College Open Textbooks BLOG
Driving Awareness and Adoption
Hats Off to Virginia! (Part 1)
Q&A with Dr. Andrew Feldstein, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Reginald F. Lewis School of Business, Virginia State University
What role have open textbooks played in revamping the business school curriculum at Virginia State University?
In the spring of 2010, the Reginald F. Lewis School of Business Virginia State University began the challenging process of creating an integrated core curriculum as part of our goal to increase retention and graduation rates through technology-based solutions. An important part of this “revolution of excellence” was finding the best way to deliver content to students in a digital format, with the ability to choose when, where, and how to deliver that content.
Textbook publisher Flat World Knowledge presented themselves as a viable solution to the problem of content delivery through their open licensing model. The family of Creative Commons licenses offered a good balance between the traditional, button-down “all rights reserved” copyright license and the more free-wheeling, open-source model. Flat World’s use of a Creative Commons open license, and its rigorous editorial process, offered the best of both worlds. Our talks led to an innovative institutional licensing agreement that we implemented in the fall of 2010.
How does the institutional licensing model work?
The institutional licensing model is based on a per-student, per-course seat license that gives students free, unlimited digital access to course content without needing a broadband connection. This was important since we believed that students would have limited broadband access. If reading the textbook online was the only available option, students wouldn’t have sufficient access to course materials. The seat license approach provided multiple ways for students to download book chapters and complete books. All the textbooks were available on the web, as mobi files, ePub files, and as print-it-yourself PDF downloads. Some texts could be downloaded as Mp3 files. Students had the option to buy a physical book. For students with print disabilities, the texts were available in BRF (Braille Ready Format) and DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) formats.
How have faculty and students reacted to VSU’s first open textbook project? What were the biggest misconceptions?
The biggest misconceptions were the very limited perception held by faculty and students of the extent of the functionality available in open textbooks. Most had a very narrow definition of an e-book as merely a book that you could read online. There was definitely a learning curve for the other features and options.
Can you share any metrics so far on the impact that open textbooks have had on savings for students, retention rates, GPA?
Because we have purchased seat licenses for our students in the first two semesters of this program, the students were able to access all course content at no charge. Based on an average of $100 for a business textbook and approximately 1,360 seat licenses in the first two semesters, we have saved students approximately $136,000.
There is some preliminary data showing that students who registered their Flat World license got better grades than those who didn’t. There is also some early indication of improved retention. We’re working now to document this information. It is, however, difficult to capture since most of the courses using Flat World content are new to the curriculum, including freshman Intro to Business course and our nine-credit junior year Integrated Core course.
Looking ahead, what kind of innovations would you like to see at VSU and other institutions as more open textbooks and open educational resources become available?
Flat World’s digital content has put us on the road to the hyperlinked, interactive experience we are building for our students. The ability to add, change, and reorder content has given faculty new flexibility, but digital delivery is still a moving target. The experience is changing and improving by leaps and bounds. New platforms and the tremendous growth in tablet computing has spurred designers to create new apps that will make the experience of content delivery more like the explorative experience we envisioned early on. The type of open content created by Flat World will help to make this a reality sooner than later.
Do you have any advice to faculty who may be considering adopting open textbooks?
Andrew Feldstein, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Virginia State University
Support this initiative! In the long run it will create more learning and teaching opportunities as the platform allows for more collaboration and interaction around the content. Look outside the traditional textbook box and take advantage of the many opportunities created by digital content.
Hats Off to Ohio! (Part 1)
Comprised of 46 two- and four-year institutions, Ohio’s college and university system serves 580,000 students. While this represents a tremendous achievement, a huge challenge lies just ahead. The Ohio Board of Regents’ strategic plan calls for increasing that number by 210,000 students by 2017. The same plan identifies the issue of affordability as one the biggest impediments to achieving that goal.
Recognizing the urgency of the problem, several instituti
ons and groups are actively encouraging the development of low-cost and free digital alternatives to expensive textbooks, an area they have identified as ripe for change. Leading these efforts are the Ohio Board of Regents with Darlene McCoy, Associate Vice Chancellor for Affordability and Efficiency at the forefront; OhioLINK, a state consortium of libraries with 89 members led by John Magill, executive director; , and the Ohio Digital Bookshelf, a project of OhioLINK supported by the Board of Regents.
Steve Acker, Research Director for the Ohio Digital Bookshelf, comments that the project knows that any real solution must address the diverse needs of the state’s students who range from intensely urban to rural and whose prefere
nce for learning materials is equally varied. While some are more comfortable with traditional printed texts, others, being continuously online, wish to access their educational materials on the Internet. Still others prefer to download electronic textbooks that can be stored and accessed on a laptop computer. He points out that a motto of the program is “faculty autonomy and student choice.” For a state as large and varied as Ohio, there is certainly no one-size-fits-all solution to educating students.
Acker points to Flat World Knowledge (FWK) as a good example of a company that is offering texts in a variety of formats, including free Internet access, low-cost digital downloads, and inexpensive print versions in either black-and-white or color. Seeing in the company a direction that the state may wish to go, as an experiment Ohio has purchased 1000 licenses for texts from FWK and will make these available to appropriate classes. Acker will gather student and instructor feedback on their experiences and whether more affordable learning materials increases student persistence and retention. The feedback , he points out, will be equally valuable to FWK.
Webinar (11/16, 11:30am PST) – How to Drive College Costs Down & Quality Up in TX and CA: Emerging Textbook Solutions
CCCOER Board member, Dr. Cable Green – Director of eLearning & Open Education, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges – asked us to forward this webinar invitation.
Title: How to Drive College Costs Down and Quality Up in TX and CA: Emerging Textbook Solutions
Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM PST/1:30 PM CST/2:30 PM EST
Register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/399352082
Long recognized for their far-reaching influence on education and textbook publishing, California and Texas are poised to be national leaders in efforts to reduce barriers to higher education and combat escalating textbook prices.
Join CA Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez; Dr. Charles Coo
k, Vice Chancellor, Houston Community College; Eric Frank, President, Flat World Knowledge; and Dennis Passovoy of The University of Texas at Austin for this webcast on new textbook affordability initiatives and the rise of open textbooks.
Webcast will discuss:
- Why textbooks costs have sky-rocketed.
- How textbook costs impact students, faculty and institutions.
- Current efforts in CA and TX to address textbook affordability and educate faculty on emerging solutions.
- What defines open educational resources and open textbooks, and how they can reduce student costs by 80 percent, while increasing quality and accessibility, and faculty innovation.
Athivia College: International Business College
If you are looking for affordable business classes, check out Athivia College. 
They are an international business college which follows the open college model. They offer free courses online. The course material is viewable online but printed copies can be purchased through Flat World Knowledge. Their courses typically take 25 hours to complete and certification is available.
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