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March 19, 2018
by Wayde Oshiro
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Comparing OER to New Textbook Delivery Models & HSSI

To help everyone understand the quickly evolving textbook landscape, the Leeward OER Campus Committee [New Window] developed a side-by-side comparison of OER with the new textbook delivery models now available: IDAP and Cengage Unlimited.

OER vs IDAP vs Cengage Comparison Chart [New Window]

The chart compares the three models for providing course materials and highlights the beneficial features to instructors and students.

Going to HSSI?

The upcoming HSSI will have sessions presenting all three models. As a new Open Textbook Network [New Window] member, the UHCC system invited David Ernst, OTN Executive Director, and Sarah Cohen, OTN Managing Director, to the conference.

Sarah is presenting a session on March 28th on engaging students in the development of open education programs. On Thursday, March 29th, Dave and Sarah are leading an all-day workshop for OER advocates. At the same time, Leanne Riseley, Junie Hayashi, and Wayde Oshiro are offering a condensed version of Leeward’s Go Open, Go Free Using OER training for faculty and staff.

Wednesday, March 28, 1:40-2:40pm

Room 317B

“Engaging Students in Building OER Programs”

Sarah Cohen, Open Textbook Network

Campuses have made successful cases for building open education programs. But does that mean that our campus communities are connected this work? This workshop will share examples from around the nation of how campuses are connecting their students to their open education programs. In so doing, we ensure greater commitment and impact, new ways of building sustainable open education programs.

Sarah Cohen is the Managing Director of the Open Textbook Network. Her work focuses on building a community of institutions who share strategies to successful open education programming. UHCC System has joined the 600 plus institutions who constitute the Open Textbook Network.

Thursday March 29, 9:30am-4:30pm

Room 7-532 

OTN workshop (UHCC OER trainers)

Sarah Cohen and Dave Ernst, Open Textbook Network 

OTN will provide one full day of training for leaders from higher education institutions across UH Community Colleges that will focus on: increasing participants’ familiarity with the nuances related to the issues around open textbook adoption; strengthening presentation capacity for future open textbook workshops; and enhancing open textbook program development.

Thursday March 29, 9:30am-12:30pm

Honolulu CC Library

Go Open, Go Free Using OER

Leanne Riseley, Junie Hayashi, and Wayde Oshiro with Lois-lynn Deuel, Leeward Community College
What’s happening with OER at UHCC? Learn where to find OER, get your questions answered, hear about a faculty member’s eye-opening experience adopting OER, and find out who to contact on your campus for support.

October 16, 2017
by Wayde Oshiro
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UHCC OER Initiative, OpenEd 17, OpenStax Business, UH OpenStax Adoptions

UHCC System OER Initiative

Vice-President John Morton is providing $140,000 in FY 2018 to support OER initiatives across the UHCC system. Each campus will receive $15,000-$20,000 for OER awareness, conference travel (see below), faculty training, and other support costs. A portion of the funding will go towards supporting capacity building and collaboration across the system. Coordinating this initiative are Wayde Oshiro, Sunyeen “Sunny” Pai (Kapiolani), and Leanne Riseley.

Open Education 2017

The annual Open Education conference was held in Anaheim, CA on October 11-13. Nearly 800 teaching faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and administrators attended the three-day conference focusing on all things related to OER, open education, and open practice. Many sessions focused on the “Z-degree” initiatives at colleges, college systems, and states that are already implemented or are in development.  A Z-degree provides a complete pathway to graduation with zero textbook costs.

The UH System was represented by 10 faculty and staff representing librarians, instructors, and instructional designers from UH Manoa and 5 UHCC campuses (Honolulu, Kapiolani, Leeward, Maui, and Windward). Two conference sessions shared the progress of UH System OER initiatives.

Collaboration and Contrast: How University of Hawaii Librarians Collaborate to Promote OER Across Contrasting Campuses and Cultures

Empowering Faculty and Staff to Use OER at the University of Hawai’i

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University of Hawaii attendees at OpenEd 17 in Anaheim, CA

Conference attendance for UHCC attendees was supported by the UHCC OER Initiative funds from Vice-President John Morton.

UH OpenStax Textbook Adoptions

OpenStax textbooks have been adopted by faculty across the UH System. View a list of faculty-reported adoptions* of OpenStax textbooks to see which titles on each campus are being used in teaching.

OpenStax Adoptions Titles- All UH Campuses

*These are adoptions as reported to OpenStax by individual faculty members.

OpenStax Business Series in Development

OpenStax, the premier publisher of peer-reviewed open textbooks, is beginning the development of business titles and they are actively seeking faculty partners.

Nicole Finkbeiner, Associate Director, Institutional Relations shared the news recently:

OpenStax is in the beginning stages of developing a business series (expected publication in 2019)!
All OpenStax, Rice University OER texts are expert-written, peer-reviewed, match standard scope and sequence, and meet the same quality standards as traditional publisher texts. Currently, our texts are used in over 10% of introductory courses in the U.S. (per 2016 Babson Survey). 
Faculty who author/contribute/peer-review the texts receive compensation (the contact below can provide details).
Can you please forward this to your faculty? 
I’ve also included some details below on some upcoming webinars we are hosting.
I hope you all have a good day!
Nicole
Author/Reviewer needs
Please ask faculty to reach-out to the contact listed for each book vs. emailing me. 
Principles of Accounting
Contributing Authors (chapter writers, feature writers)
Reviewers (core, expert, generalist, accuracy verification)
Art Consultant
Contact: Alisha McCarthy, amccarthy@wisewire.com
 
Entrepreneurship
Contributing Authors (chapter writers)
Reviewers (core, expert, generalist)
Contact: Alisha McCarthy, amccarthy@wisewire.com
 
Business Ethics
Contributing Authors (chapter writers)
Reviewers (expert, generalist)
Contact: Alisha McCarthy, amccarthy@wisewire.com

 

Principles of Management
Chapter Reviewers 
Instructor’s Manual author
Contact: Michael Roche, Editor, m.roche@sixredmarbles.com
 
Introduction to Business
Chapter Reviewers
Test bank, Instructor’s manual author
Contact: Michael Roche, Editor, m.roche@sixredmarbles.com
 
Organizational Behavior
Chapter Authors
Chapter Reviewers
Test bank, Instructor’s manual author
Contact: Michael Roche, Editor, m.roche@sixredmarbles.com
 
Webinars
Business Statistics webinar
With author Alexander Holmes, University of Oklahoma
Friday, October 20, 11am CDT: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/299827309216114691
Developmental Math (Prealgebra, Elementary Algebra, Intermediate Algebra) webinar
With author Lynn Marecek, Santa Ana College
Tuesday, October 17, 11 am CDT: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5469701296360023554

OpenStax and OER, a quick overview webinar
Short, general webinar about OpenStax and OER
Wednesday, October 18, 2 pm CDT: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6818003817579431939

September 23, 2017
by Wayde Oshiro
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An Economic Argument for Economics OER

The following was originally published on the UH OER blog on September 5, 2017,

This guest post was written by John Lynham, grant recipient and project lead developing OER for the ECON 130 microeconomics undergraduate course at UHM.

One of the questions I sometimes ask students in my introductory Principles of Microeconomics class is “Why are textbooks so expensive compared to other books?”. Part of the reason is that the market for textbooks is not like the market for other books: the person who chooses the book isn’t actually the person who pays for it. Most of the time, when you want to buy a new book you go to a bookstore (or online), choose the book that you want and then pay for it. But with textbooks, the professor chooses the book and then the students in the class have to go out and pay for it. This creates a disconnect between the person demanding the book and the person actually paying for it. In economics jargon: demand is “inelastic” or less responsive to changes in price. If the price of a textbook goes up by 10% many professors might not even notice since they never have to buy the book themselves. In addition, for some reason I can never figure out, the Instructors’ Edition of the textbook that professors receive for free never lists the price of the book on the back…

It shouldn’t be too surprising then that textbook prices increased 300% from 1986 to 2004 but the prices of most other goods only increased 80%. One of the most popular textbooks for the class I teach has a list price of $249.95! You can buy a new hardback edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on Amazon for $16.16. I know which one I would prefer to read! In response to the exorbitant cost of textbooks, I started using a free Creative Commons (CC) licensed OpenStax textbook a few years ago. It’s a very good book, my students really like it, and I always encourage other faculty members to adopt it.

Click here to read the entire post.

September 11, 2017
by Wayde Oshiro
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$tudents $ave with OER & Textbook Cost: $0

" "Leeward continues to lead the system with OER and zero-textbook cost courses this Fall.

Total student enrollment in the 289 Textbook Cost: $0 courses is 5,371. Ninety-two instructors are teaching Textbook Cost: $0 courses this semester. Direct cost savings to students for Fall 2017 is $512,630. Average savings per enrolled student is $95.

Since 2014, Leeward faculty making the leap from commercial textbooks to OER and zero-cost have saved students an estimated $1,627,749!

Hats off to Leeward faculty for making the tough decision to opt out of the commercial textbook marketplace. Not only have you saved your students $$$, but your actions are having a direct impact on the for-profit textbook publishers and their heretofore unchallenged pricing strategies. This has led to lower price inflation in the textbook market. Competition is a good thing.

For many of you, the time and effort spent converting to OER were not inconsequential. However, your hard work has resulted in great benefits for both you and your students, including:

  • Freedom from high costs. OER is zero-cost to students.
  • No mandated edition changes. OER gives you full control over the content.
  • Materials are customizable according to your specific teaching needs. OER is openly-licensed for you to use.
  • No restrictions on access. OER is available to all students from day one and beyond. No time limits.

Want to learn more?

Textbook Cost: $0 infographic showing Fall 2017 figures: 289 Textbook Cost: $0 courses; 5300+ enrollment; 27% of total courses at Leeward are Textbook Cost: $0. Breakdown of courses by division. Leading divisions with OER courses are Social Sciences, Language Arts, Arts & Humanities & Math & Sciences

View this infographic online at https://magic.piktochart.com/output/24165646-textbook-cost-0-fall-2017-copy

9/12/17: Infographic updated to use the correct name for the Business division.

August 28, 2017
by Wayde Oshiro
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Notice: ScienceDirect Access Ends on December 31

Access to the ScienceDirect Freedom Collection with 2,298 journal titles published by Elsevier ends on December 31, 2017.

Our access to ScienceDirect is via a UH System Libraries consortial arrangement coordinated by UH-Manoa, Hamilton Library. Manoa has carried most of the costs over the years and we are grateful for their generosity to the other campuses. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, they can no longer afford to maintain this resource under existing terms.

Elsevier journals are expensive and it would be difficult for Leeward to afford a journal package let alone a single journal title in many cases. Recently, a group of German universities canceled their Elsevier contracts en masse to put pressure on the Dutch publisher during contract negotiations. Universities in other countries such as Taiwan and Finland have made similar attempts to force the publisher to agree to more favorable pricing and to guarantee that publicly-funded research will remain open access. Will that pressure tactic work here? It’s possible but it will be difficult due to our relatively small size and Manoa’s need to cut costs.

Our EBSCOHost Academic Search Complete database includes many Elsevier titles. However, these titles are under a publisher (Elsevier) embargo. The embargo means that recently published articles are not available until 6-18 months after publication. Back issues are full text.

ScienceDirect will be available through the end of the year. After it ends, the library will still provide full-text article coverage to nearly 25,000 journal titles through Academic Search Complete. I am open to hearing your concerns about the loss of this resource and to discuss what options we have for access to scholarly resources. Contact me to schedule a meeting or send an email to waydeo@hawaii.edu.

Lastly, this is an issue important to higher education. The loss of the Elsevier titles is upsetting because these are prestige scholarly publications that are respected and relied upon for current research in your disciplines. Unfortunately, academic publishers have used this (prestige) to their advantage and employ practices that result in exorbitant costs and restricted access. It’s unbelievable to think that publications like Cell require authors to pay up to $5000 to publish an article on research that is often publicly funded. After paying that fee you would think that the authors would at least have access to their article, but no. The article is published behind a pay wall and is only available if the individual or institution, i.e. library, pays for it. In this instance, a one-year institutional subscription to Cell is $2020 per year. This is the major reason why open access (scholarly publishing) and open educational resources (teaching materials) are such important issues that we need to address.

  • 9/5/17: This post was updated to remove confidential pricing information.
  • 9/6/17: Updated to clarify that it is the current UH System Libraries consortial agreement with Elsevier that is ending.

October 19, 2015
by Wayde Oshiro
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Impact of Open Textbooks on Learning Outcomes

JCHEA recently published study analyzed the impact of open textbooks vs. traditional commercial textbooks on the learning outcomes of 16,727 college students at four universities and six community colleges.

The study, “A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students”¹ published in the Journal of Computing in Higher Education, looked at five measures of student success:  course completion, passing grade of C- or better, course grade, credits enrolled, and credits enrolled in the following semester.   The sample group included 4,909 students enrolled in courses using OER only and 11,818 students enrolled in courses using commercial textbooks only.

The study found that in the key measures of course completion, passing grade of C- or better, and course grade, students in the courses using OER performed as well or better than students in courses using commercial textbooks.  In the key measures for enrollment intensity, the study found that students in the OER courses “enrolled in a significantly higher number of credits in the next semester.”  The authors speculate that this is due to the OER cost savings since “funds saved on textbooks can be applied directly to enrollment in additional courses.”

This is the largest study to date exploring the the impact of OER on student outcomes in terms of access and affordability.  According to the authors, the study “demonstrates that at least one non-instructional design option exists that can effectively improve student outcomes.”

¹Fischer, L., Hilton III, J., Robinson, T.J., Wiley, D.A. (2015). A multi-dimensional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students. Journal of Computing in Higher Education.  Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s12528-015-9101-x

September 2, 2015
by junie
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Zero-textbook cost classes and OER at Leeward Community College

freetextbook

For Fall 2015, Leeward CC is offering 53 classes that have Textbook Cost: $0 designation* in the online course list. This designation applies to any class that does not require students to purchase textbooks.  These classes include 7 sections of ENG 22, 2 sections of ENG 24, 17 sections of ENG 100, and 8 sections of ENG 200. Other classes include ENG 207 and 209, POLS 110, SOC 100, 151, and 250H, and WS 151. In addition, Leeward CC is offering its first open educational resources (OER) ENG 100 online course. Susan Wood, Professor CC of English, was the first at Leeward CC and in the UHCC system to create an open, online course for English 100.

As part of the UH system initiative, the Leeward Library and Educational Media Center (EMC) have promoted the use of OER, no-cost, and affordable solutions to support student success and make higher education more affordable. A May 2015 survey of Leeward CC students found that, of the 987 students responding, 55% did not purchase a required textbook for a course and 65% said that textbook costs influence their decision to enroll in a course.

This summer, the EMC and Library collaborated to offer a track in the Pacific Region Learning Summit entitled “Go Open, Go Free Using OER.” Participants included teaching faculty, librarians, and instructional designers from Leeward CC, Kapiolani CC, Hawaii CC, and UH Maui College.  Leeward is the first campus in the UH system to design and deliver a professional development series to help faculty find and incorporate no-cost, low-cost, and creative commons licensed resources into their courses as replacements to costly commercial course materials.

The Library and EMC continues its partnership to promote OER as a viable alternative to expensive commercial textbooks and work with faculty members to identify and adapt OER materials for their courses. For more information, please see Leeward’s Open Educational Resources website.

*Textbook Cost: $0 classes are self-designated by the instructor.  An instructor teaching classes that do not require students to purchase any textbooks may request to have this designation added to their classes in the online course list.  Contact your Leeward CC Division Secretary to add Textbook Cost: $0 to the Banner SSA Text field for your classes.

 

 

August 18, 2015
by Wayde Oshiro
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What’s new for Fall 2015 @ the Library

Welcome back!

While you have been away this summer library faculty and staff have new seating 1been busy working on many projects both inside and outside of the Library.  Here’s what we’ve been up to.

In the Library we continually review and evaluate the print collections to ensure materials are relevant, updated, and accessible. One of the benefits of this effort is that we’ve been able to open up space and add new seating for students.  These seats and more will be filled come next week.  It’s a little change that took a lot of effort but the pay off has been well worth it.

As part of our ongoing process of continuous improvement of services and facilities we’ve relocated our service desks this summer.  The Circulation desk and its functions are now consolidated on the 2nd (main) floor while the Reference desk has moved to the 3rd floor to put the librarians closer to the resources they use.

Throughout it all we’ve been planning and developing some exciting new projects for Native Hawaiian students, working to extend our collaborations across the campus and throughout the UH system, and developing a community outreach program targeting keiki in the community.   To learn more about these projects, please read on.

Hawaiʻi-Pacific Resource Room:  In Fall 2015, the Library will debut the Hawaiʻi Pacific Resource Room, located in LC 203 (formerly the Reference, Research & Reading Room). Read more…

Keiki Reading Program:  To expand outreach to elementary schools in our community and build valuable relationships with various departments on campus, the Leeward CC Library will be debuting a Keiki Reading Program in November 2015.  Read more…

Open Educational Resources Initiative:  A May 2015 survey of OERnearly 1,000 Leeward students found that 55% have NOT purchased a textbook due to cost and 58% use textbooks costs in their decision to register for classes.   Read more…

Seed Share:  The Library is excited to unveil their new collection of FREE SEEDS for Leeward CC student, staff, faculty, and community patrons!  Read more…

Collaboration Mapping Project:  Leah Gazan and Natalie Kahn are exploring the use of data visualization software and platforms to highlight the Library’s existing cross-campus relationships and help identify new opportunities for collaboration.  Read more…

New E-resources:  A 52,000 title ebook collection and an interactive learning platform which guides students through the research process and helps them complete research paper assignments.  Read more…

New Library website in development:  Over the Spring and Summer, we AVS close uphave been working diligently to plan the information architecture of our future website, familiarize ourselves with the capabilities of the new platform, and to bring our vision to life.  Read more…

New Pay-for-Print System:  A new system for printing in the Library and Learning Commons will be installed by the start of the academic year.  Students will release print jobs by scanning their Leeward ID card which will be linked to individual print/copy accounts.  A self-service kiosk for adding value to accounts will be available.  

 

June 29, 2015
by junie
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Free Textbooks from OpenStax!

OpenStax2-2a6z184

Want to learn about free textbooks and resources developed and peer-reviewed by educators? Join us for a special webinar and discussion on Open Educational Resources (OER) presented by the Faculty Mentoring Program at Outreach College and OpenStax College.

OpenStax College is a leader in developing no-cost quality, peer-reviewed learning materials for higher education.   The presenter will be Nicole Finkbeiner, Associate Director, Institutional Relations at OpenStax College, Rice University.  Sara Rutter, Open Educational Resources Librarian, Outreach College will host a discussion following the presentation. The library and EMC staff will also be on hand to answer your questions about getting started with OER for your classes.

  • Date and Time: Friday, July 10, 2015, 12 noon until 1:15 pm
  • Location: Leeward Community College, LC 108A (located on the first floor of the Learning Commons Building in EMC)
  • Registration: Please email junie@hawaii.edu or call 455-0680 to reserve a space

Watch a short video about OpenStax

Explore OpenStax College algebra, biology, chemistry, economics, physics, sociology, statistics textbooks

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