Abstract

After a successful proof of concept to expand the university’s commitment to Open Educational Resources (OER), a pilot program was launched to facilitate the adaptation and development of Open Textbooks by academic staff for students as well as broader audiences. The pilot involved the use of the publishing platform Pressbooks as a mechanism to raise awareness of Open Educational Resources, and to provide a university-supported tool with which to develop Open Textbooks. Commencing in Semester 2, 2020, participants in the pilot received vendor training from Pressbooks, as well as support from learning and teaching and library staff. Pilot participants used the Pressbooks platform in a number of ways. Academics created textbooks as course material in a single unit, academics adapted open textbooks for Australian contexts over a number of units, and academics created open textbooks based on their research and not for a specific unit of study. Of the 13 pilot participants, five open textbooks were created, with one still in development. Responses to the pilot were mixed. Student feedback on the use of Pressbooks indicates that they enjoyed the structured and easy-to-read course material. Other students expressed frustration with the higher workload expectations of consuming material online prior to participating in synchronous classes. Students appreciated the zero cost of engaging with an open textbook. Academic feedback was also mixed, with some appreciating the flexibility and engagement that they can achieve in Pressbooks. Others were discouraged by the amount of time spent on creating material for little perceived benefit. The majority of academic staff who developed a textbook using Pressbooks would like to continue to use the platform.

Highlights

  • Following a successful proof of concept which investigated the feasibility and practical potential for scaling up institutional support for Open Educational Resources (OER), a university pilot scheme was launched

  • What academics and units are involved? How many students? What kind of students? What was your goal in using the Pressbooks? How did you use it? What successes have you had? What issues have you had? Did you provide any resources to support student use? How did you find resources to support staff use? How much time did you spend on it? How does it compare to how you were doing it before? Have you achieved your goal? What evidence have you seen to support this? Can you see potential for additional uses of the Pressbooks beyond what you used it for? Would you like to continue to the Pressbooks, if so, when? Would you recommend to your colleagues?

  • In this report we provided an overview of a pilot designed to increase the use and creation of open educational resources

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Summary

Queensland University of Technology

After a successful proof of concept to expand the university’s commitment to Open Educational Resources (OER), a pilot program was launched to facilitate the adaptation and development of Open Textbooks by academic staff for students as well as broader audiences. The pilot involved the use of the publishing platform Pressbooks as a mechanism to raise awareness of Open Educational Resources, and to provide a university-supported tool with which to develop Open Textbooks. Of the 13 pilot participants, five open textbooks were created, with one still in development. Student feedback on the use of Pressbooks indicates that they enjoyed the structured and easy-to-read course material. Academic feedback was mixed, with some appreciating the flexibility and engagement that they can achieve in Pressbooks. The majority of academic staff who developed a textbook using Pressbooks would like to continue to use the platform

Introduction
Background
Proof of Concept
Recommendations from the Proof of Concept
Open Textbook Pilot
How did we go about it?
Who took part?
How did we evaluate it?
Guided interview questions
Multiple choice questions
Open ended questions
From our academic partners?
From our students?
How do you usually access your required or recommended textbooks?
Weekly More than weekly
Likert Scale Questions
Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree
What did we learn in the pilot?
Findings
Conclusion and next steps

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