RILA 2017_ Opening Up about Open Textbooks_ Accounts of Real Work around OER

The cost of college textbooks has skyrocketed. Students pay, on average, $1200 a year just for textbooks for their courses. This means that many students opt out of even buying the textbook, much to the detriment of their own grades, but also to the class as a whole since their voices are frequently taken out of the classroom discussion. Open Education Resources (OERs) offer value to students in terms of cost savings and also more flexibility and customization for faculty. OERs are resources that are openly licensed meaning that users have the option to retain their own copy, reuse, revise as needed remix and redistribute to any other interested party. Students save money when faculty assign open resources, and some studies suggest that the use of open resources also increases student engagement. OERs are the future of education, and Rhode Island College and Providence College have been working with faculty to assist them in finding resources that their students can use in lieu of traditional textbooks and to educate them on the OER movement. RIC’s Adams library is the leading partner in the RI Office of Innovation’s Open Textbook Initiative. Dragan Gill will talk about that partnership, how it works and what has been done so far as well as what is planned for the future