Open Access to Open Educational Resources

While watching the webcast "Connecting the Dots between Open Access and Open Educational Resources," I noticed something interesting: the graph that represented the cost of college textbooks for students versus the rate of inflation looked almost identical to a graph that I saw 3 years ago at a presentation on the rising costs of periodical subscriptions.  Both graphs represent staggering rises in the cost to students and libraries for materials that rarely make the college professors and researchers who create them much money.

While libraries have been decrying the crisis in scholarly communication for years, and shrinking their book budgets to accommodate the bigger piece of the pie that periodicals are gobbling up, many students, according to webcast presenter and student Nicole Allen, seem to have adopted a different strategy: simply not buying their textbooks.

I don't think we should underestimate the undue burden that is placed on students by the onerous cost of textbooks (if you've never had a student at the reference desk in tears about how much she has to shell out for her biology textbook, consider yourself lucky).  Even if they've scraped together the loans to pay for tuition, it's sometimes that $200 economics textbook that means the difference between making rent and dropping a class.  The cost of materials should never be the deciding factor for a student's intellectual development, and the way that we, as librarians and scholars, can mitigate that potentiality is to pay a little more attention (or a lot more attention) to the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement that has been gaining traction in recent years.

The infrastructure for vetting instructional material is not as well developed for OER as it is for traditional textbooks, and this presents a barrier to widespread adoption of OER by instructors.  Most professors know the publishers that are well-respected in their field, they've seen the same names on articles and monographs since they were undergraduates, and using this information, they can make a quick choice of high quality course material from amongst traditional sources while they're in the midst of determining all of the other crucial elements of their course.  Getting newly acquainted with platforms for OER, looking through all new textbooks, and evaluating their quality is a lot to ask of busy instructors.

But vetting material is what librarians are all about, and I think that marriage of student need and instructor/librarian expertise is the making of a truly useful collaboration.  Just as we do for our normal collection, we can begin to look at the OER that are out there for our subject areas and create curated lists to present at our next faculty meeting.  Both webcasters suggested a great list of places to find OER, and two of my favorites are:

• Washington State's Open Course Library- a project that took the highest enrollment courses in the state and asked professors and librarians who worked with those classes to design free or very low cost materials--including syllabi, textbooks, and assessment--to be shared under a Creative Commons license (CC BY).
• Open Courseware Consortium- acts as a clearinghouse of OER material from the likes of Tufts, MIT, and the University of Michigan to be used by educators around the world (I like to look at the MIT literature courses just to see which authors are being taught these days).

A few libraries have begun to take active roles in promoting OER at their institutions--UMASS Amherst, for instance, has begun distributing grants to instructors to support their efforts to adopt OER in their courses--but according to webcast presenter Cable Green, most libraries have focused their intellectual and political energies on the Open Access movement and spent very little time looking at OER. 

The first step that I've decided on for myself is to head over to the campus bookstore to see just how much students are actually shelling out for course materials in my departments.  If it turns out that the cost is burdensome, I am going to take a look at some of those courses and see if I can match them up with some of the peer-reviewed OER that I find online.  Armed with that information, I think I could make a good case to the instructors in my liaison areas to consider alternative texts, and maybe save their students some serious money in the next few quarters.

Transformed by Teaching

For the last class session of my quarter long information literacy class, my 15 students, the English and communications instructors who were a part of our learning community and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant for a coffee ceremony and to de-brief about the quarter.  The communications instructor assigned one last speech: "this will be your final impromptu speech: talk about at least one thing you learned this quarter and how it will affect your future."

While the coffee beans were roasted and ground, and the incense burned (anyone who hasn't enjoyed one of these coffee ceremonies, you're seriously missing out), the students shared incredible stories of growth that ranged from learning to measure ones own capacity for empathy to learning that there is a world of information that one has a right to access.  When I wrote my last Bookaneers post on the preparatory reading that I was doing before the quarter started, I could never have anticipated that I would end the quarter with tears rolling down my cheeks as my students stunned me one more time with their strength and insight.

When it was my turn to deliver my speech, I told my students that I'd learned three major things this quarter that would change my whole future:  

• I learned that I love to teach.  I love it so much that it got me up in the morning, got my intellect working in new and dynamic ways, and kept me up at night because I was so excited about the next day's lesson--and this came as a big surprise to me.  I got into librarianship with no idea of how much teaching is involved in every interaction--and how much classroom teaching is a part of the job description of an academic librarian.  By the time I began this class, I'd spent nearly two years teaching one shot research skills sessions to other instructors' classes, and had finally stopped hyperventilating long enough to begin enjoying the time I spent with those students in the classroom.  

But having a classroom of my own was completely different.  Over a whole quarter I had the chance to learn just what my teaching meant to the lives of the students that I got to see twice a week, every week.  And their reciprocal support for me can't be underestimated.  Though none of them knew that I was a new teacher, they instinctively reflected back to me my successes, my mistakes, and their unflagging support of my growth.  I can remember the revelation, during my first quarter in college, when we read Paulo Freire, that the boundaries between being a teacher and a student in the classroom should be wholly permeable.  Finally, in this class, I experienced that equality.  My fellow learners taught me about their cultures, their learning styles, their socioeconomic experiences, and my own teaching--and I grew, intellectually and emotionally, by leaps and bounds as a result.  In the future, I will make teaching a priority in my professional life, because I can't imagine anything more challenging or more fulfilling.   

• I learned the impact that information can have on people's lives.  Of course, my belief in the importance of access to information made me want to be a librarian in the first place, but until now, I'd ever seen the proof in such a real way.  Most of my students are in school because they want to go into social services--and almost all of them made that decision because they themselves have been helped or harmed by going through the social services system, as immigrants, as children, as veterans.  They have the experience and the passion to make outstanding professionals, but all of that knowledge is personal.  What we were able to develop in our class together, were the skills to push their personal narratives into wider-reaching reflections.  Through research, each student was able to contextualize his or her experience into a societal narrative, and marshal information resources to make their advocacy more powerful and persuasive.  In the future, I will always bear in mind the life-changing effect that access to information can have on people's lives.

• I learned about the courage that it takes to get an education.  Every one of my students' stories were different, but each of them surmounted a major obstacle to make it to higher education.  For example, one student ran away from her abusive husband when she was 15 to seek out personal freedom and education in America, though she didn't speak a word of English, and finally, at 32 she was in college.  And hers is hardly the most harrowing experience.  For many students everything about being in school was difficult: the writing, the long hours sitting still, the fear of looking stupid, the difficulty of the work, fitting in homework around children and a full time job, getting enough time on the computer to complete assignments.  But they'd made it to my classroom, and, amazingly, stayed alert, engaged, and fun during our hours together.

For several of my students, the greatest struggles were still to come.  Aside from all of the routine difficulties of college, several students faced incredibly difficult life events during the course of the quarter.  One student lost a close family member to a violent death on Sunday, and was back in my class the following Tuesday.   Another student and her children became homeless during the quarter, and she still managed to turn in her assignments to me.  I can honestly say that had I faced any of the things that these students faced during my second quarter in college, I would not have been able to complete my studies.  When I spoke to them about their amazing persistence in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, each of them made it clear to me that being in school was their greatest achievement, and that they would do almost anything to keep learning.  In the future, I will honor every student who walks through my classroom door as someone who has or who will bravely overcome obstacles to their own learning.  I will never forget how difficult getting an education can be, and I will take my teaching as seriously as they take their learning.

I'm not sure when I'll get to teach another quarter-long class, but I am thrilled that I got the opportunity to teach this one.  Although something special happens when we get to spend months in a learning environment with the same group of people, I know that all of the lessons that I am taking away from this quarter are applicable to my one shot sessions.    And so, to all of my future students, I can't wait to learn what you have to teach me, and to all of my former students, thank you for teaching me so much.

Community College Online Learning

Bookaneers,

It was splendid to see most (Wesley, I'm looking at you!) of you last night. Since teaching is so much on our minds at the moment, I thought I'd share this Chronicle article about the progress and pitfalls of online courses at the community college level.

According to Rob Jenkins, a professor of English at a Georgia community college, the demand for higher completion rates for state and nationally funded colleges, has led to a push for more online courses. Online courses mean more options for folks who are fitting in school between jobs, or who have a hard time getting to campus, which, the received wisdom suggests, should increase completion. Jenkins disputes this claim, though, with a fairly compelling argument:

... online enthusiasts point to a 2009 "meta-analysis" by the U.S. Department of Education that, they say, shows that online courses are not only cheaper and more convenient but also better. The report looked at 99 individual studies of online learning conducted since 1996 and concluded that "on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction."

Nice try. But that study has serious flaws, especially as it pertains to community colleges. In the "Effectiveness of Fully Online Courses for College Students: Response to a Department of Education Meta-Analysis," Shanna Smith Jaggers and Thomas Bailey of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University point out that only 28 of the 99 studies examined in the Education Department report focused on courses that were fully online. Furthermore, only seven looked at semester-long courses, as opposed to short-term online programs on narrow topics, "such as how to use an Internet search engine."...

Even more alarming, for those of us on the front lines at community colleges, is the fact that all seven of those studies were conducted at midsize or large universities, five of which were rated as "selective" or "highly selective" by U.S. News & World Report. Those are not exactly the kinds of places that typically attract at-risk students—the ones least likely to complete their degrees. Community colleges do attract such students, and in large numbers.

Moreover, in six of the seven studies, withdrawal rates were not even mentioned, meaning that the research gauged only how well students performed after completing the course. The studies didn't tell us anything about those students who didn't complete the course.

Two other studies by researchers at Columbia's Community College Research Center do shed light on the role that online courses play in college completion—and the news isn't exactly good.

The more recent of the two, as reported by The Chronicle in July 2011, "followed the enrollment history of 51,000 community-college students in Washington state between 2004 and 2009 [and] found an eight percentage-point gap in completion rates between traditional and online courses." That comes on the heels of a 2010 study that reached similar conclusions about community-college students in Virginia: "Regardless of their initial level of preparation ... students were more likely to fail or withdraw from online courses than from face-to-face courses. In addition, students who took online coursework in early semesters were slightly less likely to return to school in subsequent semesters, and students who took a higher proportion of credits online were slightly less likely to attain an educational award or transfer to a four-year institution." [for the full article, please visit the Chronicle of Higher Education and look for the article "Online Classes and College Completion"

In any class, using as many different means of delivering ideas and content as possible increases your chances of reaching students with different needs, resources, and learning styles. As we consider how to incorporate technology into our classes--or our classes into technology--we should make sure that we're opening up ways for students to access ideas, and persist with their studies, rather than closing them down. I believe that there are useful ways of taking our teaching online--but I also believe that it requires a careful consideration of the possibilities and limitations of our present technology--and the strength of the human connection that can come from face-to-face instruction.

Teaching Tools Roundup

Ahoy Bookaneers!

As I'm finishing up my second quarter as a real librarian, and preparing for my upcoming quarter, I find my desk(top) covered with the new accoutrements of our profession. While many of these items bear the word "library" on them, they also bear words like "literacy," "pedagogy," "teaching," and "classroom." What has surprised me most these last two quarters is the sheer amount of teaching I have done--and the amount that I have to look forward to. This instruction takes many forms, and happens both in-person and virtually: class sessions with students I see only once or twice, one-on-one instruction while assisting a student at the reference desk, carefully detailed tips and advice in response to an email reference question, or virtual learning objects like research guides and video tutorials. This spring I'll teach a two-credit, full-quarter information literacy class as part of an I-BEST cohort, and the prospect of 20 hour-long class sessions has me both excited and just a little nervous.

I know that several of us have been experiencing the same steep learning curve as we recognize the gaps in our knowledge about teaching at the same time that we see the potential for its impact on our students. So, I thought I'd pull together some of the resources that I've found most useful in helping me grow as an educator, and I would love to hear what you all have been using, too.

• Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice by Geneva Gay has been invaluable in my process of thinking about classroom dynamics and communication styles at the very culturally diverse community colleges where I work. Gay, an instructor at our very own University of Washington, brings into focus the ethnocentricity of traditional American teaching styles, and how disenfranchising that classroom environment can be for our students. Most excitingly, Gay explores the multiplicity of communication styles represented in a multicultural classroom, and how much richer our educational experiences will be if we harness that diversity of styles in our teaching.
  

• The recent blog post "Reflective Teaching for Librarians" by Char Booth nicely summarizes the experiences I've had working with all you bright Bookaneers and the incredibly gifted educators at Seattle Central Community College, Shoreline Community College, and Highline Community College where I work and teach. Char suggests some practical approaches to collaboration, mentoring, and observation that operationalize all of the knowledge that we, almost unconsciously, absorb from our colleagues. With the brisk pace of the reference desk, its easy to forget some of the brilliant techniques that we witness daily, and it pays to be as disciplined in our record keeping as Booth suggests.

• Teaching Information Literacy: 50 Standards-Based Exercises for College Students by Joanna M. Burkhardt and Mary C. MacDonald with Andree J. Rathemacher comes as close as a book can be to the practical ideas that you get observing a colleague in the classroom. While the exercises are so concrete as to be a little limiting at times, I really appreciate the step-by-step instructions of how to plan different lessons around the various and interlocking elements of information literacy.

• While I don't necessarily agree with them all of the time, the ACRLInformation Literacy Competency Standards have been an important touchstone as I've planned classes; discussed the value of information literacy with administrators; and struggled to define, in my own mind, how the skills that I teach differ from the content of the class that I'm teaching to.

• A thousand thanks to Bookaneer Freeda Brook for sending along the brilliant In the Library with a Lead Pipe blog post on "Carleton: Forensic Librarians and Reflective Practices." Jastram, Leebaw, and Tompkins make a subtle but important distinction between teaching information literacy skills and fostering an information literate mindset, that has set my head spinning (along with Claire Murata's at Shoreline, with whom I can't stop talking about this) with ideas about how to shift my whole pedagogical paradigm.

• It's been over 10 years since I first encountered the classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and the inspiring Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks, and they have been foundational to my thinking of the classroom as a possible place of liberation. Freire's simple injunction to remember that the teacher is also a student and that students are also teachers has had an amazing impact on the level of trust and relationship building in the classes that I have worked with. I've found that nothing makes students take me seriously faster than taking them seriously first.

I had no idea that teaching would form such a fundamental part of my practice as a librarian, but I am grateful that it does. Nothing takes more of my time than preparing for a class, but nothing feels as good as seeing a student's life get easier and more interesting because of something they learned in a class with me. We have the opportunity to make a huge impact on the lives of students in our classrooms, and I look forward to a lifetime of working with you all at getting better at that task.