OpenEd20

The nature of college course materials has changed dramatically over the past decade, from print to digital - but that’s nothing compared to the transition to remote learning in 2020. As of the end of August, less than a quarter of institutions will be fully or partially in-person, with even those places scrapping plans as case counts rise. This new normal and uncertainty of the higher ed landscape comes with unique challenges, and open advocates and commercial publishers see a make-or-break opportunity for widespread adoption of their preferred materials as faculty and schools shift to this remote learning environment.

Over the past few months, college textbook publishers have engaged in a massive marketing push to sell institutions on the idea of “inclusive access-” adding an automatic charge for digital delivery of access codes to each students’ tuition bill. The pressures of COVID-19 on institutions and the need for cheaper, ready-to-use digital materials is apparent - but are these partnerships to increase access code sales really in students’ best interest?

A panel of issue experts and on-the-ground open advocates will talk about the basics on this new billing model, the fine print that is in these partnerships, and problems with implementation that further harm student and faculty choice found by the recent USPIRG study Automatic Textbook Billing. Furthermore, panelists will share their successes and steps taken to slow automatic billing programs on R1, regional public, private, and community college campuses - and talk frankly about their setbacks in light of COVID-19. The session will end with best practices on how to respond to common questions on automatic billing, and audience Q&A.

Learning Outcomes:
Attendees will leave the session with an understanding of what automatic textbook billing is, specific concerns with the model before and during COVID-19, and how others across the country have effectively mobilized to limit the negative impact it has on local students and faculty. Attendees will come away with case studies, best practices, and actionable steps to take to reshape textbook affordability programs to better meet community needs.

Great strides have been made in the creation and adoption of open educational resources.Perceived challenges to finding open educational resources has continued to be a barrier as the number of resources grow. In the Open Textbook Library, the number of open textbooks has increased from just 80 in 2012 to 790 in 2020. However, discovery has become a pain point among advocates and adopting instructors to the degree that commercial textbook publishers are using language in their product messaging that OER is hard to find. State legislation in the United States also focuses on building or examining state repositories to increase discovery.

This panel will explore OER Discovery as a growth area. It will feature a high level discussion about the specific needs and possible solution(s) for finding, storing and accessing open textbooks and beyond. The discussion will also explore challenges, successes, and the silos that exist among initiatives led by the OER community. Panelists are leaders in OER with a history of addressing this barrier and/or lead new projects and initiatives to enhance OER Discovery.

Wally Grotophorst, Associate University Librarian, George Mason University/Mason Metafinder

Creator of the Mason OER Metafinder, Wally will discuss the challenges and opportunities that accompany federated searching for OER content.

Michelle Brennan, OER Information Services Manager, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)/OER Commons

Michelle leads research and development of information and library services for ISKME’s OER Commons platform and Partner Library Microsites. Michelle will discuss challenges in supporting libraries and librarians in creating and curating OER that meets the unique teaching and learning needs of faculty adopters at a consortial scale.


Karen Lauritsen, Publishing Director, Open Education Network
Karen manages the Open Textbook Library, which offers live MARC records for discovery. This year the OTL worked with OCLC to include its records in WorldCat.

Camille Thomas, Lead, SPARC OER Discovery Initiative and Scholarly Communication Librarian at Florida State University

Camille will discuss working with SPARC to connect with existing leaders (e.g. OER repository directors, metadata librarians, OER researchers and OER advocacy organizations) to leverage the work already being done.


Learning Outcomes:
Attendees will be able to describe how metadata enables discovery and current needs for OER
Attendees may interpret the discussion and employ future action items (e.g. talking points, further discussion) based on insights
Attendees may become better equipped to discuss OER Discovery at their own institutions or organizations

The current generation of digital courseware, particularly that marketed under the term “inclusive access,” poses a threat to the future of open education. Purporting to address the affordability crisis in academic courseware, publishers have devised an automatic billing model that depends on group-based subscriptions in order to provide to students discounted materials, and, not incidentally, gather a vast amount of student data. The collected data are put to various uses, including product development and learning analytics, the results of which are sometimes made available to the students’ home institutions - most often to the faculty in specific courses – as information about the students’ use of the materials.

This panel will focus on the surveillance and privacy issues inherent in the use of inclusive access products. Students in classes for which the courseware is required are a captive market: if they want to succeed in class, they have no option but to agree to privacy terms that allow for the collection, analysis, and use of their data. Students lose control of their personal identity, with no say in how much to reveal and how much to conceal about themselves and their learning behaviors.

An additional concern relates to diversity and equity. A growing body of evidence reveals that big data analytics has the potential to exacerbate inequality; for instance, those social groups with the greatest representation in data sets will often see the greatest benefit from data-driven decision-making.

This panel will explore the practical, ethical, and legal dimensions of this issue, helping participants understand the privacy implications of using inclusive access courseware and its importance in the context of open education. Panelists will discuss how the data is gathered and used; what privacy agreements say and don’t say about privacy protection; what role FERPA plays in protecting privacy; how US privacy law enables surveillance-based business models. We hope to generate discussion among the participants on how best to generate and sustain conversations on college campuses about the ethical implications of adopting data-collecting courseware.


Learning Outcomes:
•Understand the implications for student privacy in the use of digital courseware, especially inclusive access products.
•Understand the strengths and limitations of FERPA in protecting privacy.
•Understand surveillance within the context of US privacy law
•Learn how to read and interpret privacy statements that accompany digital courseware.
•Develop strategies for investigating and communicating courseware-related privacy issues at your own institution.