Online Learning Update

by Anshika Agrawal, The Daily Collegian

“We are trying to work with different universities in the state to address how we can lower the cost of textbook prices, whether that be using an older edition of a textbook or using online editions,” said Andrew Ahr, the UPUA College of Arts and Architecture representative. One of their initiatives involves lowering textbook costs, known as Open Educational Resources. “[OER is] a huge thing that schools across the Big Ten… are looking into right now because they’re trying to make a huge shift [from] print resources towards online, more affordable resources,” UPUA At-Large Representation Sophie Haiman said.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_472f8e3c-0b7e-11e8-8688-df19262c0491.html

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Ed tech company Knewton has launched a collection of digital courseware that integrates its adaptive technology with open education resources, with the intention of selling directly to instructors and students. Previously, the company licensed its adaptive functionality to textbook publishers for integration with their course content. Under the new strategy, the company noted, it could own “all aspects of the user experience” and “make a greater impact on outcomes and affordability.” Each title in the new line costs $44 for two years of digital access.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/01/25/knewton-releases-44-adaptive-digital-textbooks.aspx

by Christine Ascher, ULoop
The opportunity to take an online course is one major benefit of technology when it comes to education. Online courses offer you more flexibility in terms of when and where you can complete your coursework than a traditional classroom-style course, and they allow you to learn about different websites or apps that can be helpful in academia. However, there are also some downsides that can come with participating in an online course: most notably the fact that, because you’ll be a bit more independent, it can be more difficult to stay on top of everything. Taking an online course may require more self-motivation and self-scheduling than you’re accustomed to, but if you know this going into the course and figure out some strategies to cope, you’ll be right on track.

https://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/256968/5-Ways-to-Stay-Organized-When-Taking-an-Online-Course

by David Neder, Pasadena City College Courier

Recently, Pasadena City College took action to create an easier way for students to take classes without the need of purchasing expensive textbooks. Beginning during the Winter 2018 intersession, students are able to search the course catalog for classes that only use zero-cost textbooks. This applies to not only traditional classes, but also online classes. These classes will utilize only open educational resources (OER) available for free online. The initiative is part of the College Textbook Affordability Act that was passed back in 2015 by the state of California.

http://www.pcccourier.com/news/new-zero-cost-textbook-classes-minimize-educational-barriers.html

by Matt Stewart, Fox4KC

The price of going to college continues to rise, but there is a movement nationwide to reduce some of the costs. It’s called the Open Textbook Library, and it’s saving students hundreds of dollars every year. Instead of having students spend $300 on one hardcover textbook for one class, they can now get many of their class materials online for free. Students going to UMKC, Mizzou, KU and many other local colleges have access to the Open Textbook Library. All a student needs to do is search for their textbook on the website and download it to their computer.

http://fox4kc.com/2017/10/23/online-textbook-service-saving-college-students-hundreds-of-dollars/

by Pat Donachie, Education Dive

About 85% of new college or university students had not purchased college textbooks by the first day of class or decided not to buy the textbooks at all, according to a new survey of students conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of VitalSource Technologies LLC. This was a 5% jump from a similar survey the year before. About 91% of students who did not purchase the materials cited costs as the issue, and half of those students admitted that their grades went down because they did not have the necessary materials. Students also cited an interest in “inclusive access,” which involves incorporating the cost of digital classroom materials into the cost of tuition. 88% of students believed that incorporating inclusive access would help their grades improve, in lieu of using traditional print resources and textbooks. 78% of students whose schools did not have such an initiative underway expressed hope their school would investigate bringing inclusive access to their campus.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/students-are-opting-out-of-purchasing-textbooks-because-of-cost-how-oers/505242/

By eCampus News
Students are expected to save an estimated $145 million in the 2017-18 academic year by using free textbooks from this platform. Nearly 1.5 million U.S. college students are expected to save an estimated $145 million in the 2017-18 academic year by using free textbooks from OpenStax, the Rice University-based publisher of open education resource materials. “The adoption of OpenStax nationally is taking hold and saving students and families money,” said Daniel Williamson, managing director of OpenStax. “Individual faculty as well as institutions can make tremendous gains in college affordability by using OpenStax textbooks.” OpenStax projects this year’s savings to be nearly double last year’s impact on students’ wallets. Since 2012 OpenStax has saved nearly 3.5 million students more than $340 million by offering 29 textbooks for the most-attended college courses.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/business-news/million-students-free-textbooks/

by Cherokee.org

Recent research focusing on Native American languages and how they are taught is helping revitalize the Cherokee language, in part, through online courses and modern textbooks developed by the Cherokee Nation. Using these updated methods, the Cherokee Nation’s Cherokee Language Program continues to have a far-reaching impact, with up to 3,000 students taking online courses and around 400 taking community classes each year. Participating students are from all ages and all corners of the world. “There are so many people interested in preserving the language,” said Ed Fields, an online instructor with the Cherokee Language Program who has taught courses for more than a decade. Fields teaches a 10-week, online Cherokee language course in the spring and fall each year, with participants gathering online one hour per day, two days a week. His spring course started April 10 and fall class will start Sept. 11, with registration opening Aug. 28. Through a live camera, students see Fields as he uses his own curriculum and life experiences to teach Cherokee.

http://www.cherokee.org/News/Stories/20170504_Online-classes-modern-textbooks-helping-revitalize-Cherokee-language

by Kathy Boccella, Philadelphia Inquirer

Next year, though, when Gumpert’s ninth graders reach into their backpacks, they will pull out slim laptops instead of overweight tomes and use mostly free online resources, including the latest current events from Africa, the Middle East, and anywhere else on Earth. Garnet Valley is one of a handful of Philadelphia-area districts, and three in northern New Jersey, that are in the vanguard of a nationwide movement to ditch traditional textbooks for open-source educational resources on the web. Along with budget savings, which can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in a district, proponents say it gives teachers more freedom to custom-tailor curricula and allows students to learn where they’re already most comfortable — on computers.

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/History-books-could-soon-be-history-as-schools-switch-to-free-online-learning.html

By Jillian Corder, KPLC

After tuition, student fees, and housing cost, a trip to the bookstore can be overwhelming for college students. Books can easily cost upwards of $500 a semester, but LOUIS -The Louisiana Library Network – is hoping to cut that cost for students. The team is currently working on a plan that would allow students to use online books at the library instead of the traditional hardback textbooks. At Textbook Rentals on Common Street in Lake Charles, KPLC gathered books required for 15 credits hours at McNeese State University. The five freshmen level courses totaled $594.18 in books.

http://www.kplctv.com/story/34259323/college-textbook-alternatives-being-considered-to-reduce-student-spending

BY KERRY PIGMAN, eCampusNews

Why we can’t answer 21st century demands to adopt new, affordable types of course content with an outdated 20th century model for buying print textbooks. The higher education course content market is in chaos. Print textbook prices continue to soar, up 73 percent in the past 10 years, more than 4 times the rate of inflation, according to US PIRG report. Students are delaying or worse, not buying course materials because they aren’t affordable, according to a recent survey. And while faculty are slowly starting to embrace low-cost or free textbook alternatives, namely Open Educational Resources [OER], their awareness levels remain in the basement, according to a new Babson Research survey. Meantime, two- and four-year public institutions’ online and physical bookstores continue to issue RFPs with recurring themes and required elements.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/curriculum/break-print-textbook/

By Ally Johnson, Daily Pennsylvanian

Single-use online access codes for textbooks are making it difficult for students to save money on necessary materials for classes. In Sept. 2016, the Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) — independent statewide student organizations that work on issues like environmental protection, consumer protection and homelessness — published a report called “Access Denied” that called these access codes the “new, dangerous face of the textbook monopoly.” The report found that 20 percent of classes at private, four-year colleges require these codes and only 28 percent of access codes are offered at bookstores in an unbundled form. If codes are only offered in bundles, students must buy the code with other materials. The Student PIRGs found that the average cost of an unbundled access code was $100.24 when purchased at institutional bookstores.

http://www.thedp.com/article/2016/10/digital-access-codes-proliferation

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

The governor of Rhode Island launched an initiative that aims to save college students $5 million a year by switching out traditional textbooks with openly licensed textbooks. Governor Gina Raimondo introduced the Rhode Island Open Textbook Initiative to combat the steep prices of traditional textbooks, citing that textbook prices “have nearly doubled over the last decade,” according to a news release. The Rhode Island Office of Innovation (InnovateRI) will lead the initiative through its partnership with Adams Library, located at Rhode Island College (RIC). RIC launched a pilot program this school year that so far has saved students $100,000 by switching to an openly licensed textbook for a biology course, according a news release.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/09/28/rhode-island-open-textbook-initiative-to-save-students-5-million-annually.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

“Open” has gone mainstream. The world now celebrates Open Education Week. The U.S. Department of Education announced an “Open Education” or #GoOpen initiative and ran its first “@GoOpen Exchange” to get schools and educators committed to the use of open educational resources (OER). Students at Ithaca College, The College of William & Mary and Santa Barbara City College are all pushing their schools to adopt OER. Multiple colleges and universities are trying out no/low-cost OER degree programs. Amazon looks to be getting into the OER business with “Inspire.” And a bipartisan group of Congressional staffers recently held a briefing to learn from experts why they should care about OER. The demand for free learning content may be loud and clear now, but, back in 2013 when Campus Technology first surveyed the top sources for free digital textbooks, the OER world seemed a quieter, less tweeted place. What hasn’t changed, though, is that faculty and students still want to know where to go to find the goods.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/20/the-price-is-still-right-15-sites-for-free-digital-textbooks.aspx

BY LAURA DEVANEY, eCampus News

With more and more students opting not to purchase textbooks for class, Illinois College had to find a solution In the face of mounting textbook costs that forced many students to attend classes without critical course reading material, one college adopted a new model to ensure students were getting the maximum benefit out of their classes. Illinois College officials knew that too many students came to class without purchasing the required course textbooks. Sometimes, as many as 50 percent of students did not have a textbook for class. The college rolled textbook costs into tuition the same way costs associated with athletic fields, libraries, and classroom equipment are rolled into tuition. “We had quite a bit of student pushback when we first announced this, but when we rolled it out last fall, all complaints went away,” she said. In fact, college leadership was quick to hold town hall meetings to address students’ concerns and questions about the new model.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/campus-administration/school-textbook-dilemma/

By Kristine Goodrich, Mankato Free Press

South Central College is studying whether the high cost of textbooks is a barrier to student success and encouraging faculty to consider incorporating less expensive and more customized alternatives. With a grant from the Minnesota State Colleges and University system, SCC is exploring the prospective benefits of using more open textbooks and other online resources in classes. The nearly $25,000 grant will fund student and staff surveys and summer training for faculty.

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/local_news/scc-to-study-textbook-costs-online-alternatives/article_cc344db2-f20c-11e5-a89e-8bc1e295582d.html

by iSchoolGuide

The Department of Education urged teachers to use accessible shared resources online for their class work. The online resources are transforming learning because the materials are constantly updated, unlike the traditional textbooks. The Department of Education urged teachers to use accessible shared resources online for their class work. The online resources are transforming learning because the materials are constantly updated, unlike the traditional textbooks. According to Tes, Arne Duncan, the US education secretary said that the department has launched a campaign dubbed “GoOpen.” The campaign is calling upon teachers to drop traditional textbooks and adapt the online educational resources. Duncan emphasized the importance of subscribing to openly licensed educational resources to ensure that all students access high-quality learning resources.

http://www.ischoolguide.com/articles/38462/20151212/education-department-advocates-online-resources-over-textbooks.htm

by Ariel Diaz, EdSurge

Making the jump to more affordable, online courseware is the logical next step to cut costs, and many learning platforms and digital content providers are stepping up to help. Even the government is in support of digital, open textbooks, with members of Congress recently proposing the Affordable College Textbook Act and the U.S. Department of Education’s #GoOpen campaign. But despite available resources and growing support, digital textbooks are still met with doubt and resistance sparked by some key—and not so unfounded—objections. No stranger to having to set the digital versus print textbook debate straight, I’ve pulled together a list of common objections to sort out what is, in fact, true and what is completely false.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-12-05-facing-the-facts-four-common-objections-to-digital-textbooks

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

Through a new app called MyPath, students at Brandman University can earn a bachelor’s degree at their own pace without purchasing a single textbook. The private, nonprofit institution within the Chapman University System primarily serves working adults at 25 campuses throughout California and Washington, as well as online. Brandman partnered with Flat World Knowledge to create MyPath, which incorporates adaptive learning, game-based learning, data analytics and social learning in a competency-based education model. Course content is available any time, anywhere using an iPad or laptop computer; all materials are embedded into the MyPath platform, with no textbooks required. Students work at their own pace, applying previous learning and work experience toward earning their degree.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/10/05/brandman-u-launches-new-online-learning-platform-with-no-textbooks-required.aspx