Tales from an Early Adopter
Sebastian Heiduschke
World Languages and Cultures (German)
School of Language, Culture, and Society
College of Liberal Arts
What we adopted
Why we adopted an OA Textbook
(in 2009)
• Outdated, overpriced textbook ($200 – no
return possible)
• Expensive alternatives ($200)
• Student input
• Digital pre-natives (in 2009): multiple ways to
access (laptop, tablet, print-on-demand: $30)
Why we abandoned OA (in 2010)
• Content
– Insufficient teaching materials for instructors
– insufficient companion materials for students
• Structure
– Non-linearity of grammar companion website
Why we are (gradually) changing
back to OA (in 2014)
• Learner/ learning styles: digital natives
• Professional development (flipped classroom)
• Growth of Ecampus degree on international
scale (textbook purchasing from abroad; easy
embedding)
• German for STEM (OA textbook as “backup”
resource instead of content delivery)