While many admit open source textbooks are affordable options, questions loom regarding content validity and impact on student achievement. At Coppin State, a communications course yielded positive results when replacing the traditional textbook with a free, open source text. This session will highlight the implementation framework, impact, and lessons learned.
In recent years, there were an increasing number of students in a face-to-face speech course at Coppin State University that were not purchasing the required textbook. When identifying reasons for not purchasing the text, the predominantly reason was the cost. The campus bookstore charged $56 for a used book at $120 for a new book. This situation is not unique to Coppin; there are institutions across the country where purchasing a textbook is a financial burden to the student. For the speech class, data detailed that students without the textbook struggled keep up with course assignments and had lower grades than those students that had the textbook. This opened an ethical dilemma: it is right for a potentially gifted student to struggle in a course simply because the student doesn't have the financial means to acquire the textbook? Is it reasonable to force a financial burden upon students by requiring them to purchase a textbook that will be needed for a limited period of time when there are suitable, free alternatives available? A ray of hope occurred when the University System of Maryland’s Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation (Kirwan Center) began exploring the feasibility of adopting open source textbooks through the Maryland Open Source Textbook (MOST) initiative. The mission of this project was to facilitate faculty efforts to explore the promise of freely available, open source instructional materials to reduce students’ cost of attendance while maintaining, or perhaps even improving learning outcomes. In Fall 2016, the MOST project invited faculty from USM institutions to participate in a project to evaluate available open source materials and consider adopting them for use in a course. The Kirwan Center partnered with Lumen Learning to provide participating faculty with the support they need to locate materials and incorporate them effectively into their courses. This session will focus on the open source textbook implementation framework of one of the courses from the Kirwan Center's MOST initiative. The discussion will share lessons learned and the impact of the implementation through the lens of the following questions: 1. To what extent were students satisfied with their experience using the OER? 2. What challenges were associated with using the OER? 3. What costs and cost savings, for the institution and for students, were associated with implementation of the OER? 4. Was there a significant difference between student mastery of learning outcomes in courses that used the traditional textbook and the free OER? 5. What change of teaching methodology was required to implement the OER?