Improving CC Access & Success: ATD's OER Degree Initiative

Improving Community College Access & Success: ATD’s OER Degree InitiativeDr. Richard Sebastian, Director, OER Degree InitiativeAchieving the Dream

Achieving the Dream | OER Degree Initiative 2Unless otherwise noted, this presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted from OER 101 presentation by David Wiley.

Achieving the Dream | OER Degree Initiative 3

The college textbook market is broken.


Textbook pricing in contextTextbook pricing in context


Textbook pricing in context

One month access to…

20K+ Movies/TV episodes

$7.99 / month

15M+ song $9.99 / month

1 Biology textbook

$19.67 / month


There is a direct relationship between textbook costs and student success

60%+ do not purchase textbooks at some point

due to cost 35% take fewer courses due to textbook cost

31% choose not to register for a course due to textbook cost23% regularly go without textbooks due

to cost14% have dropped a

course due to textbook cost--2012 Florida Virtual Campus

student survey


Open Educational Resources“Open educational resources (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. OER include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”


Creative Commons


open = free + permissions

What is “open”?


Permissions = “The 5Rs”


open ≈ free


Retain is fundamental


openly licensed materials+ internet

+


OER Adoption

Replacing whatever was previously in the Required Materials section of a course syllabus with OER.


High Impact OER Adoption

1. Improves affordability, 2. Improves student success, 3. Invigorates pedagogy, and4. Takes it to scale with OER Degrees


Improves Affordability

Open Educational Resources


Increases Student Success



Improving Course Throughput Rates and Open Educational Resources: Results from the Z-Degree Program at Tidewater Community College

Hilton, Fischer, Wiley, and WilliamsAccepted, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL)


Course Throughput Rate

IRRODL (in press)

Drop Deadline

WithdrawDeadline

FinalGrade

Students


Commercial vs OER

2.3% | 1.8%

9.9% | 8.1%

68% | 74%

Face to Face

60% | 66%

Drop

Withdraw

C or Better

CTR IRRODL (in press)


Commercial vs OER

4.0% | 1.4%

13.7% | 13.1%

66% | 70%

(Online)

54% | 60%

Drop

Withdraw

C or Better

CTR IRRODL (in press)


Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function

Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir, and ZhaoScience (2013)


Study Design

ParticipantsShoppers in a New Jersey mallSugarcane farmers in India

Test cognitive capacity during financial stressThinking through car repairs ($150 / $1500)Before and after harvest


Results

Considering a financial decision affects people's performance on unrelated spatial and reasoning tasks.

Lower-income individuals performed poorly if the repairs were expensive but did fine if the cost was low.

Sugarcane farmers performed the same tasks better after harvest than before.


A Multi-Institutional Study of the Impact of Open Textbook Adoption on the Learning Outcomes of Post-secondary Students--Fischer, Hilton, Robinson, and WileyJournal of Computing in Higher Education (2015)


Participants

• 4909 treatment• 11,818 control• 50 different undergraduate courses • 130 teachers• 10 institutions


Method

Quasi-experimental design with:Propensity score matched groupsDependent variables: Completion; C or Better; Credits Enrolled This Term; Credits Enrolled Next TermIndependent variable: Textbook condition3 covariates: age, gender, and race


Journal of Computing in Higher Education (2015)


Credits Taken

Semester OER Users Others Result

Fall 13.29 11.14 t (8101) = 27.81 p < .01

Winter 10.71 9.16 F(1, 6440) = 154.08, p <.01

Journal of Computing in Higher Education (2015)


Invigorates Pedagogy



Don’t Stop at the Swap


1. Take advantage of theadditional capabilities (5Rs)


Use outcomes as outline


Use outcomes as outline

Outcome Assessment Resources License1. Students will understand statistical test…

60 second explainer video

URL 1

Video 12. Students will analyze data…

Govt data analysis

URL 1

URL 2

CC BY

3. … … … …

Achieving the Dream | OER Degree Initiative 35https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uOCTqN7tVRJCxRWhjuwxztFMGN8VmAeixHjHAgn0Rkk/edit?usp=sharing

Project Plan Example


Rethink assessments

“What does open allow me to do?”


Disposable assignments

Students hate doing themFaculty hate grading themHuge wasted opportunity


US undergraduates spend approximately 40 million hours doing homework every year.


Renewable Assignments

Students see value in doing them Faculty see value in grading them The work is valuable

Achieving the Dream | OER Degree Initiative 40https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsFU3sAlPx4

Blogs vs. Wikis


Murder, Madness, and Mayhem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Murder_Madness_and_Mayhem


Project Management for ID


Renewable Assignments…are enabled by the open nature of OER.


Takes this to scale

Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative


OER-based Degrees


Achieving the DreamNational, nonprofit leader promoting evidence-based institutional improvement. Mission: To help community colleges achieve sustainable institutional transformation through knowledge-sharing, innovative solutions, and effective practices and policies, leading to improved outcomes for all students.


Institutional Capacity Framework1. Engagement & Communication2. Strategy & Planning3. Policies & Practices4. Leadership & Vision5. Data and Technology6. Equity7. Teaching & Learning


Achieving the Dream Data Coaches Leadership Coaches Funded Learning Initiatives

200+ member colleges


OER Degree InitiativeGrantees will offer at least one open educational resources degree with at least one (1) section of every required course and at least one (1) section of a sufficient number of general education and other elective courses taught with open educational resources in place of proprietary textbooks.Data collectionSharing deliverables Ensuring access to low-income students and students of color


Funders


Partners


OER Degree Initiative

1.Implementation: Achieving the Dream

2.Technical assistance: Lumen Learning

3.Research and evaluation: SRI International

4.Community of practice: CCCOER


OER Degree OER Degree InitiativeInitiative Readiness Assessment Readiness Assessment


38 colleges in 13 states


Alamo Community College*Alexandria Technical & Community College*Austin Community College*Bay CollegeBorough of Manhattan Community College*Bronx Community College*Broward CollegeBunker Hill Community CollegeCentral Virginia Community College*Clinton Community College*El Paso Community College*Florida State College at JacksonvilleForsyth Technical Community CollegeGermanna Community College*Herkimer Community College*Hostos Community College*

Housatonic Community CollegeLake Washington Institute of TechnologyLord Fairfax Community College*Mohawk Valley Community College*Monroe Community College*Montgomery CollegeMountain Empire Community College*Northern Virginia Community College*Northland Community & Technical College*Northwest Technical College*Odessa CollegePierce CollegePima Community CollegeSan Jacinto Community College*Santa Ana CollegeTidewater Community College*Tompkins Cortland Community College*West Hills College

Grantees


Technical assistance

David Wiley, CAO, Lumen Learning


Research and Evaluation 11 Research Partner colleges 5 Cost Study colleges Exploring research in three major areas:

educational outcomes economic outcomes, and OER Degree implementation to improve the work of the colleges and guide future adopters


Thank you. Questions?Dr. Richard SebastianDirector, OER Degree Initiative Achieving the Dream

[email protected]@rasebastian