SFSS OER Advocacy Presented by Chardaye Bueckert

@chardayeb and Brady Yano @bradyyano

My Story O 2013: BC Open

Textbook Program & open textbooks as a “no brainer”

CostsAverage book & material cost per

student per term: $300-1,000

Books & materials as 38%of total educational cost per term for

domestic students

Ever changing editions render expensive books worthless

Textbooks are big business !!

1,489,536 full time Canadian post secondary students x $600/year on

books =

$893, 721, 600 annual textbook sales in Canada

O 2013-2014:Outreach and awareness

“What Have You Done to Avoid Paying for a

Textbook?”Some extreme: • Picking classes based on book costs• Dropping classes because of books costs • Cramming with a shared book • Translating• Going without the book• Using secondary sources for primary source

analysis • Going without the book• International travel

OpenCon 2014

What We Did O Student outreachO Faculty & administration engagementO Discussion with governmentO Library collaborationO Liaising with other student unions

Challenges• Lack of uptake at SFU and other research

based institutions • Publisher pressure • Lack of awareness amongst students and

faculty • Academic freedom

Lessons Learned O Allies abound! O There is always more to learnO There is always room for one moreO Open as the future

Success as a Next Step

#textbookbrokeBCOInspired by the USPIRG campaignOUndergraduate student collaboration

between BC’s largest PSI’s - SFU and UBCOLeveraging social media as both a free and

open platform

Opportunities O Student union collaboration O Cross border collaborationO Canadian institutional championsO Celebrating successesOOpen textbooks became a hot topic in the

2015 SFSS elections

Thank You!Any questions?