by Prof. Cailean Cooney
“We could all pay $25 and share the textbook”
– Heard in the Atrium on the second day of Spring classes, 2/2/16
The beginning of the semester is an exciting and crucial point in the year. It demands heightened patience and attention from the whole college community as we adjust to the swell of students and a surge in academic activity. And the hardship that many City Tech students encounter when trying to access required course materials is most keenly felt during this period.
Surveys show us that students decline to purchase textbooks because of the high prices and that such decisions result in concern over the quality of their grade. Specifically, 65% of students who were surveyed reported not buying a textbook due to cost, and 94% of them expressed concern over how that decision – not having their own copy of the textbook – would impact their grade. See more from the Student PIRG report: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market.
Open Educational Resources (OER) Fellowship Updates
As the Spring 2016 semester takes off, we’d like to take this opportunity to spotlight the great work from faculty involved in the Library’s Open Educational Resources (OER) program, an initiative begun in Fall 2014, that funds faculty to curate open course materials to supplant traditional textbooks. Faculty select high quality curricular materials developed by colleagues in their field, and integrate pedagogical materials they’ve developed themselves. The result is free access to students via City Tech’s OpenLab platform. These OER have proven successful at providing students with easy access to learning materials, often made up of diverse content (videos, interactive simulations) that can support many learning styles in a way textbooks – both because of their scope and exclusive textuality – cannot easily match. Did I mention textbooks are heavy? It sounds trivial, but urban commuting is not for the faint of heart.
OER Fellows’ contributions to open pedagogy – Fall 2015 to present
Fall 2015 OER Adoptions
| Course | Total Course Sections | Total Students | Approximate Total Savings |
| Critical Health Psychology by Prof. Almond | 3 |
78 |
$10,000 |
| Biology I Lab Manual by Prof. Seto | 1 |
21 |
$840 |
Spring 2016 – Planned OER Adoptions
| Course | Number of Sections | Total Students | Approximate Total Savings |
| Critical Health Psychology by Prof. Almond | 2 |
53 |
$6,790 |
| Biology I Lab Manual by Prof. Seto (also adopted for 2 Molecular Biology Lab sections) | 6 |
120 |
$3,840 |
| Construction Management II by Prof. Sowder | 1 |
21 |
$3,150 |
Fall 2016
We’re very much looking forward to expanding the OER fellowship program this Spring, with 11 new faculty joining the program this Spring, who will implement their OER in the classroom next fall.
Interested?
If you would like to learn more about open educational resources, open pedagogy, and the OER fellowship program we’ve got some useful resources for you to explore!
- OER Guide – What you need to know and how you can get started with open educational resources
- OER Fellowship Guidelines – Initiative background and application information
- OER Fellowship OpenLab site – Follow your colleagues work in the OER Fellowship and join the conversation
