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Edison State Leads
the Way in Open Educational Resources
Edison State Community College is teaming up with the Ohio Association
of Community Colleges (OACC) as well as universities from around Ohio
to reduce the cost of student textbooks. The initiative, named Open
Educational Resources (OER), is supported by a $1.3 million Innovation
Grant from the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
OER aims to increase access and affordability to higher education,
enhance opportunities for innovation, support state educational
attainment goals, and address Ohio Task Force on Affordability and
Efficiency report.
According to OhioLINK’s website, key deliverables of the initiative
include creating, adopting, and utilizing OER materials for 22 courses:
19 high enrolled courses between OSU and community colleges, and three
high-level math courses for Ohio Dominican University. The goal is to
reduce the cost of current textbooks by at least 70% in high enrollment
courses, saving students at least four times the investment by the
state within three yearsof the first implementation.
The initiative operates by determining courses with high enrollment,
and therefore, a higher textbook usage, to create an OER alternative to
a traditional textbook.
“As we know, textbook prices are high and keep rising,” said Edison
State Associate Professor Brian Leingang. “Open Education Resources are
materials that can replace or supplement textbooks.”
Faculty from Ohio community colleges, The Ohio State University, and
Ohio Dominican University form disciplinary groups to review currently
available OER material and identify which sources best meet course
outcomes. Upon determining whether the material is sufficient, the
selections are then sent to a separate review team who determines if
the material will be added to the single repository for faculty to
access.
“As an English faculty member, I have been conscious of our textbook
costs,” added Leingang. “Due to this initiative and the fact that our
current composition textbook is moving to a new edition, Edison State
has selected an OER textbook to use next fall.”
“We look forward to providing students with a totally free, online
textbook on the very first day of class. If they’d prefer a printed
copy, students will be able to purchase a printed copy of the book for
under $12.00.”
Edison State students enrolled in other fundamental courses may also
begin to take advantage of OER textbooks, including Fundamentals of
Communication.
The initiative is being separated into three cohorts to accommodate
various general education courses and has an anticipated completion of
August 2019. For more information about OER, visit
affordablelearning.ohiolink.edu/Guide/Consortium.
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