Open Education Week - The Cost of Higher Education
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Open Education Week, March 5-9 this year, is a celebration of a global movement. With a goal to share resources, tools, and practices to improve worldwide educational access and effectiveness, open education is combining the tradition of faculty-directed learning with 21st-century technology.
Dr. Richard Saunders, Dean of Library Services at Southern Utah University, shares how SUU is working to make education more affordable and accessible.
“SUU has done something really impressive. We've put together a four-year initiative to systematically go through the General Education courses, and we're looking course-by-course to see what commercial texts we can replace with an open text.”
Textbooks play a big part in the cost of higher education. Students pay on average $1,200 per year on books alone. Usually, the expense for books is met directly out-of-pocket, not with scholarships or financial aid.
“It's a big cost and it's a big issue. It's something that affects every student one way or another at some point in their careers. The figure right now, is that approximately 70% of students who go to college choose not to buy a textbook or textbooks in at least one of their classes each term.”
Students are choosing cost savings over grades and potentially a longer course of study if they fail. Saunders describes an informal study by SUU Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Andrew Misseldine, which demonstrated that reducing costs for students can increase their success by comparing classes using a commercial text to classes using an open text.
“Misseldine found that 15% more students completed the classes with the sole variable of using an open textbook. The grades didn't go up dramatically, but they didn't go down. Grades of a D, F or withdrawal, decreased at about the same 15% rate. So just having the textbook open and available to students made a big difference.”
Dr. Saunders has also experimented with offering students open resources for classes.
“I taught an upper division history course last year and opted to use two open textbooks. I asked them to compare. ‘Why does one book say this? How does the approach differ?’ That made the students think. I got probably the best discussion in class I think I've ever had in a course that I've taught.”
Dr. Saunders is a published author and accredited librarian and archivist with thirty years practice in academic libraries. He is familiar with the media and available for an interview.
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