By: Rebel Cummings-Sauls, Director, and Elisabeth S. Ball, Program Manager, Digital Services and OER, FLVC Library Services
Greetings from Florida!
Over the past fifteen years, Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC) has strengthened open and affordable textbook usage and understanding via initiatives and programs in our state. We are excited to share some of our recent and upcoming activities with you.
Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Initiative
The ZTC Initiative in Florida started with FLVC Library Services pushing for course identifiers for our state’s students. After surveying over 100 students, we had clear evidence that students liked the idea of a ZTC indicator and saw it as being valuable to their learning. With that, we began promoting the idea throughout the state. Working with several higher education leaders, we created a Course Indicator Workgroup in 2021. That workgroup formulated a ZTC course search for the FloridaShines Course Catalog. We performed a successful soft launch of that new ZTC course search statewide in fall 2021. Immediate participation was seen, as several institutions started to populate data for this search. Subsequent state legislation in 2022 regarding ZTC indicators has further increased university and college interest and planning in this area. The ZTC indicator has proven an essential resource for institutions and students. Follow these links to read about two current examples of ZTC implementation at Hillsborough Community College and Indian River State College.
Florida Open Educational Resources Summit
2023 will be the fifth year for the Florida Open Educational Resources (FL OER) Summit! Staying virtual, it will take place May 24-25, 2023. Free registration will allow everyone to engage in our theme, “Beyond Affordability,” where we will explore together how the use of OER positively benefits students, faculty, and institutions beyond just saving money. We will dig into topics such as Open Pedagogy, Quality, Accessibility, Student Success, and much more. The Summit’s call for proposals is now open, and anyone can submit. We welcome proposals nationally and internationally.
Summit registration will open in early March. We hope to see you there!
Florida Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey
Results and information from the 2022 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey are now available! Three key findings we want to highlight here:
- Impacts of high textbook costs included students taking fewer courses (43.7%), not registering for a specific course (38.5%), earning a poor grade due to not being able to afford the textbook (32.4%), and dropping out of a course (24.2%).
- Two-thirds (65.9%) of students in the 2022 survey indicated that they are using interactive practice questions online as a study aid.
- In the 2022 survey, most students (55.6%) did not have OERs available for their courses, while 44.4% of students surveyed were provided at least one OER.
Increasing the availability of OERs is crucial to reducing some of the burden that high textbook and materials costs place on students pursuing higher education in Florida. Look at the survey’s Executive Summary to see how state OER advocates are seeing the fruits of their labor.
OPEN-FL Monthly Meetings
A new addition to our OER outreach in 2023 is monthly meetings of the OPEN-FL community. This virtual gathering on the first Wednesday of each month will bring together Florida’s OER advocates (librarians, instructional designers, students, faculty, administrators, and others) to share experiences, discuss critical issues, and more. The goal of these meetings is to encourage colleagues across the state to collaborate with others to overcome challenges and share resources.
OER Student Advocate Packet
FLVC Library Services is teaming up with Florida’s college and university librarians and students to develop an OER Student Advocate Packet. The packet’s purpose is to fill a need for quick, actionable messaging which students can fit into their packed schedules. Check out our initial draft, an explanatory LibGuide page, which outlines three steps students can take in one day to encourage their campus communities to use open and affordable course content. Further steps are included at the end of the packet that students can take if they have additional time.
Thank you for the opportunity to share these exciting Florida developments with the CCCOER community!
We encourage you to contact us here at FLVC Library Services if you want more information, to give us feedback, share your ideas, or to discuss collaboration.