Open Course Library UpdateFall 2011

Tom CaswellOpen Education Policy Associate

WA State Board for Community & Technical Colleges

• Open Course Library Goals– Design and share 81 high enrollment,

gatekeeper courses– Improve course completion rates– Lower textbook costs for students (<$30)– Provide new resources for faculty to use

in their courses– Fully engage our colleges in the global

open educational resources discussion.

Background

• Phase 1: 42 courses– Available October 31, 2011 at

http://opencourselibrary.org• Phase 2 : 39 courses

– Available Spring 2013

Timeline

81 courses built by our own faculty1. Define learning objectives2. Use existing, quality Open

Educational Resources (OER)3. Fill in gaps with their own content

Design Process

• 81 courses = 411,133 enrollments / year• Textbook savings up to $41M+ in / year • At 25% adoption (faculty decision), savings

to students will be $7.2M / year. • Completions rates may also increase when

all students can afford course materials

Potential Savings

Driving Open Course Library Course Adoptions

• Regional conferences and workshops• New faculty trainings

Building open sharing into existing teaching workflows and technologies

• Next LMS will have “open sharing” feature• Explore open sharing via Tegrity

Next Steps

Phase 1 Faculty Concerns:• Project timelines and deliverables not clear• Many were unfamiliar with ANGEL LMS• No way to compare work between course

teams• Too many websites to keep track of

Phase 2 Adjustments:• Timelines and deliverables made clear in

RFP• Using Google Docs to collaborate & share as

we go• All project information in one Google Site

Lessons Learned

Pros:• Collaborative, consistent, simple tool

– Similar to Microsoft Word• Broader adoption base – not limited to

specific LMS communities (LMS-neutral)• Allows for easier viewing, sharing, saving

copies

Cons:• No automated quizzed & assessments

– Designers can link to other tools or type up questions

• Extra step for adopters using an LMS: move OCL resources into LMS

Why Google Docs?

What About OCL Phase 1 Courses?• Remember: Not just building open courses

– exploring new processes.• Both phases are useful:

– Phase 1: less structured; developed with several tools

– Phase 2: leverage a common tool; streamline process

• Migrate Phase 1 from ANGEL to next LMS– Next LMS will include open sharing features

• If Google Docs works best, we’ll figure out how to move phase 1 courses

Why Google Docs?

Tom CaswellOpen Education Policy Associate,

State Board for Community & Technical Colleges

tcaswell@sbctc.eduhttp://opencourselibrary.org

Slides at: http://slideshare.net/tom4cam