia and presentations at state events One-stop website with modular tutorials for adoption, adaptation/creation Babson Survey Research Group, Opening the Textbook, https://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthete xtbook2016.pdf
How Can I Learn More? Tutorials on affordablelearninggeorgia.org Help > Tutorial 1 and Tutorial 2 Information on open resources, finding textbooks, etc.
Questions? Any further questions, send me an email! Jeff.Gallant@usg.edu
