Journal of Online Learning Research and Practice Volume 7, Number 2, 2019 | Page 20

The APUS Open Educational Resources (OER) Conversion Project
increases the overall cost of instruction.
However, these costs shift from the
ECM budget to payroll. When updated
courses use library-subscribed materials,
the costs shift to the library budget
in the form of additional licenses as required.
Eliminated publisher-produced
e-text expenses offset the stipends paid
to PTF members to convert undergraduate
course materials to OERs.
To-date, the OER Conversion
Project has leveraged the subject matter
expertise of no fewer than 250 APUS
faculty members and directors who
have collectively revised more than 350
courses. The project is well on its way
to converting approximately 500 course
materials to OERs in less than two
years. Coordinated efforts involving every
department at the University have
led to these results.
The OER conversion process
requires faculty members to connect
deeply to and feel ownership of the entire
contents of a particular course. One
criminal justice professor shared:
As a full-time faculty member, I
manage the content and quality
of four courses. I strive to provide
a valuable learning experience
for students by ensuring
that the course content is relevant
and timely to the criminal
justice field. I also create a rigorous
curriculum that provides
opportunities for student growth
and real-world experience. For
example, in the Criminalistics
(CMRJ341) course I incorporated
lab assignments requiring
students to apply their new
knowledge while conducting
hands-on crime scene investigations.
I immerse myself into
each course and develop a plan
of action to improve the quality
of the content and delivery.
Last year, the university began to
transition from using textbooks
in the classroom to the Open
Educational Resources (OERs).
This presented a unique challenge
and an opportunity to conduct
research and locate timely
and relevant resources for each
of my courses. Customization of
the course materials allowed me
to create contemporary, flexible,
and quality content. The assessments
and assignments were
also adapted to ensure that they
aligned with the OER .... As an
educator and a researcher, I attempt
to locate the most pertinent
information on the course
topics, emerging trends in the
criminal justice field, and current
events to incorporate in
the classroom. (APUS Criminal
Justice Instructor Nicole Cain,
ABD, personal communication,
August 2018)
In this way, as an institution, APUS has
become less dependent on publishers’
choices and more reliant on its faculty
for students’ curricular experiences.
Graduate course material conversions
to OERs result in immediate cost savings
to students. Complete course conversions
by program at the graduate
level permit APUS to create and advertise
“Z-degrees,” or “zero-costs-for-
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