I'm going to the Darkside.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Despite my best efforts to offer my students low cost textbooks, my textbooks doubled in price this year. The publisher stated one price ($51.99) and then charged the school another price ($79.99). By the time the bookstore added their profit margin the books are $106.  :crying:  :glare:

 

As a result, I am switching all of my courses over to Open Educational Resources (OER). Starting with Spring Term 2017, I will be using the free textbooks offered by Openstax. I am beginning my prep work this week and it will mean long hours of teaching the current courses while also discovering and utilizing new free, ADA compliant electronic resources.

 

I have held off since, as an adjunct, none of this prep work is paid and I have opted to spend my time on office hours, study sessions, and grading. I anticipate spending about 5 hours a week this semester on new course preps. I'm hoping (and fairly excited) that I might be able to use this time as substitute CEUs (which I cannot afford this year).

 

I hope Openstax is everything it's professed to be.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2016 by ScoutermominIL

[MarkT]

Despite my best efforts to offer my students low cost textbooks, my textbooks doubled in price this year. The publisher stated one price ($51.99) and then charged the school another price ($79.99). By the time the bookstore added their profit margin the books are $106.  :crying:  :glare:

 

As a result, I am switching all of my courses over to Open Educational Resources (OER). Starting with Spring Term 2017, I will be using the free textbooks offered by Openstax. I am beginning my prep work this week and it will mean long hours of teaching the current courses while also discovering and utilizing new free, ADA compliant electronic resources.

 

I have held off since, as an adjunct, none of this prep work is paid and I have opted to spend my time on office hours, study sessions, and grading. I anticpate spending about 5 hours a week this semester on new course preps. I hoping (and fairly excited)that I might be able to use this time as substitute CEUs (which I cannot afford this year).

 

I hope Openstax is everything it's professed to be.

Of course you should review the text before selecting it.  There are other reputable OER sites as well. What subject are you looking for?

Maybe the hive can help you review them.

 

You are not going to the dark side - you are becoming enlightened.  :coolgleamA:

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Of course you should review the text before selecting it.  There are other reputable OER sites as well. What subject are you looking for?

Maybe the hive can help you review them.

 

You are not going to the dark side - you are becoming enlightened.  :coolgleamA:

Enlightened?!?!?!

 

I love the aroma of a new textbook, the crackle of a binding being opened for the first time, highlighting new and interesting information, and marginalia. Oh, how I love marginalia. There's nothing like perusing through a beloved book and reading the notes about things once thought novel and important. 

 

PDFs and electronic texts just aren't the same.

 

Edited to add - oh yeah, regarding your other comment. Openstax is what the CC is recommending. It's not required but highly suggested. 

 

The subjects are Intro to Psych (I think it would be quite difficult to mess that up) and Stats for Social Sciences.

 

Let your suggestions roll. I have a stock pile of homemade chai and a comfortable chair in which I can settle to read.

Edited August 26, 2016 by ScoutermominIL

[shawthorne44]

Here I thought the Dark Side was the $106 book, and you were entering the light of Open Source.  

[Joules]

My son used this for an online Psychology college class:

https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/webui/guest/join.do?section=psychology

 

It was the best online textbook that I've seen with great incorporation of videos.

 

With an account, the prof can see quizzes and all, but anyone can use the book as a guest.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Joules

[MarkT]

Enlightened?!?!?!

 

I love the aroma of a new textbook, the crackle of a binding being opened for the first time, highlighting new and interesting information, and marginalia. Oh, how I love marginalia. There's nothing like perusing through a beloved book and reading the notes about things once thought novel and important. 

 

PDFs and electronic texts just aren't the same.

When I don't have to lug them around I like hard copy books myself but for college electronic format has it's advantages.

I never liked high-lighting when I was in college, I thought it was desecration of the book.  I did make typo corrections and small notes in the margins.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

You can get hard copies not sure if latest edition:

https://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Statistics-OpenStax-College/dp/1938168208

 

 

Suggestion for this term, if you select a textbook in time - later in the semester give the students a reading assignment from the OER text then ask for feedback.

Edited August 26, 2016 by MarkT

[Granny_Weatherwax]

<snip>

 

 

Suggestion for this term, if you select a textbook in time - later in the semester give the students a reading assignment from the OER text then ask for feedback.

This is exactly what I am going to do for both of my courses. I have two sections of the same course and I am going to give one class one OER version and the other class a second OER version and compare scores and feedback.

 

I stayed up late last night (so much for only 5 hours a week) reading one of the Openstax books and it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Some of the suggested activities are quite brilliant.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

My son used this for an online Psychology college class:

https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/webui/guest/join.do?section=psychology

 

It was the best online textbook that I've seen with great incorporation of videos.

 

With an account, the prof can see quizzes and all, but anyone can use the book as a guest.

Thanks for the link. I had not yet heard of the Carnegie Mellon open courseware. I'll check it out this afternoon (actually, I already opened the link).  :)

[G5052]

My son's physics professor is an adjunct, and she was so outraged by the $300+ textbook set that she spent the whole summer putting together her courses so that no textbook purchase is required. They still use the textbook set at the main campus and apparently she took some heat for that, but good for her!

 

My college multimedia course uses all online sources plus a book that is $30 new on Amazon or $50 new from the bookstore (gag). 

 

[BlsdMama]

My son's physics professor is an adjunct, and she was so outraged by the $300+ textbook set that she spent the whole summer putting together her courses so that no textbook purchase is required. They still use the textbook set at the main campus and apparently she took some heat for that, but good for her!

 

My college multimedia course uses all online sources plus a book that is $30 new on Amazon or $50 new from the bookstore (gag). 

 

 

One of DD's professors was so irritated she spent the first class discussing this very topic.  She also was prepared - cost of textbook?  Go to the campus printer and pick up the class "book"  - $7.

 

I think I love the woman.

[regentrude]

I hate the textbook racket and have thought about using OpenStax for my class, too, but they do not yet have a textbook for university physics. It is in the works.

I dread having to proof read an entire text that has not yet been widely adopted to see whether there are errors; with an established book that has been around for a decade, that was no longer an issue. So far, I am solving the problem by writing all my own assignments and requiring the book for reading in any of the past three editions before the current one. That should be dirt cheap (the 11th edition costs $15. The brand new 14th costs used $250). Most of them don't read anyway, sigh.

 

ETA: As a student, I would NEVER want to use a book that is available only in electronic form. I need to write in the margins by hand, underline, physically flip pages. Editing in a pdf does not even come close.

Edited August 28, 2016 by regentrude

[Granny_Weatherwax]

 

 

ETA: As a student, I would NEVER want to use a book that is available only in electronic form. I need to write in the margins by hand, underline, physically flip pages. Editing in a pdf does not even come close.

I know with Openstax there is a hardbound Psych text available. It's $20 through our bookstore. The bookstore ordered 15 copies; there are still 5 on the shelves. Four FT instructors are using it for 10 sections of Psych 101. Evidently, this year's students don't mind electronic formats.

 

The Openstax Statistics PDF the school printed for me as a preview is over 700 pages in length. Thank goodness I didn't have to pay for the printing out of my personal account. I am enjoying being able to highlight and write in the margins. I can scribble in the GEOs (general education outcomes), corresponding pages to the current text, activity ideas, etc and my color coded notes are easy to find with a flip of the page. :)

 

At work I have dual monitors and it's still a pain to have the electronic version up one one monitor and reference that while trying to type notes. In some respects, I will always be old school and I'm the youngest in the department.  

Edited August 28, 2016 by ScoutermominIL

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I woke up early today with the plan to tweak my first OER/Openstax stats lecture for tomorrow. I was drawn to TWTM instead.  

 

Ok, the binder is sitting next to me - opened and highlighted. My cup of chai is steaming and Powerpoint is ready for the transfer of information.

 

Off I go.

[daijobu]

Would it be an option to make the required text an old edition, so students can just order it on Amazon?  

[MarkT]

Is this true?

from 2012 comment on open text books:
"
One of the problems with this is that most universities will not give transfer credit for courses that use "non-standard" textbooks. If you're at a community college and want your courses to apply for transfer credit, unless the courses you take use one of the canonical textbooks, the chances are the universities won't accept the courses. The University of California system is VERY strict about exactly what must be on the syllabus (including what textbook is used) to allow the course to apply for transfer credit. The big state schools run the show, and until they change their standards, nothing else can change.
"

[G5052]

Is this true?

from 2012 comment on open text books:

"

One of the problems with this is that most universities will not give transfer credit for courses that use "non-standard" textbooks. If you're at a community college and want your courses to apply for transfer credit, unless the courses you take use one of the canonical textbooks, the chances are the universities won't accept the courses. The University of California system is VERY strict about exactly what must be on the syllabus (including what textbook is used) to allow the course to apply for transfer credit. The big state schools run the show, and until they change their standards, nothing else can change.

"

 

This won't show on the transcript. I don't know how they'd know unless you had an admissions person who kept a list of such courses on an ongoing basis that they worked out by mining syllabuses. That doesn't sound like something they really would do.

 

And it's so dynamic. Some schools don't use them at all, and some have some classes that do and some that don't, depending on the format and professor. Some classes use all internet links like my son's physics class. Some use internet links and a cheap reference book like the one I teach. Others use the open source texts. And everything in between.

 

I work for a community college that has been at the forefront of that movement, and I have never, ever heard of that type of problem.

[regentrude]

Is this true?

from 2012 comment on open text books:

"

One of the problems with this is that most universities will not give transfer credit for courses that use "non-standard" textbooks. If you're at a community college and want your courses to apply for transfer credit, unless the courses you take use one of the canonical textbooks, the chances are the universities won't accept the courses. The University of California system is VERY strict about exactly what must be on the syllabus (including what textbook is used) to allow the course to apply for transfer credit. The big state schools run the show, and until they change their standards, nothing else can change.

"

 

This would be very unusual. Normally CCs have articulation agreements with the universities that course # xyz at CC is equivalent and will received credit for course #abc at uni.

It is only for courses that are outside this agreement that students are required to provide a syllabus which is then evaluated by the credit granting institution. They look at more than just the textbook used, want to see a list of topics covered, etc. I encounter this every few years when a former students needs a syllabus to have his transfer evaluated (and we're a 4 year uni). So yes, that sometimes happens, but I have not heard of open books being a deciding factor. One would hope that colleges understand that the title of the required textbook has absolutely nothing to do with quality and rigor of the course.

[G5052]

This would be very unusual. Normally CCs have articulation agreements with the universities that course # xyz at CC is equivalent and will received credit for course #abc at uni.

It is only for courses that are outside this agreement that students are required to provide a syllabus which is then evaluated by the credit granting institution. They look at more than just the textbook used, want to see a list of topics covered, etc. I encounter this every few years when a former students needs a syllabus to have his transfer evaluated (and we're a 4 year uni). So yes, that sometimes happens, but I have not heard of open books being a deciding factor. One would hope that colleges understand that the title of the required textbook has absolutely nothing to do with quality and rigor of the course.

 

I found the original statement on Internet. Not at all a verified, credible source either.

[MarkT]

I found the original statement on Internet. Not at all a verified, credible source either.

Agree that's why I asked here.

It was a comment post but I usually assume some truth (maybe I am naive) since it was not a political topic.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

In regard to Mark's question, every instructor using OER must go through a special training and have all sources approved by the Dean before proceeding. My course syllabi for Spring are already under review. Each link and resource must be vetted, not only for content but for accessibility and compliance with the ADA. Each open resource course must have a specific statement in the syllabus that the college has created. It's a lot of work and my guess is that it's trickling down from some of the state unis.

 

 

[G5052]

In regard to Mark's question, every instructor using OER must go through a special training and have all sources approved by the Dean before proceeding. My course syllabi for Spring are already under review. Each link and resource must be vetted, not only for content but for accessibility and compliance with the ADA. Each open resource course must have a specific statement in the syllabus that the college has created. It's a lot of work and my guess is that it's trickling down from some of the state unis.

 

Same here. From what I've seen the process for OER is more extensive than picking a standard textbook. They really are being careful IMHO, and I'm aware of several cases where the OER process was stopped because they truly didn't get what they hoped. 

 

People who say "all classes should have OER" don't understand how meticulous good schools are being with this. It's a new approach, and most are being very careful.

 

The school I used to work for is being somewhat loose about it and is only just now putting together a formal process for reviewing that. The professors that I know personally there that have done that were very careful about it on their own, but you can imagine how it can go wrong.

 

The school I teach for now has training and a whole project management process. The course I teach there took almost a year to move away from textbooks to online sources and an inexpensive reference book. They didn't do it lightly at all.

[MarkT]

You are not alone:

http://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/free-textbook-use-growing-at-u-of-arizona-pima-college/article_030e107c-2ad3-5dd5-84c8-b5d546296516.html

[Nan in Mass]

Some professors at my sons' schools are putting together their own textbooks, too.

 

When I had trouble with physics 3, my father came to see me with his own physics textbook. His and mine were nearly identical, page by page. The colour used for the boxes was different. I like your approach, Regentrude. Well bound books that can be written in and used outside and despite power outages, and can be used by the odd student the rest of their life.

 

Nan

[Granny_Weatherwax]

An update:

 

This is a lot of work. A lot of unpaid work. I'm not a happy camper. I'm not angry but I am spending more time on research and such than I thought I would. Even with resources like Openstax, I am spending quite a bit of time reviewing, gleaning, and verifying information and then I have to teach, grade, have office hours, etc.

 

I'll keep plugging away at it but I think this is an area higher education needs to rethink if adjuncts are going to be encouraged to go this route. My time investment in each of my courses has doubled.