Post on 15-Feb-2017
Free and Open Learning Materials
Ru Story-HuffmanJudy Orton Grissett
What does free and open mean?
• Free = No (or very low) cost to students• Open = Instructors can edit the material as the
licensing allows– Visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ for
more info on licensing• AKA, “Open educational resources” or OER
Why does this matter?
• Textbook costs are increasing– Students spend about $1200/year on textbooks
and materials (College Board, 2015)• Subsequently, many students do not purchase
the textbook
What can we do?
• Adopt or adapt free and open learning materials for our courses
• Many resources available:– GSW OER libguide: http://libguides.gsw.edu/OER– Us!• Ru Story-Huffman, Campus Coordinator• Judy Orton Grissett, Campus Champion
Support is available
• Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grants– More information available at:
http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/about/grants_rfp_rounds678/
– A total of 7 Textbook Transformation Grants have been awarded to faculty at Georgia Southwestern State University.
What have we learned?
• 11 GSW faculty from various disciplines completed a 13-question survey through SurveyGizmo regarding their experiences with OER. – Faculty were from biology (n = 2),
library/education (n = 1), music (n = 2), and psychology/sociology (n = 6)
• Question: “How would you rate the quality of the OER textbook/materials used for this course?”
• Question: “In future courses, how likely are you to use OER textbooks/materials like that used in the course this semester?”
Response nWorseSameBetter
461
Response nVery unlikelySomewhat unlikelySomewhat likelyVery likely
1136
OER Subject Guide
http://libguides.gsw.edu/OER
Questions or thoughts?
• ALG Campus Champion– Judy Orton Grissett (judy.grissett@gsw.edu)
• ALG Campus Coordinator– Ru Story-Huffman (ru.story-huffman@gsw.edu)