Jim Clark [Champion of Open – History]

Describe Your Open Educational Resources And/Or Practices:

I found that many students in my GEP American History (AMH2020) course were not buying the textbook, instead opting to buy textbooks in their majors. In 2016, I adopted an open educational resource in the form of an e-textbook, U.S. History, available through OpenStax. Students can download the whole book or chapter-by-chapter in my online class section.

Describe the Impact Open Educational Resources And/Or Practices Has Had on Your Teaching And/Or Students’ Learning:

So far, students have potentially saved over $100,000 by not paying for a textbook. Going to free resources is a bit tricky at first, but simple once it is done. The students appreciate it and make it clear in their student perception of instruction (SPOI) comments (an added benefit is that my SPOI ratings have increased). Folks from CDL and the Library have engaged in research about my use of OER (see Beile, deNoyelles, & Raible, 2020), and we found that there were no significant differences in students’ performances or drop-withdrawal-fail (DWF) rates before I adopted the free book versus after; which begs the question, what were students paying for all this time?

Related Resources 

• U.S. History book from OpenStax: https://openstax.org/details/books/us-history
• The North Still Wins the War: Providing Free Textbooks for History Students by James Clark, Aimee deNoyelles, and John Raible (2018): https://fctl.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/10/FF_2018_August.pdf
• Analysis of an Open Textbook Adoption in an American History Course: Impact on Student Academic Outcomes and Behaviors by Penny Beile, Aimee deNoyelles, and John Raible (2020): https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/24437/32279