A buy-in for open books - WSU Vancouver

"In fall 2013, the Math 106 class at WSU Vancouver participated in a pilot program using OER in partnership with the Gates Foundation and Lumen Learning. The result was overwhelmingly positive—and the teaching faculty member left WSU to work for Lumen and continue developing materials. The program expanded to a couple of other math classes and the task force estimates it has already saved students about $40,000.

That’s the goal, said Michael Caulfield, the director of blended and networked learning at WSU Vancouver. He is one of the leaders in the effort to make OER part of the new standard in educational materials. Caulfield, along with Karen Diller, library director; and Linda Frederiksen, head of access services, have been telling faculty about grant and funding opportunities to find or create appropriate OERs—books and ancillary resources, such as videos and quizzes—for their courses.

WSU Libraries, and Academic Outreach and Innovation are providing stipends of up to $5,000 to faculty interested in finding textbook alternatives. Faculty in Vancouver can receive support and stipends of up to one month’s salary to create, adapt or add OER materials to their courses. In 2016, WSU was one of 11 institutions nationwide selected to participate in the Open Educational Resource Institutional Partnership Program, which is operated by Rice University’s OpenStax. The program will provide free consultation and resources for schools wanting to increase the use of OERs and help schools dedicated to lowering the cost of course materials connect with each other. The estimated savings per year with the program is $424,000."