10 Chapter 10 – Conclusions and Recommendations

Penn State University is well-poised to build a more systematic approach to reducing course material costs for students through the creation and adoption of OER, systematic approaches to services that reduce costs, such as library course reserves, and increasing common resource adoption across the Commonwealth. Penn State University is uniquely positioned to make significant progress in affordable and open course material adoption due to its significant investment in instructional design and the opportunities that the Commonwealth Campuses afford related to course materials.

The Commonwealth Campuses offer opportunities to pilot OER initiatives, and to take advantage of economies of scale for common resource adoptions. As discussed in Chapter 10, even licensed resource or traditional textbook costs for selected courses can be reduced with increased coordination across the campuses. The Commonwealth Campuses offer the opportunity to pilot systematic approaches to OER adoption that can also be implemented at other Penn State University locations. For example, the OER Task Force meeting with faculty and staff at Penn State New Kensington focused on strategies to meet a hypothetical goal of having each full-time faculty member using OER in at least one course and yielded the suggestion of exploring a cohort model based on the successful hybrid course development program at that campus.

The Commonwealth Campuses are also well-positioned to address one of the common concerns expressed by faculty with whom the Task Force met, the alignment of OER creation and adoption with the tenure and promotion policies. The general concern is that this work is not recognized by most tenure and promotion policies at Penn State. The Commonwealth Campuses can pilot recognition strategies for affordable course content creation and adoption within the scholarship of teaching, and give examples for successful integration of these initiatives into the tenure and promotion structure for other Penn State locations to use as models.

Although the Task Force found overall interest in OER among the faculty who were consulted and a considerable amount of work underway at Penn State related to OER (see Chapter 4 for a few examples), two issues surfaced. First, there is no one unit or point person leading OER and affordable course content initiatives. In addition to unit-level programs focused on OER, two central units are already supporting OER and are well-positioned to expand their support, the Teaching and Learning with Technology unit within ITS and University Libraries. Regardless of reporting lines, an OER coordinating position is needed to serve as the point of contact for OER and a referral to the support available to interested faculty.

The other issue that became clear is that a well-developed strategy for faculty development related to OER and affordable course content is needed. The goals of this faculty development

program should be awareness of the issues and opportunities, and support for OER creation and affordable course content adoption for those faculty who are interested.

The following are recommendations for the development of a robust OER program at Penn State University.

Recommendations

Staffing

A coordinating position is recommended to further develop systematic and university-wide OER and affordable course content initiatives. Teaching and Learning with Technology within ITS has designated an instructional designer position to lead its efforts on OER. As the other central unit providing services and resources in support of OER, a coordinating position within University Libraries is recommended. A recent survey of institutions within the Association of Research Libraries found great variability in the titles for such a position and in organizational alignment; however, a position modeled on the open education portion of the Open Education, Copyright & Scholarly Communications Librarian at Virginia Tech is recommended.³⁵

This position will:

• Coordinate faculty and staff development focused on OER and affordable course content within University Libraries to embed support for interested faculty through the University Libraries liaison librarian program
• Coordinate professional development and programming for faculty interested in transitioning to OER
• Administer or co-administer faculty incentive program(s) designed to encourage OER or affordable course content adoption.

This position will either report within the Library Learning Services department, or at one of the Commonwealth Campus Libraries. Library Learning Services would align the position with other services and programs focused on undergraduate teaching and learning. A Commonwealth Campus Library appointment would align the position with the best opportunities for faculty adoption of OER.

Cross-Institutional Partnerships

It is recommended that Penn State University leverage existing partnerships to guide its OER and affordable course content program and strategically select new partnerships. Unizin has been identified as the most promising existing partnership to advance OER at Penn State. In addition to the local facilitation of OER creation and adoption through the platforms supported and created by Unizin, the institutions participating in Unizin offer the best opportunity to create

35 Anita Walz, Kristi Jensen, & Joseph A. Salem, Jr. SPEC Kit 351: Affordable Course Content and Open Educational Resources July 2016, Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 2016.

OER that can support selected learning outcomes, particularly at the general education level across several peer institutions.

The OERu partnership is recommended as well. Penn State’s membership in OERu would cost $4,000 annually. The OERu membership would make the OER authored at Penn State more prominent and provide easily-integrated OER content to Penn State faculty. The invitation to join was first made to the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute. An institutional membership would also mark a noteworthy shift in the approach to OER at Penn State from the unit or initiative level to a more programmatic approach.

Finally, it is recommended that Penn State join the Open Textbook Network. For the cost of $5,000, Penn State will join a consortium of institutions interested in OER and affordable course content initiatives and will receive already-established faculty development and engagement programming during the first year, assessment data on open textbook adoptions, and the opportunity to send a designated OER coordinator or librarian for training at the summer institute to facilitate a train-the-trainer model for faculty development. In order to build on the momentum created by the inaugural OER Summit, it is recommended that the OTN membership start in order to facilitate the initial faculty development program during the spring of 2017 as a follow up event.

Faculty Development

In addition to the faculty development offered through the Open Textbook Network, it is recommended that a robust faculty development program be created in partnership among the Center for Online Innovation in Learning, the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, the Teaching and Learning with Technology unit within ITS, and University Libraries. The recommended program is based on the successful Blended Learning Transformation program administered by TLT. A cohort of up to 12 faculty would be sought annually and supported by a team that includes a librarian, instructional designer, and outcomes-based assessment support. Each faculty would agree to transition their course(s) from traditional student-purchased or licensed course content to OER or affordable content during summer or fall semesters for use in the spring.

A stipend of $1,000 can be offered to faculty as well for any course that enrolls at least 25 students. With travel support, programming, and potential software licensing, the program could be supported by an approximate investment of $15,000 each year and yield a savings of at least

$24,600 (based on enrollment of at least 25 students in 12 courses) annually, for a net total saving to the Penn State community of at least $9,400. The savings will persist beyond the annual investment and the program will create a growing cohort of faculty using OER and affordable course content. Assuming that each course is taught biennially, the total net savings for such a program over a five-year period could conservatively be estimated at $146,600. If these materials were adopted in multiple sections and across locations, those savings would grow exponentially.

Pilot of Systematic Course Reserves

It is recommended that University Libraries pilot a systematic approach to course reserves for World Campus courses during the upcoming academic year based on the model developed at The University of Minnesota. A fund of $20,000 will be designated to support increased or additional licenses for online course materials in use within World Campus courses. The course material adoptions can be gathered systematically from the World Campus and the process to check them against current electronic licenses can be established over the upcoming year. Data for the fall semester can be used to establish the process and budget for material support with the pilot expending the $20,000 allocation, embedding the materials in Canvas, and gathering data on use and cost savings can be conducted during the spring semester.

Partnership with University Bookstore

It is recommended that a robust partnership with the bookstore vendor (currently Barnes & Noble) be established to pursue strategies to reduce cost for courses using traditional textbooks. As discussed above, the uniform designation of textbook for multi-section courses at any one location will reduce costs to students. With the Commonwealth Campuses, Penn State is well-poised to maximize those savings. It is recommended that cross-campus textbook adoptions be pursued for those courses for which a traditional textbook is most applicable. In order to facilitate such adoptions, the bookstore vendor could encourage cross-campus adoptions by sponsoring coordinating events or summits annually.

If successful, it is recommended that the University Libraries pilot of systematic course reserves with World Campus courses be expanded to residential courses using text adoption data provided by the bookstore.

In addition to cost reduction strategies, it is also recommended that the bookstore be notified of open textbook or OER adoptions to facilitate print-on-demand for those students who prefer to use a physical copy of the book, when applicable.

Strategy for Hosting OER

It is recommended that a preferred hosting option for locally created OER be selected. In order to facilitate easier learning management system (LMS) transitions in the future and wider availability of locally created OER, it is not recommended that the LMS be used to host content. Rather, an established repository like the OER Commons platform or a Penn State open access learning object repository should be established. The local repository could be built on the platform used for ScholarSphere, the institutional repository currently supported at Penn State University.

Strategic Action and Assessment Plans for OER/Affordable Course Content

It is recommended that a strategic action plan for OER and affordable course content be developed by the OER Coordinator (TLT) and Open Education Librarian (UL) during the first year of that staffing model, with implementation during the 2017-2018 academic year. The plan should focus on faculty development, course transition, and student awareness and use of OER throughout the curriculum. Recommended metrics include course transitions and cost savings, faculty OER developments and adoptions, and outcomes-based assessment in courses using OER and affordable alternatives.

Course Material Designations

It is recommended that courses that use OER be designated in LionPath in order to facilitate assessment of course material on student success. Once fully developed, it is recommended that the designation be shared with students so that enrollment decisions can be made accordingly.

Funding Proposal for Recommendations

Proposed funding sources for each recommendation described above that requires additional resources are provided below. A three-year funding period is proposed to facilitate the efficacy of each initiative within the current Penn State University Strategic Plan period (2016-2020).

Unless otherwise indicated, temporary funding is proposed for all initiatives.

Over the three year-period, it is proposed that Penn State University invest a total of $207,980 in OER and affordable course content initiatives and that Barnes & Noble invest $9,000 for a total investment of $216,980. It is proposed that University Libraries make a total investment of

$92,000 (AY 2016-17: $34,000; AY 2017-18: $29,000; AY 2018-19: $29,000) and the Provost’s

Office make a total investment of $115,980 (AY 2016-17: $70,980 permanent + $15,000; AY 2017-18: $15,000; 2018-19: $15,000).

*FTMY position