Vice President of Academic Affairs
T E X T B O O K TAS K F O R C E C O M M I T T E E
Meeting Notes for December 8, 2014
In Attendance
Present: Jane Nichols, Tom Cardoza, Patricia Hensley, Ted Lambert, Fred Lokken, Ryan Maloney, Ron Marston, Brandy
Scarnati, Lee Schafer, Randy Walden, Sharon Wurm, and Shannon Van Kirk
Open Educational Resources (webinar)
The taskforce participated in a webinar focused on Open Educational Resources (OER). The host for the webinar was James
Glapa-Grossklag who serves as Dean, College of the Canyons, and Vice President, Open Education Consortium (OEC)
Highlights from the webinar included:
•
On a global scale OEC has over 280 members/organizations offering over 30k courses in 40 countries and in 29
languages.
•
Nationally, OEC has over 250 colleges/members in 18 states.
•
According to the BLS, Census Bureau, college textbooks have risen 812% since 1978; outpacing medical services,
new home prices, and the Consumer Price Index.
•
Due to the high cost of textbooks, many students elect not to buy textbooks, or they take classes that require a
“cheaper” book.
•
OERs allow for teaching, learning, and research material that permit free use and re-purposing by others. This can
be accomplished by using an open license. For example, MIT offers over 1,300 courses as OERs.
•
Organizations offering peer reviewed OERs include: Open Suny Textbooks, openstax College, MERLOT, OER
Commons, BCcampus, and saylor.org
•
Examples of savings: Broward College Online has saved its student over $250k each semester through OER
courses. Maricopa Millions uses its students to market OER and has a goal to save its students $5 million dollars
over 5 years by offering low cost (under $40) or no cost options for course materials. Between fall 2013 and spring
2014, Maricopa has saved its students $818k.
•
James also shared that OEC offers monthly webinars and an annual Open Education Week, featuring online and inperson events around the world. (March 9-13, 2015). Last year’s participation was approximately 80k people.
James shared that at College of the Canyons the most successful courses in reducing textbook costs have been: sociology,
biology, history, and other gateway courses that serve large populations of students. Last year they saved students $750k.
The best way to implement OER is finding faculty who are interested in it and not presenting it as a mandate. College of
the Canyons’ president expresses her support for OER publicly. She encourages faculty to apply for grants that will support
OER efforts and then steps out of the way to let faculty take ownership.
NSHE/BoR Update, Ron Marston
Ron reported that in September, student government leaders met with NSHE Board officers and the Chancellor to raise
their concerns over the high cost of textbooks as well as the role/responsibility of faculty in selecting textbooks. For
example, students are required to purchase a new edition of textbook that may only have minor revisions.
Page 1 of 2; Textbook Taskforce Committee Meeting Notes for December 8, 2014
TMCC is an EEO/AA institution. See http://eeo.tmcc.edu for more information.
Created: 1/5/2015; Rev: 1/5/2015
Jane added that the Academic Affairs Council put forth two draft proposals to revise the NSHE Course Fee Policy, but both
were met with a negative response from the student government and faculty senate representatives. A third version is
being drafted but this conversation will likely take time.
Bookstore, Lee Schafer
Lee discussed current trends in course materials, the current process at the bookstore, and some ways in which students
can save money on textbooks. Lee added that Follett supports the opportunity for some OER and is willingly to sell older
textbooks if they can get the number of books requested by faculty.
Lee added that TMCC will participate in a pilot program offered by Follett called IncludeED. IncludeED offers the
opportunity for students to pay a fee to cover the cost of course materials. This concept allows students to have their
textbooks on the first day of classes and allows the bookstore to negotiate lower prices from publishers based on 100%
participation. TMCC has discussed a pilot this program in fall 2015 with EPY but the continuing discussions on the system
policy will delay this.
Also being offered by Follett is ConnectOnce. ConnectOnce is a technical solution that allows for a more streamlined course
import process (import of course information, enrollment, and student information).
Library, Shannon Van Kirk
Shannon provided a handout listing items that are on reserve at the library. Based on the information presented, it is clear
that there are a large number of items on reserve and that students are utilizing them. Many of the items were only
checked out once, but it could be that students aren’t aware that books and other supplemental material are on reserve at
the library. The question was raised about whether all faculty know that they can place items on reserve for their students.
Announcements
The committee voted unanimously to add Ron Marston to the Textbook Taskforce.
Next Meeting (lunch will be provided)
Friday, January 16 at 11:00 a.m. in Sierra 201
Page 2 of 2; Document Title
TMCC is an EEO/AA institution. See http://eeo.tmcc.edu for more information.
Rev.: 1/5/2015