z-degree report | 2015 | tidewater community college

THE Z-DEGREE: Removing Textbook Costs as a Barrierto Student Success through an OER-Based Curriculum

iZ-DEGREE // TIDEWATER COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The Z-Degree: Removing Textbook Costs as a Barrier to Student Success through an OER-Based Curriculum

ABSTRACTIn August 2013, Tidewater Community College became the first regionally accredited college in the U.S.

to pilot an Associate of Science degree that allows a student to expend $0 on textbooks. The combined

efforts of a 13-member faculty team, staff and administration created what is now known as the

Z-Degree.

PRESENTERSDr. Daniel T. DeMarte, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer

Ms. Linda S. Williams, Professor of Business Administration

PRESENTED TOThe William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Hosted by SPARC at the New Venture Fund Building

February 11, 2015

Washington, D.C.

iiZ-DEGREE // TIDEWATER COMMUNITY COLLEGE

PROGRAM SUMMARY The College Board estimates annual textbook costs at $1,168 so it is not surprising that a recent study by

U.S. PRIG found that 78% of students admit to having forgone a textbook at least once due to cost.

In January 2013, Tidewater Community College began the process to become the first college in the

U.S. to create an Associate of Science degree based entirely on openly licensed content. The combined

efforts of a 13-member faculty team, college staff and administration culminated on August 22nd when

more than 420 students enrolled in the first 16 Z-courses. Cumulatively, these students reduced total

expenditures by over $68,000.00.

The goals of this initiative have been twofold: 1) to improve student success, and 2) to increase

instructor effectiveness. Courses were stripped down to the Learning Outcomes and rebuilt using openly

licensed content, reviewed and selected by the faculty developer based on its ability to facilitate student

achievement of the objectives. As a result, these 21 courses are an amalgamation of over 200 distinct

OER sources.

Creating these 21 courses required a collaborative effort among every functional area of the college. The

logistical challenges of launching 21 Z-courses simultaneously across four campus locations were daunting

given that TCC is the 11th largest public two-year college in the nation, enrolling nearly 44,000 students

annually. Senior administrators were adept at addressing the complexities, thus allowing the faculty team

to focus on course creation. Once launched, considerable effort was expended to design a process by

which the effectiveness of these courses could be evaluated.

Instruments are in place to collect data to evaluate student experiences, persistence and success.

Students receive a summative survey in the last week of each semester and the data are folded back into

the project development process. At the conclusion of each semester, an analytics tool pulls data directly

from the LMS (Learning Management System) on learning outcomes, content engagement and course

design to assist faculty in the continuous course improvement process. Furthermore, students from across

the Z-Degree have participated in a series of focus groups to collect qualitative data on their experience.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that students in the Z-courses are adapting well to their lack of traditional

course materials, which is supported by the fact that at mid-semester fall 2013, the Z-Degree has

aggregate retention of 90.4%.

On an institutional level, enrollment and student data are being collected and analyzed to identify those

courses most appropriate for conversion to Z-course status. In January 2014, a second cohort of faculty

was invited to attend training on licensing and open content adoption. A third party will conduct this

training on-site; however, efforts are currently underway to create an in-house Z-course training program

that can be implemented on a rolling schedule.

iiiZ-DEGREE // TIDEWATER COMMUNITY COLLEGE

With obstacles overcome, analytics in place and students enrolled, the challenge is to scale the project in

a way that makes sense from both a student and organizational standpoint. Moving forward, the project will

address issues such as faculty support, delivery methodology via strategic LMS selection, the economic

impact of long-term OER adoption, policy and resource implications, as well as integration with system-

wide OER initiatives.

In Spring 2015, 39 sections of Z-courses will be offered with a target enrollment of 900 students and

$90,000 in cost savings. In the long term, the principal project goal will remain unchanged and that is

that all students will have an equal opportunity to engage and succeed from the very first day of class.

NEEDS AND RATIONALE

1Z-DEGREE // TIDEWATER COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The cost of college textbooks has risen 812 percent since 1978, more than the rates of inflation, health care, new home prices, and college tuition. (Kingkade, 2013)

More and more, college students are unable to afford their textbooks, and as many as 70 percent of

students have reported avoiding buying at least one textbook for their courses. A recent survey at Old

Dominion University in Norfolk revealed that nearly one in five ODU students are attending classes without

the benefit of textbooks (The Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 30, 2013). Not surprisingly, these students do not do as

well academically (Rethink).

NEEDS AND RATIONALE


While TCC has worked with its bookstore partner to minimize the financial burden of textbooks on students

by introducing eTexts and rental options, the financial challenge for our students remains high. For

example, 11,177 students bought textbooks in Fall 2013 through TCCs bookstore partner using financial

aid resources. The charges totaled over $3.2 million, with the average charge being $290.25. As of May

2013, if a TCC student purchased all of the textbooks required for a business administration degree,

that student would spend $3,678.95 on new books. While used textbooks may lower this price, their

availability is, at best, uneven.

But the problem with printed textbooks goes beyond financial cost; textbooks cost students and teachers

in other ways as well.

Because textbooks are frequently written for broad audiences in the hopes that they will fill the learning

support needs and be adopted by large numbers of faculty and departments, they are filled with content

and exercises that are superfluous to a specific courses learning outcomes. At best, the faculty member

who is focused on content directly supporting the courses outcomes must skip significant portions of

the textbook. At worst, a faculty member may rely on the textbooks content, not the learning outcomes,

to organize and teach a course. In either situation, faculty who want to individualize or update learning

content must supplement. The cost here is in teaching efficiency and effectiveness.

Fortunately a solution to both problems exists.

In 2002, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sparked the Open Educational Resources movement

(OER) with the OpenCoursewareProject, putting virtually all of MITs course content online. Shortly

thereafter, the term Open Educational Resources was adopted by the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at its 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for

Higher Education in Developing Countries. Since then, tens of thousands of Open Educational Resources

have been developed across the U.S. and the world and shared by hundreds of colleges, universities, and

organizations dedicated to making education accessible and attainable.

Despite the success of OER, too few colleges or universities have pushed the envelope in determining the

full potential of OER in teaching and learning. Individual faculty or departments may choose to replace

their textbooks with OER (with an enormous collective savings for students); however, until TCCs Z-Degree,

no college or university in the U.S. had gathered the diversity of OER resources and developed a faculty

team that could produce an entirely textbook-free degree.


Beginning in Fall 2013, TCC became the first regionally accredited college in the U.S. to create an

Associate of Science degree based solely on openly licensed content. The rationale was twofold:

To improve student success through increased access and affordability;

To improve teaching efficiency and effectiveness through the ability to focus, analyze, augment, and

evolve course materials directly aligned to course learning outcomes.

Allen, N. (2012). Pushing for Open Education Resources, Lower Textbook Costs. Virginia Community College System

Chancellors Planning Retreat, August 2012, http://rethink.vccs.edu/planning-retreat-2012/

Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries,

http://www.unesco.org

Kingkade, T. (2013). College Textbook Prices Increasing Faster Than Tuition and Inflation. The Huffington Post, January 4, 2013.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/college-textbook-prices-increase_n_2409153.html

MIT OpenCourseWare, Free Online Course Materials, http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

Rethink: Reengineering Virginias Community Colleges,

http://rethink.vccs.edu/pushing-for-open-education-resources-lower-textbook-costs/

Sizemore, Bill (2013). A textbook case of students not having enough money. The Virginian Pilot, December 30, 2013.

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/12/textbook-case-students-not-having-enough-money

HISTORY


Linda Williams, TCC professor of business administration, agrees to serve as the faculty lead for the project; Dr. Kimberly Bovee, associate vice president for college readiness, agrees to serve as the lead for the Project Advisory Committee.

SEPTEMBER

MARCH

JULY

JANUARY

AUGUST

Dr. Daniel DeMarte, TCC vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer, attends the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) Chancellors annual retreat and hears David Wiley, president of Lumen Learning, comment that no college or university was offering a degree exclusively using OER.

The Project Advisory Committee (consisting of deans, student services representatives, technology support, and key stakeholders) is established to coordinate advising students, loading courses into TCCs student information system, and ensuring project success beyond the courses themselves.

The fall schedule of Z-courses is coordinated across the colleges four campuses to allow a student to take a full schedule of Z-Degree courses. Course delivery includes online as well as on-campus courses.

Registration begins for Fall 2014 Z-courses.

TCC presents the Z-Degree pilot to the Jobs for the Future Educational Policy Summit in Miami.

Data from TCCs Office of Institutional Effectiveness and information on available OER materials help guide the selection of the Associate of Science in business administration as the pilot Z-Degree, including required and elective courses.

The faculty team is selected and includes full-time and adjunct professors.

THE Z-COURSES LAUNCH.

Lumen provides initial training session for the faculty team on accessing OER and building a cohesive course based on diverse OER offerings.

Faculty convocation includes presentation by Professor Williams on Open Educational Resources and the Z-Degree pilot.

TCC contacts David Wiley and Kim Thanos of Lumen Learning to help TCC launch the Z-Degree pilot. Lumens expertise includes identification of existing OER content, faculty training, ensuring proper attribution of content, and development of course analytics.

UNTIL MAY 2013Faculty team members begin selecting appropriate OER to support the learning outcomes of each course. Professor Williams and Lumen Learning provide faculty support, including locating OER and helping faculty build the courses.

AUGUST

FEBRUARY

Professor Williams makes presentations at all four TCC campuses to provide an overview of the pilot project to faculty.

TCCs public announcement of the Z-Degree pilot (initially referred to as the OpenTCC project) receives widespread news coverage.

APRIL

JUNETCC presents Z-Degree pilot at Open Leadership Conference in Denver.

All students who are seeking an A.S. degree in Business Administration are sent a letter briefly explaining the Z-Degree and announcing special information sessions at each campus. The letter is followed up by an email.

Each campus hosts an information session for students. Information sessions include what students should be prepared for, what Open Education Recourses are and are not, faculty expectations for students taking Z-courses, and how to register for the Z-courses. Course outcome alignments loaded in Z-course templates.

Cohorts of newly created Z-courses with OER content are reviewed by Lumen Learning to ensure proper attribution and correct licensing. This scrub process is the last step before the courses are ready to launch. Faculty team revises courses to optimize learning outcomes and use of OER.

UNTIL JULY

OCTOBER

OCTOBER - NOVEMBER

2012

2013

TIMELINEZERO TO Z IN 12 MONTHS

The spark for the Z-Degree was ignited in August,

2012 and moved from idea to implementation in a

period of less than 12 months.


Measures of effectiveness and student success are highlighted when the Z-Degree is presented at the National Alliance of Community and Technical Colleges (NACTC) annual conference.

The Z-Degree makes a national television debut when CBN-TV highlights the Z-Degree in a news segment titled Cost-Cutting College: Educations Future.

Members of the faculty team attend the international Open Educational Conference in Park City, Utah. Z-Degree is selected to participate in closing keynote as one of 15 high impact OER projects of 2013.

Analytics are pulled from the LMS to analyze strength of alignment between content and assessment, as well as student engagement with content and assessment performance. These analytics will be used for continuous course improvement.

FEBRUARY

Faculty meet to debrief and work on scheduling the Spring 2014 Z-courses. The spring schedule of the Z-courses is coordinated across the colleges four campuses to allow a student to take full schedule of Z-courses. Course delivery includes online as well as on-campus courses. Twenty-five sections of Z-courses are scheduled for Spring 2014.

JANUARY

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

All students who attended the orientation sessions are surveyed, whether or not they decided to take a Z-course.

Students begin registering for the Spring 2014 Z-courses; Within 48 hours of registration opening, Z-courses are at 50.5% of capacity without advertisement or promotion.

As the fall semester comes to an end, all students in the Z-courses are surveyed for feedback on their experience with a 44.79% response rate.

Z-Degree is selected as a Bellwether Finalist in the programs category.

MARCH

The second semester of the Z-Degree begins on the front page of The Virginian-Pilot with an article headlined: College seeks relief for students as textbook costs stack up.

600 students enroll in 25 sections of Z-courses for Spring 2014.

84.9% of available seats in Z-courses are filled, compared to 65.9% for textbook-based counterparts.

The Z-Degree and OER are presented on the college-wide Professional Development Day to a capacity audience, increasing awareness and adoption.

TCC participates in a Congressional briefing on Capitol Hill, organized by SPARC in support of Open Education Week.

Early Z-course data from Spring 2014 show that 63.2% of the Z-courses retained 100% of their students through the drop/tuition refund date.

Z-Degree is presented to the Board of Directors for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).

Z-Degree is presented to the State Board of Community Colleges Executive Board.

2014

2013


Z-Degree wins VCCS Excellence in Education Award, presented at New Horizons Conference in Roanoke, Va.

Spring 2014 semester concludes with 93% of students reporting that they believed the Z-courses they completed were as good or better than the same course that used a traditional textbook.

Z-Degree presented at national Teachers of Accounting at Community and Two-Year Colleges conference (TACTYC).

Two sections of Pathways: Adopting OER in the Classroom are offered with more than 24 faculty and librarians participating.

TCC student Sandra Kerley is featured in an article in TIME magazine, in which she speaks about the impact of the Z-Degree on her familys finances.

Z-Degree is presented at EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in a session titled, The Z-Degree: Taming the BYOD beast while enhancing the student experience.

OER and the Z-Degree are featured at TCCs Professional Development Day held at the Joint-Use Library on the Virginia Beach Campus

Members of the TCC Z-Degree team participate in a collaborative national webinar to highlight the path to a zero-cost textbook degree.

Z-Degree included in CNN news article on relieving students of the burden of textbook costs.

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

TCC faculty at the VCCS New Horizons Conference present multiple sessions focusing on the Z-Degree and OER.

Z-Degree is presented at TCC Annual Learning Institute.

Presentations on OER policy, economic feasibility and the role of librarians are the highlights of TCCs Z-Degree participation in the Open Educational Leadership Summit held in Portland, Ore.

TCC revises and implements Policy 2108: The Use of Open Educational Resources.

Third semester of the Z-Degree begins with 27 sections of Z-courses, enrolling more than 600 students producing an estimated student cost savings to date of $175,000.

With Good Reason, a nationally broadcast radio program produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, features the Z-Degree in a segment titled, Summer Melt and the Z-Degree.

TCC hosts the OpenVA conference, bringing faculty, administrators and policy makers from both community colleges and senior colleges and universities together to move OER efforts in Virginia forward.

TCC representatives are invited to the White House to collaborate with the Office of Science and Technology Programs (OSTP) on the inclusion of OER in the next iteration of the Executive Offices Open Government Plan.

Pathways: Adopting OER in the Classroom, created thanks to a competitive Chancellors Innovation Grant, is launched and filled to capacity with faculty and staff eager to participate in TCCs OER initiatives.

2014


The Z-Degree is featured in Zac Bissonettes article, Reducing college costs could mean end of textbooks, on CNBC.com.

Students begin the fourth semester of the Z-Degree pilot with 39 sections of Z-courses, making total Z-Degree enrollment in the pilot phase more than 2,500 students (more than $250,000 in student savings).

NOVEMBER

JANUARY

DECEMBER

Z-Degree is presented in several sessions at the International Open Education Conference held in Arlington, Va.

Host Kara Miller features the Z-Degree on her program Innovation Hub to be broadcast on WGBH, Boston and Public Radio International.

Presentation submissions related to the Z-Degree and OER are made for the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD), The League for Innovation in the Community College, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) Annual New Horizons and discipline-specific VCCS conferences.

At American Universitys Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., Z-Degree program successes are shared with attendees at OpenCon, hosted by SPARC and the Right to Research Coalition.

2014

2015

Z-DEGREE MODEL


From the projects inception, TCC has made a conscious effort to create a replicable model for building

a Z-Degree. This model provides TCC the ability to repeat the success of the pilot, expand offerings

within the Z-Degree itself, and ultimately share the model for a Z-Degree with like-minded colleges

and universities.

Replication of this initial effort requires several key components:

Organizational commitment to the creation and sustainability of a Z-Degree is essential to establish

an environment that embraces openness, creativity, and innovation. Although faculty-led, the move to

OER must be driven and supported by administrators who can affect policy and secure the resources

necessary to support a Z-Degree. (See Appendix for TCCs policy on Open Educational Resources.)

A core group of faculty who are eager to rise to the challenge of stripping a course down to articulated

learning outcomes and rebuilding it using judiciously selected OER need to be identified in each

discipline. These faculty champions serve as a nucleus, fostering awareness and acceptance of OER

among their colleagues.

THE Z-DEGREE MODELThe six components of TCCs Z-Degree


Although faculty are subject matter experts, their understanding of the components of OER in areas

of licensing, attribution, and content curation is imperfect. Professional development opportunities

for faculty should be identified, created, and encouraged. Through focused training and exposure

to the broader OER community, faculty experts will be cultivated within the institution to provide

project leadership.

Research has confirmed that the expertise of librarians in most of the general LIS technologies and

skills is needed at OER initiatives (Bueno-de-la-Fuente, Robertson, & Boon, 2012). Librarians with

expertise in OER play a vital role in ongoing success of a Z-Degree by providing hands-on support

for faculty.

An institution-wide support network of stakeholders is essential to provide support to the student

embarking upon a Z-Degree. This network also serves as a communication channel among functional

areas such as student services, academics, and institutional effectiveness to ensure that the integrity

of the Z-Degree and component courses is maintained.

Continuous course improvement is inherent in the Z-Degree model. When faculty make changes

to their courses, they are often based on intuitions, hunches, or student complaints. Consequently,

no empirical quality improvement feedback loop is ever established, and there is no apparent

improvement in the quality of higher education over time (Arum & Roksa, 2010). Based upon

a teach-analyze-improve cycle based on student assessment results aligned to course learning

objectives, courses are revised and OER content is augmented or replaced.

These core components create the framework for the creation of a Z-Degree. Best practices reside within

each element to enable the components of the project to merge, creating a set of like-minded constituents

working towards a common goal. The result is a pathway to the creation of individual Z-courses or an

entire Z-Degree.


FACULTY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Pathways to OER is a 6-module online professional development course designed to provide faculty with

the requisite knowledge to effectively adopt and adapt open-licensed educational resources (OER) for use

in the classroom. TCC received a Chancellors Innovation Fund grant to develop the course because there

was no vehicle by which faculty could learn about adoption, licensing and deployment of OER content.

While initially developed by TCC, the Pathway course will facilitate the adoption of OER at every level

throughout the VCCS. The course is licensed under a CC-BY License, allowing the course to reflect the

changing dynamics within the broader OER community. Further course development includes having the

course certified by Quality Matters.

The course is inherently scalable and sustainable since it has been migrated to an open-course framework.

The potential offered audience for this course is now anyone wanting to gain knowledge about the

foundations of OER creation, adoption and adaptation.

The course is scaffolded in a way that takes the learner from investigating the reasons why Open matters

to copyright law and then proceeds through the process of adopting, remixing and creating openly licensed

content aligned to their course learning outcomes. At the conclusion of the course, participants have at

least one piece of openly licensed content that is aligned to a learning outcome and ready to be deployed

in the classroom.


PATHWAYS: ADOPTING OER IN THE CLASSROOM (EDUC7010) MODULES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Module 1: Why Open?

Explain reasons why openness in education matters

Define Open Educational Resources (OER)

Describe the 5Rs of OER

Module 2: Introduction to Open Licensing

Contrast an authors rights under Full Copyright, Creative Commons and Public Domain licensing

Distinguish among the parts of a CC license and what they mean

Assess the compatibility of CC licenses

Module 3: Investigating OER on the Web

Locate content that is properly licensed which could be used to augment existing course content

Identify the license of content found through web searches

Properly attribute OER content that is being adopted

Module 4: Open Textbooks/Open Courses

Investigate Open Textbook resources available for adoption

Investigate Open Courses published in the Creative Commons that can be adapted or adopted

Assess the OER content available in a subject area or discipline

Module 5: Remix OER

Analyze and select OER content that aligns to a unit level learning outcome

Modify OER content to improve alignment with a unit level learning outcome

Place proper licensing and attribution on adopted and adapted (remixed) content

Module 6: Create and Share

Create original course content, aligned to a unit level learning objective

Evaluate and select the appropriate CC license for the course content

Identify ways to Publish the content to the Creative Commons


CONTINUOUS COURSE IMPROVEMENT

There has been little progress made in the field of education on creating a sustainable and practical

process for continuous course improvement. Changes to courses and course content have traditionally

been made at the end of each semester based on anecdotal evidence, student surveys and hunches

but not on analytics. The Z-Degree changed that approach by taking advantage of powerful analytics within

the LMS that became available to evaluate the effectiveness of course content in helping students meet

specific learning outcomes. It was decided early on that the Z-courses would go through a continuous

course improvement process based on evidence beyond anecdotal and student evaluation feedback.

(See Appendix for a sample of Continuous Improvement Report.)

To this end two tools were employed: (1) an alignments function within the LMS and (2) an analytics

report created from data pulled directly from the course. These two evaluation tools would then be used

to provide empirical data to the faculty upon which course improvements could be made. The alignment

tool within the LMS allows the Learning Outcome to be linked to both content areas and assessments.

When reports are generated from within the LMS, immediate feedback on individual items is generated.

Assessments are then flagged for review based on student mastery of the aligned outcome. This tool has

provided important and timely feedback throughout the semester, allowing faculty to make changes and

corrections in the course as students work through the course material.

For long-term continuous course improvement, TCC engaged Lumen Learning to collect data from the

Z-courses and integrate recommendations for possible improvements to each course in a Continuous

Improvement Report. An example of one such report for BUS100 (Introduction to Business) from the

Spring 2013 is included in Appendix B. These reports allow faculty to focus on those areas of the course

that can most benefit from re-design based on student achievement and performance. This is an iterative

process and courses are evaluated at the conclusion of each semester. This continuous improvement

is made possible through the use of OER because faculty are no longer bound to textbook and course

material that remain static until the end of the current adoption or edition. Being able to freely move

about the Commons and locate relevant, high quality content to either augment or replace existing content

facilitates the continuous improvement process. These courses are now constantly being enhanced and

enriched by a world of openly licensed content beyond even the faculty teams wildest imagination.

Open content creates an open-minded approach to course design and ultimately opens doors to

information and resources for the students that enhance and enrich their experience.


SUMMARY

When evaluating the pilot semesters of the Z-Degree, the data suggest that the original measure of

effectiveness was achieved when the idea of a degree with $0 in textbook costs was translated into an

institutionally-driven, faculty-led project. The true measures of accomplishment have shifted to student

success and increased instructor effectiveness.

In total, the data reflects that 95% of students would enroll in a Z-course again, and 98% believe the

Z-course is as good or better than a course that uses a traditional published text. When almost 99% of

students believe that course learning objectives have been met and 95% would be likely to recommend a

Z-course to another student we are comfortable in concluding that even in its first semester, in pilot mode,

the Z-Degree is an effective alternative to its counterparts that require the purchase of traditional

publisher textbooks.

MEASURES OF EFFECTIVENESS


When the Z-Degree was first conceived, the goal was to eliminate the following student experience:

My first day of school is tomorrow and I have not received my English books yet! I did not have

the $160.00 on Thursday last week, the day of the registration, to buy my books brand new,

so I ordered used ones on-line. Well, classes start tomorrow and the books have not shipped

yet. Hopefully they ship tomorrow Monday. I just dont want to feel like a fool in class with

no books. What can I tell the teacher? 1

This goal was met on the first day of the Fall 2013 semester when the pilot was launched. However, during

the months leading up to the launch it became increasingly evident that breaking a course down to the

skeleton of learning outcomes presented a unique opportunity to collect empirical data about student

retention, achievement of learning outcomes and overall course quality. Measuring the effectiveness of the

Z-Degree by dollars and cents alone was deemed insufficient to declare the pilot a success. The needle was

moved and effectiveness was re-defined to include student retention, achievement of learning outcomes

and identification of opportunities for continuous course improvement. Instead of using anecdotal evidence

and traditional end-of-course evaluations to measure effectiveness, TCC designed a process for collecting

data in a statistically valid and practically significant method.

The hypothesis on which all research was founded was straightforward: Could the curriculum be built and

delivered in a pilot mode and de minimis produce the same results as non-OER based courses currently

being offered? Evidence leads the team to conclude that in the first pilot semester, the Z-courses achieved

their stated learning outcomes in a manner consistent with other sections of the course while providing

students relief from the extraordinary burden of textbook costs.

Information is provided in four distinct areas:

1. Student Retention

2. Student Success

3. Student Experience and Course Evaluation

4. Continuous Course Improvement

1. Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/education/1060008-classes-start-tomorrow-i-have-no.html#ixzz2qf402F1j

MEASURES OF EFFECTIVENESS


STUDENT RETENTION2 In analyzing student retention two milestones were used: (1) the point in the semester where a student can

drop a course for a tuition refund and (2) the withdrawal date at which point a student may withdraw from

a course without academic penalty and receive a grade of W.3

2. Two courses (ITP132 and ACC211) were omitted from this data. There was no corresponding non Z-course section of ITP132

available for comparison. ACC211 is the subject of a VCCS re-alignment and the SLOs are in pilot making the data from this

course fall outside the fences delineating outliers based on presumed normal distribution.

3. It must be noted that because of changes in Federal Financial Aid guidelines some students may forfeit future financial aid

assistance if they receive a W therefore this data may be skewed towards higher retention rates in non Z-courses due to

sample size variance.

95.6%

95.8%

96.0%

96.2%

96.4%

96.6%

96.8%

97.0%

97.2%

97.4%

97.6%

Fall 2013 Spring 2014

Reten:on at Drop Date

All Sec:ons Z-courses

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

All Sec1ons Z-courses

Student Withdrawal


STUDENT SUCCESSThe measurement of student success used was that students complete the course with a grade of C or

better since this is the minimum grade required for transfer to four-year colleges and universities.

STUDENT EXPERIENCE AND COURSE EVALUATION The student perspective on their experience in a Z-course is critical to the continued success and

expansion of the pilot. If students do not perceive that these courses are of high quality as compared to

traditional textbook-based courses, then the future of the program is limited. A voluntary response survey

was administered by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness in the final week of the Fall 2013 semester.

This survey was transmitted to the students via their student email account with a cover email from the

Vice President for Academic Affairs. This process was designed to differentiate this survey instrument from

regular end of course evaluations and increase awareness that student opinion was being solicited as a

participant in the Z-Degree pilot. We believe that the survey was unbiased in its questions and is a valid

survey of a finite population (N = 316) with a response rate of 43.98% (n = 139).

64.5%

65.0%

65.5%

66.0%

66.5%

67.0%

67.5%

68.0%

68.5%

69.0%

69.5%

70.0%

70.5%

71.0%

71.5%

72.0%

Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Fall 2014

Student Success

All Sec>ons Z-courses


Respondent Demographics

Respondent Self-reported Cumulative GPA


Students were asked to consider the Z-course they had just completed compared to courses that used

traditional publisher textbooks and materials. The following are highlights of the survey responses and

student comments.

QUESTION: IMAGINE A FUTURE COURSE THAT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO TAKE. IF TWO DIFFERENT

SECTIONS OF THE COURSE ARE OFFERED BY THE SAME INSTRUCTOR IN EQUALLY DESIRABLE TIME

SLOTS AND LOCATIONS, BUT ONE SECTION USES A TRADITIONAL TEXTBOOK YOU ARE REQUIRED

TO PURCHASE AND THE OTHER USES OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER), IN WHICH SECTION

WOULD YOU PREFER TO ENROLL?

QUESTION: HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE OVERALL QUALITY OF THE OER CONTENT USED IN

THIS COURSE?

ANSWER RESPONSE %

WORSE than the quality of the text-

books used in my other classes

5 4%

ABOUT THE SAME as the quality of the

textbooks used in my other classes

44 32%

BETTER than the quality of the text-

books used in my other classes

86 64%

TOTAL 135 100%

ANSWER RESPONSE %

I would enroll in the section that uses a

TRADITIONAL PUBLISHED BOOK

7 5%

I would enroll in the section that uses

OER (Z-course)

115 85%

I would have no preference 13 10%

TOTAL 135 100%


QUESTION: HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE OVERALL QUALITY OF THE COURSE?

STUDENT COMMENTS IN SUPPORT OF FINDINGS:

The quality of the class is the same as a traditional class with the exception of being able to

use different resources to get information. Watching YouTube videos on a subject is easier then

reading 40+ pages on a subject.

The quality of the course is enhanced by the open source materials. When you leave a

traditional class with the textbook, you have the knowledge you retain from the course. With

the use of open source materials, you are also shown videos and other resources that become

searchable topics on the internet to refresh information for a class taken later.

I really love the fact that you arent put on this set schedule, the by the book schedule of

learning. Instead the teaching feels broader. My professor can introduce us to new resources

and a wide selection of information, not just whats contained in a book. I would love to take

more classes like this.

ANSWER RESPONSE %

WORSE than the quality of my other

classes

3 2%

ABOUT THE SAME as the quality of my

other classes

54 40%

BETTER than the quality than the

quality of my other classes

78 58%

TOTAL 135 100%


QUESTION: HOW EFFECTIVE WAS THIS COURSE IN MEETING THE LEARNING OBJECTIVES AS

OUTLINED IN THE COURSE SYLLABUS?


The Learning Objectives were easy to follow and the open source materials directly

related to the topics.

It met all objectives.

Covered every single Module effectively.

Each week the content on the syllabus was addressed and each week there was a lot of

information regarding the topic.

It was a very effective learning environment.

I learned more in this class without a textbook than I did in my Economics class

with a textbook.

ANSWER RESPONSE %

Not Effective at all 1 1%

Somewhat effective 9 14%

Very effective 115 85%

TOTAL 135 100%


QUESTION: COMPARED TO A COURSE YOU HAVE TAKEN THAT REQUIRED THE PURCHASE OF A

TRADITIONAL PUBLISHED TEXTBOOK, HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE OVERALL QUALITY OF

THIS COURSE?


The use of an open source material did not change the quality of the instruction. With the course

I took being one of the first courses at the college, the innovation and enhancements of open

source development are greatly applicable to many other classes. The potential is limitless.

The classes with traditional published textbooks I study and memorize to pass tests. In this

class I have a greater appreciation for the things I learned because I actually experienced the

material and lesson as opposed to simply passing a test. This knowledge will last a lifetime.

ANSWER RESPONSE %

Poor 1 1%

Fair 3 2%

Average 12 9%

Good 38 28%

Excellent 81 60%

TOTAL 135 100%


QUESTION: HOW LIKELY ARE YOU TO RECOMMEND A Z-COURSE TO ANOTHER STUDENT?


My instructor for the Z-course class I took had the textbook that would have been required for

the class. She showed some of the sections in the book that pertained to the current topic

discussed, only to reveal that she could explain 5 or so pages in just a few sentences. For

students like me that dont always have enough money in the bank to pay for such expensive

texts, which may not even be used for half of a semester, Z-courses are a godsend.

Having everything and more available to me in an instant was very convenient. I also found it

wonderful to only need to bring my tablet with me to class, in this day and age that is how it

should be. The flow of the open resource was amazing. This saved a lot of money and time.

ANSWER RESPONSE %

Very Unlikely 3 2%

Somewhat Unlikely 2 1%

Somewhat Likely 22 17%

Very Likely 108 80%

TOTAL 135 100%


QUESTION: PLEASE USE THE SPACE PROVIDED BELOW TO SHARE YOUR COMMENTS OR

SUGGESTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE IN THE Z-COURSE AND THE OPENTCC4 PILOT

PROGRAM.

During my academic experience thus far, textbooks are a waste of money for most classes.

There is just too much material that is not needed, I think the Z-course approach is much

better because we were being administered only the relevant materials for that course. I

wasnt wasting time trying to decipher which material I needed to study for each exam. It also

provided different learning styles. I was able to read, watch videos, and listen to the professor

on blackboard to learn my course materials. I think that textbooks should be done away with.

A professor that teaches solely out of the textbook is a bad professor in my opinion, because

anyone can stay home and read out of the textbook.

I would love for this program to take off and have more courses offered under the OpenTCC

Program. Being a full time employee and a full time student, not having to lug books around

to do assignments has been awesome. Being able to open up Blackboard and have all my

readings listed was wonderful. I didnt have to flip through a 500 page textbook to find an

answer, just open up the link in a new tab and the section was already there. I hope that this

program is able to be extended so more classes are offered a semester. I look forward to doing

my second semester through OpenTCC in January!

The Z-course is a great class and even better because I do not have to come out of pocket to

purchase a textbook. This saves me money and also I get the same quality of education as I

would in a traditional class setting.

I like the fact that only the materials that you need were presented to you instead of an entire

chapter which allows you to concentrate on what is important.

4. OpenTCC was the working title for the Z-Degree.

PUBLIC AWARENESS AND MEDIA


TCC plans to offer degree, textbooks not required Published March 15, 2013

BY ELISABETH HULETTE

Soon Tidewater Community College students will be able to earn a whole degree without buying

any textbooks.

The initiative is the first of its kind for an accredited American institution, college officials and industry

leaders announced Thursday. Schools and colleges are increasingly using free materials online, they

said, but this degree - an associate degree in business administration - will be the first to rely on them

completely.

The point is to save students money, said Daniel DeMarte, vice president for academic affairs and chief

academic officer at the college. Textbook prices are soaring, he said, and the college has tried to curb

student expenditures by using electronic texts and secondhand books. Now, with the proliferation of online

education resources - OERs to educators - it may be possible to eliminate the cost altogether.

If its possible, why arent we looking at it? DeMarte asked. If the quality is as good or better, then why

not? Were seeking to answer that question.

The program will be a pilot. If it goes well next year, and quality is not sacrificed, more courses may be

offered without textbooks, DeMarte said.

It wont be mandatory. Business administration is one of TCCs most popular degree programs, so multiple

sections are offered for each of the 21 required courses. Students can decide whether to take one with

traditional books, or one that uses free materials.

If they pick the latter, they could cut their education expenses by a third. According to TCC, the Bureau

of Labor Statistics has reported the cost of textbooks increased 812 percent since 1978, and textbooks

now average $175 each. By taking textbook-free courses, TCC estimates students could save $2,000 to

$2,500 - about a third of the cost of their degree.

Open-source materials have been around for a decade, pretty much since computers and Web access

became widely affordable.

Many are developed by organizations funded by grants. For example, OpenStax College is funded in part by

the Hewlett and Gates foundations. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has put courses online for

free, and NASA has free online materials, too, DeMarte said.


Many are peer-reviewed, like textbooks. The best ones develop reputations among teachers and professors

who know good material when they see it, said David Wiley, co-founder of Lumen Learning, an organization

based in Portland, Ore., thats helping TCC.

Wiley met DeMarte about eight months ago at a panel discussion, and the two discussed making TCC the

first college to offer a whole degree using just OERs.

Higher education can be slow to change, Wiley said, and many colleges and professors have been hesitant

to use open-source material. Its hard to find leaders in that world, he said, but once TCC shows it can be

done, other schools likely will make the leap.

To see somebody step up and grasp it and say, Its possible, and because all these good things are

possible, we think it needs to be done, and were going to do it - its good on so many levels, Wiley said.

Cable Green, director of global learning with Creative Commons, a nonprofit that offers free licensing

for open-source resources, said a key to the open-materials movement is not only making them free, but

allowing educators to manipulate them.

The licenses usually allow professors to pull apart online texts, lecture notes, videos and other materials,

and curate them into a set that works best for their class. Then those professors can make their versions

available to others.

Andi Sporkin, vice president of communications for the Association of American Publishers, said the

industry is changing, and publishers understand that open-source materials are part of it. Some now offer

basic textbooks online for free, but charge students for supplemental materials like study guides and flash

cards. There are also some disturbing trends, she said, like free materials that come with advertisements

and track students personal information.

Traditional textbooks, she said, are a smaller part of the market.

Its not black and white, Sporkin said. Publishers are not opposed to open source.... But it does come

down to quality content thats well-researched, thats well-written, that serves the student.

About 25 students will be chosen for TCCs pilot program next year. All will go through an orientation to

learn about OERs, according to a news release from TCC.

DeMarte said Lumen Learning and the 13 faculty members involved with this project will be critical to

figuring out whether to expand it. They will determine whether the content is on par or better than what

the professors are using now.

Its a house of cards if those two pieces are not there, he said. We will not compromise quality, period.

Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/03/tcc-plans-offer-degree-textbooks-not-required


Community college to offer textbook-free degreePublished March 18, 2013

BY KARIN KAPSIDELIS

In what is seen as the next major innovation

in cutting college costs, Virginias Tidewater

Community College will offer a textbook-free

degree program in the fall that could reduce

the price of earning an associate degree by

about a third.

TCC says its associate of science degree in

business administration will be the first in the

nation by an accredited institution to entirely

use open-source educational materials.

I think we have a responsibility as a college to do what we can to help control the costs of textbooks,

because we know there are students who cant afford them, said Daniel T. DeMarte, TCC vice president

for academic affairs and chief academic officer. We know there are students who are not successful

because they cant afford them.

The two-year pilot program is being developed through a partnership with Lumen Learning, an Oregon

company that helps schools integrate open educational resources, known as OERs, into curricula.

David Wiley, one of Lumens founders, spoke last August at the Virginia Community College System retreat.

During a panel discussion, Wiley said it would be possible to offer an entire OER degree program but

that no one had done it yet, DeMarte recalled. Afterward, I asked him if hed be willing to work with

Tidewater to make that happen.

The college estimates a student who completes the degree will have saved about $2,000, although actual

savings will be calculated when the pilot program is evaluated.

The business program ranks second in demand among the colleges offerings, with more than 350 students

earning the degree annually.

For the 2013-14 academic year, the college will offer one OER section for each of 21 courses.


Students taking the OER courses will receive additional advising to make sure they understand the

concept, said Kimberly Bovee, associate vice president for strategic learning initiatives.

For example, when a student hears its a textbook-free course, that doesnt mean they dont have to read,

she said. That doesnt mean they dont have to engage in the course material and maybe read even more

that theyre used to.

Lumen views open educational resourcesthose that are in the public domain or have been released from

copyrightas an untapped resource for repurposing to reduce college costs.

But interest is growing amid studies that show textbook costs have increased by more than 800 percent

since 1978.

Virginia State University, which embraced the concept several years ago, offers all of its core curriculum

courses in the business school on open digital textbooks.

The states community college system is seeking to expand OER courses, but as yet no other college is

offering a textbook-free degree. However, grants are being offered to instructors to develop OER classes,

especially for high-enrollment courses that can be shared across the system.

VCCS Chancellor Glenn DuBois said these open resources are increasingly being used to take the place of

ridiculously expensive textbooks that students are only going to use for 15 weeks and never use again.

He said some textbooks can cost more than the tuition for a community college course.

I think its one of the biggest rip-offs in this business, DuBois said. I say that not as a chancellor; I say

it as a father who just had to give his daughter 600 bucks to buy this semesters textbooks at a

public university.

With open digital materials, students can save $150 or so per course, and if they want to print it and

keep it, it might cost them 15 or 20 bucks, he said.

[email protected]

(804) 649-6119

Source: http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/community-college-to-offer-textbook-free-

degree/article_d45bcffc-bea5-5049-acd3-b025170041f2.html


Virginia Community College to Pilot Free Textbook ProgramPublished March 18, 2013

BY CATHERINE GROUX

As the cost of textbooks continues to rise, Virginias Tidewater

Community College recently announced the launch of a pilot

program in which some students can earn an associates degree in

business administration without purchasing books, The Associated

Press reports. While some colleges have strived to offer students free

online textbooks when possible, college officials said this is the first

time an accredited, American institution has tried to create a degree

program that exclusively relies on free, or open-source texts.

Tidewater plans to complete the pilot in one year and then analyze

whether it affected the quality of its courses. However, students

who attend the community college next year will not be required to participate in the program. The school

currently offers multiple sections for each of its 21 required business administration courses, so students

can select whether they want to enroll in one that uses traditional books or one that only relies on

free texts.

Daniel DeMarte, vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer at Tidewater, told The

Virginian-Pilot that the main reason for launching the pilot is to reduce the cost of earning an associates

degree. Today, students spend about $655 on required course materials each year, according to a July

2012 study conducted by OnCampus Research.

Source: http://www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com/articles/virginia-community-college-to-pilot-free-

textbook_13019.aspx#.VNN_Ap3xrck

A Virginia community college will create a pilot

that relies solely on free textbooks.


Textbook-free project could cut degree costs by a thirdPublished March 25, 2013

BY TIMES STAFF

A Virginia community college may be the first college in the country to offer a degree in which students

wont have to use textbooks.

Tidewater Community College (TCC) will launch its textbook-free degree this fall aimed in part to ease

the sting of soaring textbook costs for students, which is increasingly becoming a financial challenge.

Textbooks have increased more than 800 percent since 1978, with the average book today priced at $175.

Business administration students participating in the pilot program will use high-quality open textbooks

and other open educational resources (OER), which are freely accessible, openly licensed materials that

include text, videos, presentations and other formats. All students will need is access to a browser.

Eliminating textbooks could result in students saving $2,000-$2,500 over the course of the degree,

college officials estimate.

TCC is partnering in the effort with Lumen Learning, a Portland, Ore.-based company that helps

educational institutions integrate OER into their curricula.

For TCC President Edna Baehre-Kolovani, the initiative is about making higher education more accessible

and affordable by reducing the costs of required books.

We have worked with our bookstore partner, Barnes and Noble, to offer students options, she said.

Textbooks can be purchased new or used and many are available as rentals or e-text. This initiative offers

yet another option: to skip traditional textbooks entirely.

STARTING THIS FALL

TCCs textbook-free pilot project will begin with the 2013-14 academic year, according to Daniel DeMarte,

the colleges vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer. Aside from increased access

and affordability, TCC hopes the project will lead to more faculty engaging in learning about and refining

the use of OER and greater faculty and student understanding of learning outcomes.

TCC will offer one section each of 21 courses for which students will not be required to buy textbooks.

Thirteen faculty members will teach the sections.

The business administration degree produces more than 350 graduates annually, the second highest

among the colleges offerings, and the department has an innovative faculty member who is familiar with

OER and willing to lead the initiative, DeMarte said.


The courses will be delivered both on campus and online. TCC contracted with Lumen to help identify the

best OER, support the faculty building the courses and ensure copyright compliance.

AN IDEA FROM A RETREAT

DeMarte said he was inspired to pursue the initiative after hearing Lumen Learning founder David Wiley

speak about OER at the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) Chancellors annual retreat last August.

He approached Wiley after the panel and soon the two organizations began forming a plan.

TCC started its initial training with faculty in January, with Lumen leading the training, said Kimberly

Bovee, associate vice president for strategic learning initiatives at TCC. The company is currently working

with the college to develop the OER courses. Lumen is also looking into copyrights on selected material.

TCC officials stressed that the quality of the OER courses will be as good or better than the textbook

courses.

We will be deliberate and strategic with this effort remaining focused on student success and high-quality

education, DeMarte said, noting that OER is peer-reviewed to ensure academic rigor.

FACULTY SUPPORT

Faculty members have expressed a general openness to the idea of OER, said DeMarte, who noted that

faculty support is crucial.

If you dont have a faculty who is going to champion it, its just not going to work, he said.

Another key component of the project is support services for students taking OER classes, Bovee said.

That includes technical support as well as advising students and making sure they understand what the

courses entail.

One of the challenges will be to manage expectations of students, DeMarte said.

It doesnt mean that reading isnt required, he said.

The state system is encouraging other two-year colleges to test OER. It has formed a group to develop

recommendations for reducing textbook costs across the system. VCCS will soon announce colleges

that will each receive $3,000 to identify, review and customize high-quality OER to make them the only

required course material.

VCCS has also joined other public colleges and universities in the state to hold an inaugural Open & Digital

Learning Resources Conference to build awareness of innovative OER initiatives.

Source: http://www.ccdaily.com/Pages/Technology/Textbook-free-project-could-save-students-a-third-in-

degree-costs.aspx


For some, buy the book is gone Posted May 24, 2013

BY JARED COUNCIL

Tidewater Community College is getting closer to becoming the first post-secondary school in the U.S. to

offer a textbook-free degree, adopting an alternative resource that experts say may shake up the textbook

publishing industry in yet another way and redistribute power among stakeholders - though much remains

to be seen.

TCCs pilot program, to commence this fall, is based on free, Internet-based open educational resources,

also known as OERs.

The pilot is only for business administration majors and will allow students to forgo buying books for

those classes.

A student pursuing an associates degree in business administration on an OER path could save as much

as $3,678, said Daniel DeMarte, TCCs vice president for academic affairs, adding that thats a savings of

about 25 to 30 percent.

Thats a big deal, he said.

The initiative is called Open TCC, and the school has contracted with Portland, Ore.-based Lumen Learning

to help implement it.

Business administration students wont be required to go the OER route, school officials said.

DeMarte got the idea from Lumen founder David Wiley at a chancellors planning retreat in August. School

officials then ran the concept by faculty members, who in turn embraced it.

If we dont have faculty who think its possible and were willing to take a look at it, DeMarte said, I

wasnt willing to take it any further.

Since then, faculty members have been vetting and selecting content, while school officials have worked

on logistical items such as process and assessment models.

Lumen has been training faculty and scrubbing selected content to ensure usage is legally compliant,

TCC officials said.

The crowd that goes to community colleges, theyre probably the first generation in their family to go to

college, said Wiley, who is in discussions with two other community colleges. They need more help than

anybody, so thats why we work primarily with community colleges.


Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Inc., TCCs official bookstore partner, did not respond to requests

for comments.

DeMarte said officials there are aware of TCCs move, and he suspects theyre trying to fully assess what it

will mean for their business model.

The school has 150 academic and training programs, most of which are textbook-based.

DeMarte wouldnt disclose how much TCC will pay for the Lumens services.

But the funds used, he said, arent tied to any price increases for students.

Charles Schmidt, spokesman for the National Association of College Stores, said textbooks make up the

biggest chunk of college store revenue.

He said in 2011, the latest year of data, textbook sales accounted for $5.8 billion of the $10.2 billion

industry.

Open educational resources may change that, but Schmidt said stores shouldnt be the only ones

concerned.

Profit goes back [to the school] to help the students in the form of scholarships, help cover lab fees,

Schmidt said. Say the college goes to an OER on the intro- to-math book. All right, well, how many

thousands of dollars did that bring in last year? Youre not going to have that this year.

Matt Reed, vice president of academic affairs at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts, said his

school is exploring utilizing OERs.

He acknowledged that declining college store sales means less school revenue.

But if that happens, he said, so be it.

If OER pays off the way I think it will in the sense of improving student success rates, then whatever

bookstore revenue we lose well more than make up in increased tuition revenue from students not flunking

out, Reed said. Id much rather go that route as opposed to milk them for all theyre worth, then they

bail. I dont like that model at all.

The most recent NACS survey, from 2008, estimated that about 77.4 cents of every dollar from textbook

sales went to publishers. Peter Shea, an Albany University associate professor of informatics who studies

higher education, said technologies like Amazon.com, self-publishing and more have been disturbing the

conventional bookselling model over the past several years.

OERs are one facet of the traumatic struggles that are occurring as a result of the disruption caused by

Internet-based technologies, Shea said.


Andi Sporkin, vice president of communications with the Association of American Publishers, said many

member publishers already have digital technologies and some have delved into OERs.

She mentioned Pearson, which has developed an OER-based site called Project Blue Sky, as one example,

though she wasnt aware of how it makes money.

The old print traditional textbook is pretty much gone. If people arent getting into digital theyre certainly

getting in to customized [products], she said.

Sporkin expressed confidence in the value that publishers large and small bring to conventional and

new content development processes, and said its too early to tell how big an impact OERs will have

on publishers.

I dont know, she said when asked what OERs are doing to the publishers business models. Its in a

transitional stage. What I do know is that probably about eight to 10 years ago a number of major nonprofit

foundations put a lot of money toward OER development. A lot of that has very quietly ended.

Even as publishers such as Pearson are exploring OERs, Sporkin expressed concerns about them.

She questioned the fact-checking process in OERs, as well as the effectiveness of OER authors in

conveying concepts to students.

Whats the quality of the OER material? And the biggest concern is: Is it good or good enough? she said.

Wiley said the authors produce OER content for a variety of reasons.

Some people produce content because they cant find what they think is good content out there in the

world, Wiley said. Some people feel like its a social justice issue, that its completely immoral and

wrong that books cost so much that students cant afford them.

DeMarte said TCC is determined to use material that is on par with or better than what it currently uses.

If the answer to that was no, he said, then we go nowhere with this.

Even if quality was sufficient, some have said there are still other issues that OERs pose.

Schmidt, of the NACS, said one is access to computers and reading devices, which may vary widely among

students. Another issue has to deal with those devices malfunctioning.

One of the biggest positives about an e-book, students say, is a lighter backpack, he said, And one

of their greatest fears is youre getting ready to study for finals and you hit the power button and

nothing happens.

Schmidt also said students may like to study with multiple books open at once, annotating and highlighting.


He cited a fall 2012 NACS on-campus survey of about 10,500 students that found 77 percent of students

prefer print products.

DeMarte said OERs arent likely to replace all methods of content delivery.

This may in the end be just another option along the continuum for the student who wants to buy a new

book and use it for life or rent a book or not have to buy a book at all.

Kimberly Bovee, who is associate vice president for strategic learning initiatives at TCC, said one of the

greatest advantages of OERs is the fact that instructors can start with learning outcomes and find a variety

of sources to help achieve that as opposed to starting with a textbook and basing learning outcomes on

whats available.

When they keep their eye on that learning outcome, much of what is traditionally in a textbook isnt

necessarily needed, Bovee said. It becomes much more focused, much clearer, much more direct.

Bovee said the school is scheduling student orientation and Lumen will help analyze and tweak the

program as it grows.

She said Open TCC is likely here to stay, or else it wouldnt have made it this far.

As OERs carve out a niche, industry experts said, companies are mulling over their responses.

The staying power of OERs is strong, Reed and others have said, and its potential is great.

The movie industry didnt start by making movies as we know them; it started by filming plays, Reed said.

Only later did they realize that movie cameras can do things other than just record plays.

I think right now OER is in the filming-a-play stage, where theyre taking the textbook model and imitating

it - which is a perfectly valid first step.

Source: http://insidebiz.com/news/some-buy-book-gone


A textbook case of students not having enough money Published December 30, 2013

BY BILL SIZEMORE

NORFOLK At a recent meeting of Old Dominion Universitys governing Board of Visitors, a startling

statistic caught board members attention.

According to a survey, nearly one in five ODU students are attending classes without the benefit of

textbooks. The reason: They cant afford them.

Its a sharply rising trend, Todd Johnson, assistant vice president for auxiliary services, told the board.

Along with escalating tuition and fees, accelerating textbook prices are a key reason why a college

education is becoming less and less affordable not just at ODU, but across the nation.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that college textbook prices soared

82 percent over the past decade almost as much as tuition and nearly three times the overall rate

of inflation.

Textbook prices for a semesters worth of classes typically run between $800 and $1,500, Johnson said.

A single book in some areas of study can cost $200 or more.

ODU has tried to ease the burden by offering used books and rental plans at the campus bookstore, but

19 percent of students still cant bear the cost, Johnson said. Pell Grants, the need-based federal grants

for low-income students, dont cover books. So students double up with friends and seek out online

resources instead.

Board members were stunned.

I deem that a real problem for the university, Marc Jacobson said.

Elio DiStaola, a spokesman for Oak Brook, Ill.-based Follett Higher Education Group, which manages

ODUs bookstore, said the 19 percent figure is consistent with nationwide findings from the companys

internal research.

I cant even begin to think how the heck I would succeed in a classroom without my materials, he said.

ODU administrators are exploring additional strategies for dealing with the problem, Johnson said.

One innovative approach is getting a test run a few miles across town at Tidewater Community College, and

the early reviews are positive.


TCC has just finished the first semester of a pilot program that allows students to complete a two-year

associate degree in business administration without buying a single textbook.

The Z Degree program Z for zero textbook cost makes use of free, openly licensed online materials

known as open educational resources, or OER.

Its estimated that students will save as much as $3,000 over two years about 30 percent of the cost of

the degree.

Its the first such program in the world, according to TCC and its partner, Lumen Learning, a Portland,

Ore.-based company that helps schools integrate OER into their curricula.

The TCC initiative was named a finalist this month for a national Bellwether Award, given annually by the

Community College Futures Assembly, a think tank that recognizes trend-setting institutions.

During the first semester of the pilot program, about 400 students took 16 Z courses ranging from

business to English, math and electives.

It seemed like a crazy idea at first. But so far, it looks like it is possible, said Daniel DeMarte, TCCs vice

president for academic affairs and chief academic officer. Weve heard nothing negative from students

or from faculty. What we tend to hear from students is, they know were in pilot mode but they want this

option in other courses.

In a sense, students have been ahead of the curve, DeMarte said, seeking out and tapping into online

materials on their own.

They have gotten very resourceful in finding access to the material electronically, by hook or crook, he

said. Sometimes that means pirating the material.

Pirating isnt an issue with the TCC degree program, because the resources used are free, open-source

materials. Lumen Learning vetted the materials, assuring they are high-quality and suited to TCCs needs,

and trained faculty members in how and where to find them.

Kim Thanos, co-founder and CEO of the company, said a community college is an ideal place to test the

concept because those institutions offer the sort of high-enrollment courses college algebra, English

composition, introductory psychology and the like for which a wide variety of open-source materials

are available.

Open materials for more specialized, upper-level courses are not as common. Nonetheless, Thanos said,

four-year universities are watching the Z Degree initiative with interest and will likely be the next frontier

for the concept.


We are seeing a real sea change in the use of open resources in a pervasive way, she said.

Will the day eventually come when printed textbooks disappear?

Its heresy to say that in some circles, DeMarte said. I think its inevitable. How long before that occurs

is anybodys guess. But I think were moving in that direction.

We need to be doing what we can to drive those costs down.

Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/12/textbook-case-students-not-having-enough-money


Z Degree: TCCs textbook answer Published January 1, 2014

College expenses continue to climb, from tuition to activity fees to interest on student loans.

Many students enrolling in college classes fail to realize that education costs in one area have risen faster

than nearly any other: textbooks.

Since 2002, the cost of college textbooks has increased 82 percent. Figures for a longer term comparison

are even more startling: Since 1978, the cost of textbooks has skyrocketed by 812 percent. The increase

in textbook prices outstripped medical services by 237 percent, home prices by 487 percent and the

consumer price index by 562 percent.

One book for one course might cost as much as a car payment.

Two schools in Norfolk have taken note. At Old Dominion University, the board of governors recently

learned that nearly 20 percent of its students cannot afford textbooks for their classes. Old Dominion has

decided to find ways to deal with that problem.

Leaders at Tidewater Community College have addressed it head on: Students in classes for a two-year

degree in business administration use only materials that can be found for free on the Internet. Course

materials were vetted for quality, and professors received training in how to find them.

About 400 students participated in TCCs pilot program called Z Degree. Z stands for zero textbook cost.

Others have already clamored for the school to make book free an option for other courses.

As The Pilots Bill Sizemore reported, the book-free classes could save a student as much as $3,000 over

two years, nearly a third of the cost of the degree.

TCC is a finalist for a national Bellwether Award for its endeavors, and other schools would be wise to

emulate its success. The real impact lies in making education more affordable for more people. Students

should not be hostage to professors who give no consideration to the cost of required course texts, nor

should book publishers be free to extort those trying to accomplish required reading.

The Internet has become an information equalizer. Education, the great equalizer, opens doors of

opportunity. Combining the two opens doors for many more people.

Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/12/z-degree-tccs-textbook-answer


Cost-Cutting College: Educations Future Published February 4, 2014

For years, American families have accepted soaring tuition costs as a necessary evil to pay for a college

degree and promising career.

The recession, however, forced a change in

thinking and pricing. Universities and students

are seeing cost-cutting as a new way of life.

A LEANER, MEANER EDUCATION

Eryn Cotton loves working with children and

paying for college as she goes. Besides teaching

hip hop, she works three other jobs while going

to school full-time.

Shes part of a new generation hoping to

downsize or eliminate college loans altogether.

I just told myself right up front, Get it done and get it taken care of, she said.

This desire, or shall we say demand, has colleges racing to come up with plans for an affordable degree.

The latest average price increase for a four-year public school rose by 2.9 percent, the lowest increase in

30 years.

Christian colleges have also cut back. Dan Nelson, vice president for institutional data and research at

Bethel University, said faith-based schools have forced themselves to get leaner and meaner.

Many of us have streamlined our programs, undergone program reprioritization processes, Nelson said.

Theres been quite a few salaries that have been frozen.

NO MORE BOOKS!

This era of cost-cutting has also led to new ways of educating. Imagine not having to lug heavy textbooks

around, let alone pay for them.

Thats the idea behind whats known as a textbook-free degree.

Its not unusual for a student to come to me and literally say, The books for this class are half again as

much as the tuition and I just cant afford it, Linda Williams, a faculty member at Tidwater Community

College in Virginia, said.

Stories like that led TCC to make history. Its the first accredited institution to offer a degree that costs

students nothing for course material.


The expected savings for a two-year degree: $2,000. Teachers access whats known as open educational

materials free online.

Were no longer constrained by what exists between the front and back cover of a traditional textbook,

Williams said.

Dr. Daniel DeMarte, vice president for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at Tidewater, said the

free materials provide high level scholarly content.

There is no compromise in quality in course textbooks or materials using open educational resources, he

said. And we think its only going to get better.

CREATIVE COST-CUTTING

Colleges and universities are also getting more creative with financial aid. At least two Christian colleges,

Houghton and Spring Arbor, will help graduates repay their loans if they earn less than $38,000 a year.

Cotton uses several strategies to keep her tuition low. First, she takes as many community college classes

as possible.

You get more help I think at the community college and its a third of the price, so why not? she said.

Shes also going online. Those classes are cheaper and allow her to squeeze in more work hours.

Regent University Executive Vice President Paul Bonicelli said online education will likely drive cost-

cutting strategies for the foreseeable future.

Its not a panacea. It still costs to deliver a course online, but you can scale it in terms of an economy of

scale, he explained. You can make it possible to teach more students with fewer of those resources.

He admitted it brings out skeptics and critics. But Bonicelli said students want it, primarily, because of cost.

What people are coming to now is, Where is the established brick and mortar campus, that has a

reputation, that has the accreditations, that is also delivering education online? he explained.

Then those students are more attracted to it because they realize, the qualitys already there, the rankings

are there, he said. And I can get this education now even though I cant leave my home, which is 2,000

miles away.

A MOOC EDUCATION

Christian colleges have a special mission to help those students entering the ministry, who cant afford

major loans.

For them and others who have high hopes and little money, there is growing interest in whats known as

MOOCs Massive Open Online Courses.


A MOOC allows you to take the course on your own time, at your own pace, Bonicelli said.

Unlike traditional online classes, these arent tied to a semester schedule. MOOCs are also free for

students not pursuing a degree. Those who need college credit can get big discounts.

And the content can be exceptional, from engineers teaching their stuff at Massachusetts Institute of

Technology to a What Is Jesus class at Regent.

So the latest advice for students? Keep your options open and compare financial aid packages before

making final decisions.

Plan ahead by taking college classes in high school, and be organized.

You have to be determined and if you want it you can get it, Cotton said.

Source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2014/January/Cost-Cutting-College-Educations-Future/


Baehre-Kolovani: OER - A textbook case for reducing college costs Posted: Friday, March 7, 2014

In efforts to ensure the future affordability of higher education, textbooks

dont receive the same notoriety as, say, tuition, fees, athletic facilities and

faculty salaries. And yet, according to the American Enterprise Institute,

the cost of college textbooks has risen 812 percent since 1978, more

than the rates of inflation, health care, new home prices and even college

tuition itself.

The academic toll is high. In January, the University of Marylands student

government association reported the results of a survey in which 65 percent

of students said they have decided not to buy a textbook because of price,

and nearly half say they decide their courses based on how much the books

cost. At Virginia State University, business school dean Mirta Martin found

that fewer than half of VSU business school students purchased textbooks,

and that many had to repeat their classes. After she arranged a pilot of lower-cost digital textbooks and

increased academic support, student success markedly improved.

But what if a student could avoid buying textbooks altogether?

Open educational resources, known as OER, have emerged as one answer, and many institutions offer

courses using OER, which are publicly licensed and academically vetted content. A congressional briefing

on March 10 in Washington, D.C., will focus on the potential of OER to alter the landscape of higher

education and truly put a dent in college costs.

However, despite the success of OER, too few colleges and universities have pushed the envelope in

examining the full potential of OER in teaching and learning.

In the fall of 2013, Tidewater Community College took an unprecedented step: Inspired by a presentation

at a retreat organized by Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginias Community Colleges, we piloted an entire,

two-year business degree using OER. Not only business courses were included, but also all of the general

education courses a student needs to complete the academic program. TCCs vice president for academic

affairs, Daniel DeMarte, will be speaking at the congressional briefing about our program, which we were

able to accomplish with the help of Lumen Learning. Lumens co-founder, David Wiley, is also expected

to speak.


Until TCCs Z-Degree, no college or university in the U.S. had gathered the diversity of OER resources

and developed a faculty team that could produce an entirely textbook-free degree. Over two years, a

student stands to save more than $3,600 on the cost of the degree just in textbooks, on top of already

affordable community college tuition.

Textbooks cost students and professors in other ways as well.

Because textbooks are frequently written for broad audiences in the hopes that they will be adopted by

large numbers of faculty and departments, they are filled with content that is superfluous to a specific

courses learning outcomes. At best, the faculty member who is focused on content directly supporting the

courses outcomes must skip significant portions of the textbook. At worst, a faculty member may rely on

the textbooks content, not the learning outcomes, to organize and teach a course.

Either way, faculty who want to individualize or update learning content must supplement. The cost is in

teaching efficiency and effectiveness.

Our data from the first semester of the Z-Degree are encouraging. Textbook-free courses had higher student

retention and comparable grades, and students perceived better course quality and success at meeting

learning goals. The spring semester textbook-free course offerings were quickly filled.

Nicole Allen of SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition, directed a national

student campaign for textbook affordability, and she is also scheduled to appear at the congressional

z-degree report | 2015 | tidewater community college

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