Yes, the textbook for my Intro Biology class is gone! But why?
First, ditching the standard textbook has everything to do with my teaching philosophy. I hope students leave my class understanding the process of science, with the skills to understand research they read about, and with positive experiences that will encourage lifelong curiosity in science. I hope they have an increased ability to research and make educated decisions that relate to their health, how they vote, what they spend their money on, and how they generally live there life. My philosophy aligns well with a document called "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call To Action" which was a report that came out of a conference organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science with support for the National Science Foundation. Along with emphasizing teaching the process of science and other skills, this report emphasizes teaching reduced number of core concepts with more depth. Most textbooks aren't designed to work this way, and I would feel guilty (and have felt guilty in the past) by asking by students to buy an expensive textbook only to use relatively small parts of it. I now feel more free to emphasize projects, give students time to design experiments, and give students opportunities to practice research skills that will still help students to answer questions now and in the future (because even these OERs will likely become dated!).
This wasn't an easy decision. First, I wanted to make sure it was ok with my department. After all, I'm a part-time instructor and there is an official text for the Introduction to Biology sequence. I proposed a meeting during Lane's inservice on the subject of OERs to our dean, which was supported by her and a number of enthusiastic full-time and part-time faculty in biology as well as Jen K, a Faculty Technology Specialist and resident OER expert. During this meeting I became much more aware of what had been done before and what people someday hoped to do. In short, I wasn't as alone as I thought in aspiring to use OERs and was definitely not the first in our department to go in this direction. I also realized that the supplemental resources I was providing to my students already in our course Moodle shell had me a lot closer to having a full OER course than I had realized. Overall, the most important message I got from the meeting is that there was a lot of enthusiasm for using OERs in the Introduction to Biology sequence, though exactly how individual instructors could work together to collaborate was still in the brainstorming phase.
Shortly after this meeting I explored a number of open resources that had been tossed around. I found the OpenStax College books and was really pleased with both the Biology and Concepts of Biology books. These particular OERs are essentially just very good textbooks, but were free! I could envision an easy transition! I almost immediately recommended these books to students I was teaching in the fall as alternates to the text to get some initial feedback. The students that used the OpenStax resources reported that the new resources were much easier to read then the current text.
The new resources were so well received by my students that I felt strong motivation to jump in on a pilot Introduction to Biology class Winter term with the new primary OER, one that would fill the gaps between all the other "supplemental resources" that I'd always provided. I'd spent a lot of time Fall term working with a couple of other Lane instructors following a PULSE meeting (Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education) where we envisioned and planned improvements to our Introduction to Biology sequence with support from instructors from around the region, so felt ready for action. With the enthusiasm for OERs I saw in our department and ideas for future changes in our courses, it seemed that piloting a course using OERs focused around these OpenStax books was a great next step for someone teaching in the Introduction to Biology sequence to take.
So far this term I've....
1) Changed the course syllabus to have readings from both the Open Stax Biology and Concepts of Biology books. Since one book goes into more depth than the other, I use this on the topics we go into more depth on. We don't use most of either book, but I don't feel guilty since it is free!
2) I've transferred informational games, other sources, etc (also OERs) that have always been part of my class to the Moodle shell I'm working with. I've always used a variety of sources beyond the text.
3) Talked to students on how to work with the online text (download as PDFs, work with in EPUB format, printing options)
4*) Redone all my powerpoints to use images from the OER
5*) Revised labs, rewritten quizzes, etc. to make sure they are fully supported the the new resources.
* I will admit I'm only a week or two ahead on revising the powerpoints, labs, and exams..but that is pretty normal :).
My questions are...
1) Will other faculty follow in this adventure?
2) How will students opt to use the resources (printed PDF's, bring iPad's etc)? Will any really struggle with the technology to even print a copy of needed chapters?
3) Will students be confused by using two different texts?
4) Will students come to class more prepared since the text is more readable?
5) Is this Open Stax system too good to be true? Right now it really isn't much more challenging than adopting a new standard text book.
6) How will this new flexibility further inspire change in my class as the term progresses?
Overall, I'm hoping for an excellent term that allows me to see evidence in student work and comments that I've achieved the goals I set forth on in my teaching philosophy. I truly believe this world will be an incrementally better place if students leave my class understanding the process of science, with the
skills to understand research they read about, and with positive
experiences that will encourage lifelong curiosity in science. I hope by the end of this term I will be an incrementally better instructor, learning both from my students and from adapting my class to using OERs.
