International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 112

International Journal of Open Educational Resources
and academic enrollment criteria of
information privilege, some of the biggest
limiters when it comes to accessing
quality academic resources.
Early OER Failures
Three Adams State faculty members
had previously adopted
OER without institutional support,
and with very uninspiring results.
One professor claimed that his
upper-division math texts were traditionally
published and later rereleased
under CC License and were of good
quality; however, he felt the lower-division
texts from OpenStax were “of lower
quality than I’d like and we are probably
going back to ‘normal’ for those two
classes.” He finished with, “I’m definitely
not passionate about OER but I am
committed to lower costs for students
when its [sic] prudent” (A. Langdon,
personal communication, Feb. 19-20,
2019).
The second professor reiterated
the shared lack of passion, but agreed
that student costs need to be lowered
“whenever feasible.” His opinion was
that the quality of material was “in the
middle of the pack.” He also noted that
“in most cases, the students do not seem
to read it,” referring to all texts regardless
of price or licensing. While learning
outcomes are outside the scope of this
paper (Grimaldi, 2019 and Hilton, 2016
pointed out flaws in recent studies), it is
worth noting that this professor felt that
“switching to the lower-cost option has
not seemed to impact student learning”
(A. Langdon, personal communication,
Feb. 19-20, 2019). The third professor
merely said that the department
was looking at TopHat, pending an institutional
subscription (A. Langdon,
personal communication, Feb. 19-20,
2019). (TopHat is an affordability option
that offers low-cost textbooks and
educational resources.)
In the beginning stages of implementing
a concerted OER initiative, the
librarians advocated exclusively to the
faculty. We were guest presenters at the
monthly meeting of all campus department
heads. We defined OER and used
several slides from Hannans, Jenkins,
and Leafstedt’s (2018) webinar, which
demonstrated how Latinx and first-generation
students were most heavily
impacted by high textbook costs. The
faculty members were largely disinclined
to take on a project that would
disrupt their already frenetic semesters.
We hoped that a seed had been planted
and that there might be a trickle-down
of information and encouragement to
each department.
The following month, we held
a free lunch-and-learn session. Fewer
than 10 faculty members attended,
but they were the most interested in
adoption. Without financial incentives—which
have been lacking up to
this point—almost no one is choosing
to adopt OER. During the summer of
2019, 10 faculty members were given
Title V grants for course redesign,
in order to modify them for the Fall
2019 launch of our new first-year experience.
The redesigns emphasized
Latinx Studies; Crime & Forensics; and
Health, Sports, & Wellness. The library
reached out through the Title V office
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