Supporting Open Educational Practices (OEP) through Open Textbooks: A survey of UK HE Educators
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The document discusses the potential of open textbooks as a form of open educational resources (OER) in the UK higher education context, noting their success in other countries. It presents findings from a survey of educators, revealing low awareness of OER and open textbooks among respondents, despite a high percentage using textbooks in their teaching. The report highlights issues such as rising tuition costs and student debt, emphasizing the need for institutions to consider providing free textbooks.
Supporting Open Educational Practices (OEP) through Open Textbooks: A survey of UK HE Educators
- 1. Supporting Open Educational Practices (OEP) through Open Textbooks: A survey of UK HE Educators Open Education Global 2019 Milan, Italy #oeglobal19 Dr. Beck Pitt Dr. Robert Farrow Prof. Martin Weller Dr. Beatriz de los Arcos Dr. Katy Jordan Open Education Research Hub Institute of Educational Technology The Open University, UK
- 3. 3 WHAT, WHY, WHEN, WHERE, AND HOW? UK OPEN TEXTBOOKS Would open textbooks work in the UK? Open Textbooks are a form of OER that have seen widespread adoption in the USA, Canada and few other countries More than $1 billion has been saved (Allen, 2018) Efficacy studies (e.g. Hilton, 2019) have associated open textbooks with equitable learning outcomes Evaluating two open textbook adoption processes • Open Textbook Network – subject specific workshops at universities; review textbooks; follow-up survey • Open Stax – exhibitions at trade fairs, conferences; mailing list; adoption tracking
- 4. 4 WHAT, WHY, WHEN, WHERE, AND HOW? UK OPEN TEXTBOOKS Research • Understanding key differences between UK and North American contexts • Use of textbooks in UK higher education • Educator survey • Case studies Awareness and Outreach (Jul 2017-Oct 2018) 14 workshops, 3 poster presentations, 2 webinars, 6 paper/conference presentations, 2 sponsor presentations, and exhibiting at 7 practitioner conferences
- 5. UK nationalstatistics 6.2% of students aged 21 or under dropped out after the 1st year of their University studies in 2014- 15 £9K + Tuition fees now exceed £9K per academic year in most institutions £100 billion student loan debt in the UK is now more than £100 billion and students graduate with an average of £50.8K debt 81% of UK students surveyed in 2012 would like textbooks to be provided for free by their institution £1K Average cost of books and equipment per academic year
- 6. 6 EDUCATOR SURVEY UK OPEN TEXTBOOKS Incentivised survey carried out during September 2018 over 3 weeks duration. 4000 educators invited to participate (n=96). Nearly 60% of respondents have over 16 years worth of experience teaching. Most work full-time. • 81.9% use textbooks in whole or part • Over 50% don’t expect students to purchase books • Low awareness of OER and open textbooks • 74.2% unaware or know very little about OER • 75.3% unaware or know very little about open textbooks • 82% respondents do not use open textbooks • Over 55% “aware” or “very aware” of Creative Commons As seen in other UK surveys (e.g. de los Arcos et al, 2016) and within the US context (see Seaman and Seaman, 2017) there are similar levels of disconnect between recognition of Creative Commons licensing and OER
- 7. 7 EDUCATOR SURVEY UK OPEN TEXTBOOKS
- 8. 8 OUTCOMES: OPENSTAX UK OPEN TEXTBOOKS
- 11. 11 Pitt, R., Farrow, R., Jordan, K., de los Arcos, B., Weller, M., Kernohan, D., and Rolfe, V. (2019). The UK Open Textbooks Report. Open Education Research Hub. http://oro.open.ac.uk/61587