Open Educational Resources / Strategic Initiatives / Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Overview

The Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative grew out of recommendations from the Commissioner’s OER Work Group and aims to expand OER use on campuses and provide advice and counsel to the DHE for statewide implementation.

Contact

Robert J. Awkward, Ph.D.,
Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness
(617) 994-6908
rawkward@dhe.mass.edu

Duration

2018 – Present

Funding

Innovation Fund

Related Data

Links

OER Training Registration Form
Open Textbook Library
MA is an OER Exemplar (NEJHE)
Inside the Collaborative Effort in MA to Advance OER (SPARC)

Student Identities

Low-Income

Focus Areas

Access
Affordability
Completion
Equity
Retention

Partnerships

Multiple Campuses

Related Initiatives

Background

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium—digital or otherwise—that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.

These freely accessible text, media, and other digital assets are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes—this collaboration offers direct benefits to faculty and students at the 29 public higher education institutions in the Commonwealth.

In 2018–2019, UMass Amherst, Worcester State University, Holyoke Community College, and Northern Essex Community College led a collaborative project called “Massachusetts Open Education: Achieving Access for All,” funded by a Higher Education Innovation Fund grant. The project helped build OER capacity across the state and assessed the OER landscape at all public higher education institutions in Massachusetts. By gathering and analyzing data about current OER usage from each college to determine regional training needs, we were able to assist the project in achieving its goal of lowering overall costs for students, increasing student and faculty engagement, and ultimately improving college completion rates.

On October 22, 2019, the Board of Higher Education accepted the Final OER Report & Recommendations, Fall 2019 from the Commissioner’s OER Work Group and endorsed implementation of its recommendations, which are time-based (short-term, mid-term, and long-term), to address:

The growing legislative interest in lowering the cost of educational resources;
The issues of achieving equity for under-served, low-income, and first-generation students; and
The enhancement of instructional effectiveness.

This effort was accomplished due to the strong and consistent advocacy of the Student Advisory Council.

Latest News & Events

AAC Motion 21-15 & Presentation to the Academic Affairs Committee

June 22, 2021—Dr. Robert J. Awkward presented on the OER Course Marking Implementation Guidelines and OER Key Performance Indicators as part of the AAC motion 21-15 for the AAC and BHE to read, review, and accept.
Watch the presentation →

Review the Motion →
Massachusetts Public Colleges & Universities Report $7M in Textbook Savings For Students

March 2, 2021—A consortia of Massachusetts public colleges and universities marked Open Education Week (March 1-5) by reporting to the DHE that efforts to replace expensive college textbooks with free or low-cost instructional materials have resulted in more than $7 million in direct savings to students.

Read the news release →
Open Textbooks—Access, Affordability, Equity, and Academic Success in the COVID-Era (webinar)

May 20, 2021—Sponsored by the DHE and OEN, the OER Advisory Council hosted training webinars for faculty on May 19/20 regarding OER during the COVID-era.

Watch the webinar →

View the presentation slides →

Access resources and question responses from the webinar →

Review the Open Textbook Review Criteria →
Presentation to the Board of Higher Education Academic Affairs Committee (.pptx)

January 26, 2021—Dr. Robert J. Awkward presented an overview and update on the progress done towards the final recommendations from the OER Working Group.
Download the presentation →

Student Impact

Reducing costs and increasing affordability

The U.S. Department of Education projected that cost would keep 2.4 million low and moderate-college-qualified high school graduates from completing college.
The top three biggest cost challenges facing college students are tuition (61.65%), course materials (39.56%), and housing costs (38.1%).
College textbook prices have increased faster than tuition, health care, and housing, rising 1,041% since 1977!
Not being able to purchase required textbooks have cause students to:

Not purchase the required textbook (64.2%)
Take fewer courses (42.8%)
Not register for a specific course (40.5%)
Earn a poor grade (35.6%)
Drop a course (22.9%)
Withdraw from a course (18.1%)
Fail a course (17.2%)

Increasing student persistence and success

The development and use of OER can create more equitable learning experiences for all students. In addition, OER closes equity gaps because it provides students who cannot afford required course materials access to the resources they need. Moreover, several studies affirm that OER use also improves student success outcomes.

Students were able to use their textbooks on the first day of class rather than waiting to buy the textbooks – if they bought them at all - until they could afford them.
Students learned and performed better academically when they had immediate access to their educational materials.
Research has also shown the OER initiative addresses and improves the performance of all students, but especially the most under-represented students in the United States.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of Georgia (UGA) began to encourage the use of OER in the summer of 2013. A study of faculty who taught large enrollment courses and were currently using an expensive textbook or textbook/technology package was conducted. For the more than 21,000 students involved in this study, not only did they enjoy significant savings using work mostly created by OpenStax, but there was also a positive impact on their learning. The study at the University of Georgia also showed a significant and positive impact on under-represented students:

When considering Federal Pell eligibility, we observed an increase in A through B+ letter grades and a decrease in B though DFW grades. A significant decrease in DFW rates for Pell-eligible students was found (a 4.43 percent change) when OER was adopted as the textbook for the class. This research [also] revealed significant differences in academic performance (average final grade) for both White and non-White students enrolled in OER courses. However, the magnitude in which non-White students’ grades improved is very compelling (Colvard, Watson, & Park, 2018, p. 272.)

These types of findings were echoed in the Achieving the Dream community college study where 48 percent of Pell Grant recipients and 52 percent of under-represented minorities said OER courses had a significant impact on their ability to afford college compared to 41 percent for other students (Ashford, 2018). When students have access to course learning materials, it positively affects their in-class performance leading to student success, persistence, and completion.

The results from the 2018 study were echoed again in the 2020 Achieving the Dream study conducted by their partners SRI Education and rpk GROUP (2020). This study involved eleven community colleges across the country. The average age of the study participants was 20. At least a third or more of the participating students were eligible for or had received a Pell grant. The proportion of students from historically under-represented ethnic minority groups ranged from 25 percent to 88 percent. “In 6 of the 11 colleges, treatment students¹ taking OER courses accumulated significantly more course credits than those who had not taken any OER courses” (SRI International, 2020, p. 20). While the study did not find a significant impact on GPA by students taking OER courses, students maintained their GPAs despite taking more courses. Finally, “the number of credits earned by Pell students taking OER courses relative to their Pell-eligible peers was significantly higher than the number of credits earned by non-Pell-eligible students taking OER courses relative to their non-Pell-eligible peers” (SRI International, 2020, p. 23-24).

Additionally, the benefits for part-time students were equally compelling. Part-time students are often overlooked in higher education, and 71 percent are self-financing their education (Bombardieri, 2017). This population contains many of our under-represented students and tends to be concentrated at community colleges. The UGA study found a 53.12 percent increase in average course grades and a 29.54 percent decrease in DFW rates for part-time students (Colvard, Watson, & Park, 2018).

Open Education Network

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education joined the Open Education Network (OEN), a consortium of colleges and universities working to advance open textbook initiatives. OEN supports the Open Textbook Library, a searchable online catalog of complete textbooks available for faculty and students to freely use, adapt, and distribute to best meet the needs of their courses.

One of the benefits of OEN membership is that the DHE, in conjunction with OEN, will coordinate full-day “train-the-trainer” workshops that will be offered to OER Advisory Council members and their respective institutional OER faculty.

Upcoming Training Dates and Locations

There were two well-attended Faculty OER training sessions recently held:

Wednesday, May 19, 2021 from 2–4pm
Thursday, May 20, 2021 from 10am–12noon

These workshops focused on:

Identifying obstacles to open textbook adoptions
An in-depth look into OEN membership
Making the case on your campus
Developing an effective program on your campus
Strategies for addressing common challenges

View and download materials from the May 19/20 trainings here >

Review an Open Textbook

Faculty who attend an institutional training event will have the opportunity to review an open textbook and receive a $200 stipend. Faculty will have five to six weeks to complete the open textbook review. Details to be provided.

Other benefits include attendance at the OEN Summer Institute for statewide OER leaders, participation in their Google group, access to their Open Textbook Library, discounted institutional membership, and their data dashboard. We are excited about this continuing partnership for all our public institutions.

Resources

Statewide OER Advisory Council

The OER Work Group was co-chaired by Marilyn Billings, Head, Office of Scholarly Communications, UMass Amherst and Susan Tashjian, Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Northern Essex Community College, who led a team of 21 individuals—comprised of librarians, faculty, administrators, students, and external representatives—from the UMass System, state universities, and community colleges. Their work resulted in a Final OER Report & Recommendations. Among those ten recommendations was the creation of a statewide OER Advisory Council and an OER Statewide Coordinator.

As a result of the October 2019 BHE vote, Dr. Robert J. Awkward from the DHE was designated the OER Statewide Coordinator and the statewide OER Advisory Council was convened, consisting of one representative from each of the 29 public institutions. The advisory council serves to expand OER use on campuses and to provide advice and counsel for OER implementation throughout Massachusetts. The statewide OER Advisory Council and the OER Statewide Coordinator will be responsible for implementing the short-term recommendations of the OER Work Group and developing plans, after conducting additional research, for how to implement the mid and long-term recommendations.

Members

The following are the members of the statewide OER Advisory Council, recommended by their respective chancellor or president to serve to advance OER across the state and within their own campuses.

*Names in bold are from the OER Working Group

Department of Higher Education & Other Representatives

OER Statewide Coordinator	Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness	rawkward@dhe.mass.edu
DHE Executive Sponsor	Patricia A. Marshall, Deputy Commissioner for Academic Affairs & Student Success	pmarshall@dhe.mass.edu
Student Advisory Council	Jorgo Gushi, SAC Chair & BHE Segmental Advisor (CC), Quinsigamong Community College	jgushi@qmail.qcc.edu
Student Advisory Council	Cindy Mack, SAC Policy Chair, Massasoit Community College	cmack2@massasoit.mass.edu
Student Advisory Council	Niki Nguyen, SAC Vice Chair, Bunker Hill Community College	nt12948@bhcc.edu
Student Advisory Council: State University*	Kerry McManus, Fitchburg State University	kmcmanu7@student.fitchburgstate.edu
Employer Representative	Cherie Comeau, Sr. Manager, Leadership & Organization Development Consigli Construction Co., Inc.	ccomeau@consigli.com
Ex-Officio	Matt Noyes, Director of Trustee & Government Relations	mnoyes@dhe.mass.edu
Ex-Officio	Kelly Jo Woodside, Massachusetts Library Systems	kelly@masslibsystem.org
Ex-Officio	Stacy Bougie, Associate Director of External Relations	sbougie@dhe.mass.edu

*This was designated for UMass System, but nobody responded to SAC Chair Gushi’s entreaties. Thus, the slot has been filled with a state university designee.

Community College Staff and Faculty

Berkshire Community College	Karen Hines, Associate Professor, Business	khines@berkshirecc.edu
Bristol Community College	Dr. Yashwant Sinha, Assistant Professor of Offshore Wind Energy	Yashwant.Sinha@bristolcc.edu
Bunker Hill Community College	Meghan Callahan, Associate Director, Academic Innovation & Distance Education	mrcallag@bhcc.edu
Bunker Hill Community College	Ceit De Vitto, AIDE Senior Special Programs Coordinator	kmdevitt@bhcc.edu
Cape Cod Community College	Catherine Sughrue Etter, Professor of Science	cetter@capecod.edu
Greenfield Community College	Tim Dolan, Librarian	dolant@gcc.mass.edu
Holyoke Community College	Jessica Egan, Coordinator of Instructional Design	jegan@hcc.edu
MassBay Community College	Bernadette Sibuma, Director of Online Learning	bsibuma@massbay.edu
Massasoit Community College	Jesse Schreier, Coordinator of Institutional Technology	jschreier@massasoit.mass.edu
Middlesex Community College	Donna Maturi, Library Director	maturid@middlesex.mass.edu
Mount Wachusett Community College	Ellen Pratt, Librarian	e_pratt@mwcc.mass.edu
North Shore Community College	Andrea Milligan, Director, Center for Teaching & Learning	amilliga@northshore.edu
Northern Essex Community College	Scott Joubert, Professor of Criminal Justice	sjoubert@necc.mass.edu
Northern Essex Community College	Susan Tashjian, Coordinator of Instructional Technology, OER Advisory Council Co-chair	stashjian@necc.mass.edu
Quinsigamond Community College	Amy Beaudry, Professor of English & Academic Technology Facilitator	abeaudry@qcc.mass.edu
Roxbury Community College	William Hoag, Library Director	whoag@rcc.mass.edu
Springfield Techincal Community College	Chelsea Contrada, Outreach & OER Librarian	cacontrada@stcc.edu

State University Staff and Faculty

Bridgewater State University	Jessica Birthisel, Associate Professor, Communications Studies	jbirthisel@bridgew.edu
Fitchburg State University	Jacalyn Kremer, Dean of the Library	jkremer@fitchburgstate.edu
Framingham State University	Millie Gonzalez, Interim Dean of Library, OER Advisory Council Co-Chair	vgonzalez@framingham.edu
MassArt	Rachel Resnik, Technical Services Librarian	rresnik@massart.edu
MCLA	Pamela Contakos, Digital Services Librarian	p.contakos@mcla.edu
Mass Maritime	Carolyn Michaud, Access Services Manager	cmichaud@maritime.edu
Salem State University	Elizabeth McKeigue, Dean of the Library	elizabeth.mckeigue@salemstate.edu
Westfield State University	Tom Raffensperger, Dean of Information Services & Library Director	traff@westfield.ma.edu
Worcester State University	Matt Bejune, Executive Director of the Library	mbejune@worcester.edu

University of Massachusetts Staff and Faculty

UMass Amherst
UMass Amherst	Marilyn Billings, Head, Office of Scholarly Communications	mbillings@library.umass.edu
UMass Boston	Apurva Mehta, Associate Chief Information Officer	Apurva.Mehta@umb.edu
UMass Dartmouth	Dawn Gross, Interim Library Dean	dgross1@umassd.edu
UMass Lowell	Donna Mellen, Associate Director of Academic Technology	Donna_Mellen@uml.edu
UMass Medical	Regina Raboin, Associate Library Director	Regina.Raboin@umassmed.edu

Meeting Materials

The advisory council generally meets monthly during the academic year (September—May), but may meet more or less frequently as determined by the OER Statewide Coordinator.

2021

September 20, 2021
Download: Agenda OER AY2021 in Review Presentation OER Rotel Presentation