Dr. Mary Ashley developed online content for a large 200-level biology class to replace two expensive textbooks. Students reported the course pack to be much cheaper, much more convenient and more helpful than textbooks they had been assigned in other courses.
In this education session, Dr. Ashley will share the results of the transition from high-priced traditional textbooks to more affordable course content based on Open Educational Resources for her BIOS230 course at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. Ashley will share the rationale, logistics and timing of the project, obstacles encountered along the way, her students’ response to the new, lower-cost material, and the students’ learning outcomes using their now more accessible mobile application.
Bios 230 is a large, required course for biology majors at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It enrolls 500-600 students annually in sections of 100-170 students. Because of large enrollment, Dr. Ashley’s BIOS230 course requires a traditional lecture format, and to promote student engagement, Dr. Ashley integrates iClicker questions and short videos within her lectures. Through fall term, 2016, a major obstacles Dr. Ashley found her students facing with her course was the exorbitant cost of the materials. Prior to its redevelopment, students were required to purchase two expensive textbooks (one for evolution and one for ecology) because both topics were covered and there were no useful texts available that addressed both. These two textbooks (which retailed together for $360) were both more advanced than necessary for the class, and the course covered only one-third to one-half of the material in each.
UIC is a major public university, with a majority minority enrollment, and has one of the most diverse student bodies in the country with a large fraction of immigrants and children of immigrants. Cost of materials is the biggest factor for these students in determining whether they will purchase the required texts, or try to get by without it. Biological Science is the most popular major (~2000 students) in the university. Most of these students are pursuing careers in the health sciences, and they are all required to take BIOS 230.
While many of Dr. Ashley’s students already attend university under great financial constraints, and add to that the high cost of textbooks, it probably does not surprise anyone that many of these students had chosen to forego purchase of the materials they needed. With the help of grant funding and supportive services from Skyepack, Dr. Ashley redeveloped her course by curating Open Educational Resource (OER) content to address her teaching objectives, and to more deeply engage her students’ learning. The outcome of her course materials overhaul was a fully developed, 40-module course pack that cost students $40. The course pack completely addresses all the required learning outcomes for BIOS230, includes concise, required readings, embedded videos, instructor-authored power point presentations, and self-assessment questions to gauge readers’ comprehension as they progressed through the material. With this endeavor, Dr. Ashley will yield $140,000 in student savings annually.
Dr. Ashley will share about her experiences in this undertaking and the collaborative efforts she benefitted from in working with Skyepack’s development team. Dr. Ashley will save time at the end for questions and recommendations for colleagues interested in pursuing a similar cost-savings and engagement enhancing opportunity for their students. Handouts will be available as well as a summary of the power point slides that are shared during the session.