Niki Nguyen
Vice-Chair of the Massachusetts Student Advisory Council (SAC) to the Board of Higher Education and head of the OER Subcommittee
Bunker Hill Community College
The following are excerpts from a panel with students from the Massachusetts Student Advisory Council (SAC) to the Board of Higher Education from Open Education week 2021. The entire panel is available – Unleashing the Power of Massachusetts Students to Increase OER Awareness.
What issues have you experienced in courses using traditional textbooks and publishers’ access codes?
Honestly, the access codes are the main reason why– the course content when students get their– materials are so expensive. So, in my experience, access codes will be $200 but then if I want to have a physical copy of the textbook it would be an extra $20 or $30 on top of that.
I feel that students taking a course requiring an access code is pretty prohibitive, especially for low-income students, because there’s a paywall. What publishing companies do is you have to fork over the money for the access code. If you don’t have that money you would fail. So sometimes the free trials that they offer – like WileyPLUS or Pearson – they offer a free two-week trial– they don’t cover for a semester I’ve had students where they try to complete their whole entire coursework within that free two-week trial just to pass their course. And it’s just not equitable. How can students continue to learn and be engaging with their classmates and have effective discussions with their professors if they’re in that time crunch? It’s just not equitable. And another problem with access codes is that after you’re done with the semester you can’t go back to the book, or you can’t go back to the video, to re-watch or to relearn whatever it is that you’re trying to miss. So that’s the challenge with access codes.
What advice would you give to a faculty member considering a shift to Open Educational Resources?
A suggestion for faculty is to not only try to do some research and to adopt more OER materials into their syllabus– also having a conversation with their colleagues – with other different professors about OER. Trying to increase the OER conversation. Because even though we as students can talk to our professors as much as we can, it will be more impactful when professors and faculty members discuss with each other the conversation about OER. And just getting that momentum going, and just increasing awareness, no matter where we go. Also talking with your administration. Finding more resources about OER. Just educating yourself as a faculty member while also listening to students.
I remember working with a classmate of mine last fall semester, we were taking a STEM course in physics and I remember asking him, “How are you doing with your course and everything?” –especially being a student trustee for Bunker Hill. I remember this student telling me that, “You know, I’m not doing too well. I still haven’t gotten my book yet.” –and mind you this is November, and we were supposed to get our books in September. The reason why he didn’t have the book is because he didn’t have enough money to buy access codes– because he was taking care of his mom during that and he was paying all these different bills. Even though the professor was accommodating him to make sure that he continues to pass, he was still unable to reach his potential and learn because of that roadblock.