Student Voices Panel OER 2023
Brad Severa
Author
04/26/2023
Added
24
Plays
Description
A panel of students from each NU campus discuss their experiences with affordable textbooks. Moderated by Dr. Kim Carlson from UNK.
Searchable Transcript
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
- [00:00:01.260]Well, welcome to our second presentation
- [00:00:04.740]of our NUOER Week this week
- [00:00:07.260]across all four of our campuses.
- [00:00:09.780]We are excited that you have joined.
- [00:00:12.600]My name is Jane Petersen,
- [00:00:14.640]and I'm part of the OER group
- [00:00:16.320]here at the University of Nebraska Kearney.
- [00:00:19.350]And I think this is the best day of all,
- [00:00:21.570]because today we have four student panelists
- [00:00:25.140]from each of our campuses
- [00:00:27.420]that're going to share with us
- [00:00:29.910]what OER has meant to them.
- [00:00:33.240]And so, I'm gonna introduce our group, here.
- [00:00:36.510]First of all, we have Dr. Kim Carlson from UNK,
- [00:00:40.470]and she'll add some more information about herself
- [00:00:43.530]once we get started.
- [00:00:44.550]She is going to be our facilitator.
- [00:00:47.100]Dr. Kim Carlson has been part of our UNKOER program
- [00:00:51.450]since we began in 2015.
- [00:00:55.470]The other thing I wanna just share real quick
- [00:00:57.270]before I introduce our panelist
- [00:00:58.800]is that between our four campuses,
- [00:01:01.710]we have saved our students over $15 million,
- [00:01:06.960]hey guys, that's a big number,
- [00:01:08.760]in textbook costs,
- [00:01:09.930]and we are really excited about that.
- [00:01:13.080]And so, now I'm gonna get it started
- [00:01:14.700]for what you all are here for.
- [00:01:16.950]Each of our student panelists
- [00:01:18.450]is going to introduce themselves.
- [00:01:20.730]And then once we've done that,
- [00:01:22.140]Kim, I'm gonna have you just take it away.
- [00:01:25.740]So thank you again for joining us.
- [00:01:30.240]Hi everyone, my name is Renata Valquier Chavez.
- [00:01:32.940]I'm affiliated with UNO,
- [00:01:34.560]and I'm getting my master's degree
- [00:01:36.180]in community and regional planning.
- [00:01:37.620]I'm in my second year,
- [00:01:38.550]so I graduate in a few weeks.
- [00:01:40.710]And a little fun fact about myself,
- [00:01:43.440]I can speak three languages.
- [00:01:45.930]And what's kinda fun about that
- [00:01:47.340]is I am Spanish, English, and French.
- [00:01:52.020]French and Spanish're similar,
- [00:01:53.520]so sometimes I just mush the two together
- [00:01:55.770]and I get by. (chuckles)
- [00:02:00.930]Hi everyone, my name's Amara Bernelson.
- [00:02:02.310]I'm a freshman music education major
- [00:02:05.520]and I also play the double bass,
- [00:02:07.470]which is kinda cool.
- [00:02:09.120]Although I am a music education major,
- [00:02:10.860]my true dream is to be a composer.
- [00:02:13.050]I'm thinking about composing
- [00:02:14.310]for movies, or video games, or both.
- [00:02:18.480]And I also want to do some, like,
- [00:02:20.400]symphonies or concertos on the side to like...
- [00:02:24.137]'Cause I don't know, that's just always been my dream, so...
- [00:02:30.300]Hi everyone, I'm Abby Guadeimer,
- [00:02:32.051]and I'm at UNMC in my first year of pharmacy school.
- [00:02:36.750]Little fun fact about me is I did grow up at a farm.
- [00:02:40.590]And despite that, my dad never had livestock
- [00:02:43.770]and we never had, like, dogs or cats or anything.
- [00:02:46.740]So kinda shocking,
- [00:02:47.880]considering I grew up rurally.
- [00:02:53.596]Hi, I'm Zack Zavani.
- [00:02:54.870]I'm majoring in chemistry,
- [00:02:56.490]comprehensive health science emphasis,
- [00:02:58.140]which is like a pre-medicine major.
- [00:03:00.270]I'm a senior at UNK, so I'll be graduating May 19th.
- [00:03:04.230]A fun fact about me
- [00:03:05.070]is my dad was actually the mayor
- [00:03:07.260]of the small town that I'm from,
- [00:03:09.060]which is not that big of an accomplishment
- [00:03:10.470]'cause there's, like, 80 people there.
- [00:03:12.000]But he was the mayor of that for like, 12 years, so yeah.
- [00:03:15.330]And I'm gonna turn it back over to Kim.
- [00:03:18.660]And Kim, I just wanna share with the group
- [00:03:20.520]thank you, everybody on the panel.
- [00:03:22.950]If you have any questions,
- [00:03:24.360]feel free to add them to the chat.
- [00:03:26.430]So take it away, Kim.
- [00:03:28.260]Great, well, thank you everybody
- [00:03:30.060]for joining us here today.
- [00:03:31.800]These're the fun panels to do,
- [00:03:33.180]when you get to interact with students.
- [00:03:35.520]So, we are really interested
- [00:03:38.190]in knowing what and understanding
- [00:03:41.040]what students think about OER.
- [00:03:43.470]So I'm gonna ask a question and, you know,
- [00:03:46.950]any one of you that wants to answer,
- [00:03:49.080]you know, just, you guys can go ahead
- [00:03:49.920]and take it away, all right?
- [00:03:52.740]So my first question,
- [00:03:54.330]and maybe all of you have something to say about this,
- [00:03:56.820]but how does the cost of course materials
- [00:03:59.070]impact your long-term and short-term educational plans?
- [00:04:08.130]And you guys can just jump
- [00:04:09.480]in. All right, well,
- [00:04:10.780]I'll do it.
- [00:04:11.613]I think the primary way is you have to plan
- [00:04:15.540]more work in addition to your school.
- [00:04:18.540]You know, being a college student
- [00:04:19.740]and trying to get good grades and stuff like that,
- [00:04:21.480]as well as the involvement you do on campus,
- [00:04:23.790]a lot of times is more work than, almost, a full-time job.
- [00:04:27.900]And when you know that your course materials
- [00:04:30.120]and the cost of education is another barrier
- [00:04:32.700]in addition to the work that you're just doing
- [00:04:34.710]in the classroom,
- [00:04:36.120]you have to plan, you know, to work.
- [00:04:39.000]Whether that's, you know, part-time, full-time,
- [00:04:41.070]whatever you can do,
- [00:04:42.330]even on-campus jobs, you know,
- [00:04:44.010]work-study, those kinda things.
- [00:04:45.570]And it does make school more difficult,
- [00:04:47.940]to find those times
- [00:04:48.900]and to, you know, balance your time
- [00:04:50.550]enough to be able to work those jobs.
- [00:04:52.350]So it can make things a lot more challenging
- [00:04:54.480]and it can be, you know, quite a large barrier,
- [00:04:56.640]I think, to overcome.
- [00:05:00.270]Definitely, when I think
- [00:05:01.830]about the cost of course materials
- [00:05:03.570]and say, like, a planned graduation date,
- [00:05:07.440]if a class that's only offered in the fall
- [00:05:09.990]is, say, the additional materials I have to buy for it
- [00:05:13.320]are exceeding my scholarship funds
- [00:05:15.840]and my budget outside of that,
- [00:05:18.270]I might consider, like,
- [00:05:19.103]"Okay, I can't afford this course right now
- [00:05:21.030]but I can afford it next semester,"
- [00:05:22.800]I'll take it next semester.
- [00:05:24.300]But a lot of times,
- [00:05:25.133]courses are only offered once a year.
- [00:05:27.180]So I would have to wait a whole year
- [00:05:29.250]to sign up for this course,
- [00:05:30.750]just because I knew I couldn't afford
- [00:05:32.880]the course materials at that time.
- [00:05:34.860]So instead of graduating, say,
- [00:05:37.590]in May, in spring of 2022,
- [00:05:41.790]I'd have to wait until fall of 2023
- [00:05:46.740]because I needed to wait to get that required course in.
- [00:05:49.980]So it just...
- [00:05:52.080]For me, I see it more as, like, a long-term effect
- [00:05:54.090]of, okay, I can't start my career
- [00:05:56.460]until I finish this degree,
- [00:05:57.780]and these course materials could hold me back from that.
- [00:06:06.390]Okay, those're great answers.
- [00:06:08.490]And it's unfortunate, right,
- [00:06:10.680]that we have students out there that, you know,
- [00:06:13.297]"I can't take this course
- [00:06:14.130]'cause this book is gonna cost me $350,"
- [00:06:16.950]you know, "but I have to have the course to graduate."
- [00:06:18.750]So hopefully all of our campuses
- [00:06:21.180]are really working hard to,
- [00:06:23.040]and I know we are,
- [00:06:23.880]to try to lessen that for our students at burden.
- [00:06:27.210]So with that in mind,
- [00:06:29.790]do you guys consistently get the information you need
- [00:06:33.360]about course material costs of any given class
- [00:06:37.080]at a given time?
- [00:06:38.880]Is this enough time for you to decide
- [00:06:40.920]what classes to enroll in each term?
- [00:06:43.740]So, you know,
- [00:06:44.820]what's your experience with enrolling in classes
- [00:06:47.075]that're OER, not EOR,
- [00:06:48.750]how much the textbook costs're gonna be?
- [00:06:56.610]Well, I'll speak on behalf of UNK.
- [00:06:59.460]I think that we've done,
- [00:07:01.920]largely thanks to Dr. Carlson,
- [00:07:04.050]we've done a really good job
- [00:07:05.190]in making OER, you know, kind of known to students.
- [00:07:08.940]At least when they're registering
- [00:07:10.110]for classes in MyBLUE.
- [00:07:12.090]That being said,
- [00:07:13.260]I would think that I kind of only know about it
- [00:07:15.210]due to my involvement in student government in the past.
- [00:07:17.340]I think that there's a lot of students who come into campus
- [00:07:19.710]and don't even know that these things exist
- [00:07:21.990]and don't really look for classes like this,
- [00:07:24.210]even though I think it would be a great fit
- [00:07:27.330]for most students.
- [00:07:28.230]I think there's very few times
- [00:07:30.180]where OER is not better
- [00:07:31.590]than the, maybe more, like, traditional route.
- [00:07:34.290]And so, although UNK, I would say,
- [00:07:35.880]has done a good job,
- [00:07:37.080]you know, when you're actually looking
- [00:07:38.040]at registering for classes,
- [00:07:39.720]it maybe could still do more
- [00:07:42.300]when it comes to, like,
- [00:07:43.133]advertising it to the general student population.
- [00:07:46.950]And when it comes to, like, enrolling in classes,
- [00:07:49.110]I think a lot of times it's more like,
- [00:07:50.737]"Well, this's what I need for my major.
- [00:07:52.380]Like, I really don't have a choice."
- [00:07:53.910]You're not even necessarily concerned about it.
- [00:07:55.770]So when the fees, and the books, and all that stuff
- [00:07:57.900]start coming in,
- [00:07:59.128]you know, you just have to take it in stride
- [00:08:01.350]'cause you really have no choice.
- [00:08:02.970]And so, I think OER just does a,
- [00:08:04.107]you know, good job about,
- [00:08:05.490]you know, kind of reducing the stress involved
- [00:08:07.470]in that whole process.
- [00:08:11.880]And to like, piggyback off of that, kind of,
- [00:08:13.650]at UNL, like, when you sign up your classes,
- [00:08:16.560]they have, like, a list of books that you'll need.
- [00:08:18.990]I've had a couple of classes
- [00:08:20.220]that don't tell you what they...
- [00:08:22.710]They say, like, "No books're required."
- [00:08:25.170]And I'm like, "Oh, okay cool, I don't need a book."
- [00:08:27.120]And then the day of the class
- [00:08:29.640]they're like, "Oh, you have to buy this $75 book,"
- [00:08:32.580]then like, "I don't have this money!"
- [00:08:34.740]So I wish that sometimes the communication
- [00:08:37.140]be a little bit better.
- [00:08:38.100]But it might just be a music sort of thing,
- [00:08:41.130]like, just musicians being unorganized or something.
- [00:08:46.710]I was gonna pop in too and say
- [00:08:49.350]starting grad school it looked a little bit differently,
- [00:08:51.270]because we have a lot of resources
- [00:08:53.010]provided on iPads now, at least through pharmacy school.
- [00:08:56.640]They provide an iPad when you start school,
- [00:08:59.130]so everything is provided, for the most part,
- [00:09:02.040]that you need.
- [00:09:02.873]And so, anything additional is kinda just to supplement
- [00:09:05.190]your education, I guess,
- [00:09:06.810]and provide, like, learning resources.
- [00:09:09.960]Like, a big one that sticks out in my mind
- [00:09:11.610]that's been helpful with like, sketchy micro
- [00:09:14.700]or like, sketchy pharmacology,
- [00:09:16.050]it's just a website
- [00:09:17.970]that you have to do
- [00:09:18.900]like, a membership to to get access and things.
- [00:09:21.930]But other than that,
- [00:09:23.050]like, everything has been upfront
- [00:09:24.840]and we've had a really good idea
- [00:09:25.980]of what to expect cost-wise.
- [00:09:30.660]I would agree with what a lot of what was said
- [00:09:33.300]if there was ever,
- [00:09:34.590]and if when I would sign up for these classes,
- [00:09:38.310]a lot of times it would tell me upfront
- [00:09:42.270]what to expect.
- [00:09:43.470]And if there was, say,
- [00:09:45.210]a last-minute edition of a book,
- [00:09:47.250]usually the professors would offer
- [00:09:48.840]as much resources as they can,
- [00:09:50.400]whether it's having a book on hand
- [00:09:52.680]that you can come into their office to use
- [00:09:55.290]if you don't want to buy the book yourself,
- [00:09:57.990]or getting their own materials
- [00:10:01.260]and then having that available,
- [00:10:02.940]stay on canvas throughout the year,
- [00:10:04.830]and that's always very helpful.
- [00:10:06.360]And a lot of students can usually get a way
- [00:10:08.340]of just not buying the book.
- [00:10:09.930]Or I've been in situations
- [00:10:11.760]before where I have a group of eight people
- [00:10:14.070]and we're like, "Okay, we're gonna split this book
- [00:10:15.900]between the eight of us
- [00:10:17.250]and it's gonna be great,"
- [00:10:18.420]because we know we're not gonna use this book,
- [00:10:20.370]maybe, two years from now.
- [00:10:21.510]So we'd rather just share the book.
- [00:10:25.622]Those're great answers, really great answers.
- [00:10:29.160]Amara, I wanna tell you, it's not just you.
- [00:10:31.260]My son is a seven-through-12 social sciences teaching major
- [00:10:34.800]and just yesterday came and told me
- [00:10:37.050]that his teacher told him on Monday
- [00:10:39.030]that they now needed another book.
- [00:10:41.130]School ends in three and a half weeks.
- [00:10:42.540]So I just had to buy him another book
- [00:10:45.180]so he could do his, and at this point what do you do?
- [00:10:47.610]You gotta have the book, right, to finish the class.
- [00:10:49.440]So it's not just music people,
- [00:10:51.030]it is (laughing) other people also.
- [00:10:53.070]And Abby, that's wonderful that you get an iPad
- [00:10:55.890]with all your books loaded on it.
- [00:10:57.840]I'm hoping all the other campuses
- [00:10:59.730]get up to that level, here,
- [00:11:02.520]in the next, you know, let's say 10 years,
- [00:11:04.740]because things move a little bit slower sometimes.
- [00:11:06.900]That's wonderful, I would love that
- [00:11:08.850]for everybody, that's great.
- [00:11:11.310]'Kay, so with that,
- [00:11:13.380]can you guys tell me about your experiences
- [00:11:15.630]with OER courses?
- [00:11:17.070]Have they made a difference in your life,
- [00:11:20.340]your ability to juggle the demands of school?
- [00:11:23.040]I mean, how do they fit in with what you're doing?
- [00:11:27.150]I feel like the class is a lot more organized in general,
- [00:11:30.720]'cause I was with Dr. Moore,
- [00:11:33.783]he taught my like,
- [00:11:36.090]kind of a brief history of music class.
- [00:11:38.940]And also, I'm in a music technology class with him now,
- [00:11:41.640]and he wrote a book for both of those classes
- [00:11:44.340]and the book was very much tailored
- [00:11:46.980]to how the class was organized.
- [00:11:48.990]Each chapter would be, like, a week or two.
- [00:11:51.390]So that was always really nice,
- [00:11:52.920]because in books that have, like,
- [00:11:55.620]weren't written by the instructor,
- [00:11:57.810]they're just like, chapters.
- [00:11:59.490]And then like, you have to flip the pages
- [00:12:01.710]and go to all these...
- [00:12:03.870]Half the book might not even be useful
- [00:12:05.490]to the course either.
- [00:12:06.630]So it's just a bunch of paper
- [00:12:09.270]that just goes to waste, essentially.
- [00:12:11.460]So it was really nice in Dr. Moore's classes
- [00:12:15.570]to have a sort of more tailored book,
- [00:12:19.200]and everything was just very relevant to the class.
- [00:12:27.990]I'm gonna go next,
- [00:12:28.823]just because I feel, like,
- [00:12:30.420]passionate about this class I took.
- [00:12:31.950]It was "Intro to Drug Information".
- [00:12:33.810]And through UNC'S library we have access
- [00:12:37.050]to like, PubMed, which you can use
- [00:12:38.900]to like, cite papers and everything,
- [00:12:40.560]and like, Lexicomp, Clinical Pharmacology,
- [00:12:44.340]which is all just, like,
- [00:12:45.570]drug-specific resources to see,
- [00:12:47.640]like, drug interactions, allergies,
- [00:12:51.120]which is all fantastic.
- [00:12:52.560]But if you don't know how to use it
- [00:12:53.850]it can go to waste really quickly.
- [00:12:55.890]And so, this course was so helpful.
- [00:12:57.810]Our professor was Cynthia Schmidt,
- [00:13:00.270]and she wrote an OER which pertained
- [00:13:03.330]to just how to navigate it,
- [00:13:05.070]and it was so helpful
- [00:13:05.970]because you could do it on your own time,
- [00:13:08.160]which allowed a lot of my peers to like,
- [00:13:11.100]work part-time as like, pharmacist interns,
- [00:13:13.350]which is fantastic.
- [00:13:14.478]And just really helped fit into our schedule
- [00:13:17.160]and learn material as we needed.
- [00:13:24.540]Yeah, I took Gen Chem.
- [00:13:26.160]It was OpenStax, and it had two...
- [00:13:28.470]Both semesters were OER,
- [00:13:30.480]so the textbook was free, and it was awesome.
- [00:13:33.840]I mean, not having to worry about, like,
- [00:13:35.550]the $200 textbooks that often,
- [00:13:37.440]you know, go with these classes.
- [00:13:39.984]And you know, I think a lot of times
- [00:13:41.280]the books're supplemental.
- [00:13:42.300]Like, you don't really need them.
- [00:13:44.220]Even if the teachers say they're required,
- [00:13:47.070]they're loosely required, I would say.
- [00:13:48.960]And so, when you don't have to worry
- [00:13:50.190]about, you know, like,
- [00:13:53.220]do I get to do these practice problems,
- [00:13:54.930]you know, do I need to do this to succeed?
- [00:13:56.550]It's like, you know, just, you're not as worried,
- [00:13:59.250]especially when you're like,
- [00:14:00.720]a really young person like a freshman.
- [00:14:02.400]You don't really know much of anything about college,
- [00:14:04.770]and to be able to just not worry
- [00:14:07.290]about, you know, getting everything you need
- [00:14:10.590]was really awesome.
- [00:14:15.030]That reminds me of a time when I was a freshman,
- [00:14:16.560]I was going into my biology class
- [00:14:19.350]and I bought a book that was three years older,
- [00:14:22.110]so it didn't have the updated problem sets
- [00:14:24.840]that we would be doing.
- [00:14:25.800]And I just had this big,
- [00:14:27.240]you know, just a big hard copy of a book that I never used.
- [00:14:31.200]But later on when I had a genetics course
- [00:14:34.290]that did have a,
- [00:14:36.120]that used OER, and it was really great
- [00:14:38.460]because I knew that I could trust it
- [00:14:40.530]in the sense that it was updated,
- [00:14:42.540]and I didn't have to worry about scouring the bookstore
- [00:14:45.390]to make sure like, okay, when was this last updated?
- [00:14:50.670]Great answers once again.
- [00:14:53.220]Abby, make sure you tell the teacher of that class
- [00:14:56.010]that you're so passionate about,
- [00:14:57.420]you make sure you tell them that,
- [00:14:58.590]'cause that'll make that teacher's day, I promise you.
- [00:15:02.370]So I guess, this's a question that wasn't on the list,
- [00:15:05.100]but it made me think of this
- [00:15:06.060]while you all were talking.
- [00:15:07.380]So with OER, OER means that a book
- [00:15:11.550]or the materials for class,
- [00:15:13.020]not including lab fees and things for classes,
- [00:15:15.510]unfortunately that's hard to get rid of,
- [00:15:19.170]is gonna be $40 or less.
- [00:15:21.660]Do you feel that that number,
- [00:15:23.340]that $40 or less is a reasonable number,
- [00:15:29.040]a reasonable price tag for the materials for your class?
- [00:15:41.160]I feel like, I don't know,
- [00:15:43.350]yeah, $40 might even be kind of high for me.
- [00:15:47.504]I don't know, I'm more of a...
- [00:15:48.540]I think $30 or less is better,
- [00:15:50.850]but once it gets over $40, I'm like,
- [00:15:54.397]"No, how many hours of work is that already?"
- [00:15:57.630]I'm not very good at math,
- [00:15:58.740]that's why I'm a music major.
- [00:16:00.060]But that's like, four hours of work
- [00:16:03.060]if you just get paid $10 an hour,
- [00:16:06.570]that's not great at all. (laughs)
- [00:16:10.740]So it's really nice to just have it free.
- [00:16:13.907]'Cause I mean, who doesn't like extra money?
- [00:16:20.430]Yeah, I mean, like $40 I...
- [00:16:22.890]So like, with labs and stuff,
- [00:16:25.530]I would love if a lot of my classes were $40 only.
- [00:16:28.980]I mean, you know, like,
- [00:16:29.820]when you're getting organic textbooks
- [00:16:31.170]and those're things that I would say you kinda need
- [00:16:34.470]for some of those classes.
- [00:16:35.370]It's like, that you're gonna be paying $200
- [00:16:38.190]and it's just it is what it is.
- [00:16:41.220]And so, I think we still have
- [00:16:44.040]a lot of, you know, work to do in general.
- [00:16:45.870]I mean, like, you know,
- [00:16:46.703]we look at other countries and it's like, you know,
- [00:16:49.320]money is not a barrier to education in any way,
- [00:16:51.540]and we're way behind that in a lot of respects.
- [00:16:53.730]And I would say that although $40
- [00:16:55.950]is a good starting point,
- [00:16:56.910]you know, I think maybe just even broadening the scope
- [00:17:00.510]of what OER is, you know,
- [00:17:02.160]applying it to more classes
- [00:17:03.240]that it doesn't necessarily already exist
- [00:17:04.620]for is just as important as driving that cost
- [00:17:08.340]down at the end of the day.
- [00:17:14.910]Go ahead, Renata.
- [00:17:16.080]Gonna say, I really agree with what they've said.
- [00:17:18.925]I feel like, I mean, I've been in school,
- [00:17:20.190]now, for 6, 7 years,
- [00:17:23.700]so I'm almost desensitized to it.
- [00:17:25.800]I just know that okay,
- [00:17:27.390]I'm gonna pay $300 for this textbook and it's fine.
- [00:17:31.020]But I've also been lucky to go to UNO
- [00:17:34.950]and have my family in Omaha
- [00:17:36.360]so I didn't have to worry
- [00:17:37.620]about thinking of like,
- [00:17:38.707]"Okay, well, if it's $40,
- [00:17:41.151]these're $40 I'm gonna use for class, this's great."
- [00:17:43.680]But I could see it as students seeing as,
- [00:17:46.087]"Okay, this's $40 I could use on gas
- [00:17:48.480]so I can go visit my family."
- [00:17:50.190]So a lot of times
- [00:17:52.470]we're put in a place where,
- [00:17:53.640]like, we know we have to pick this book,
- [00:17:55.530]but if we didn't have to,
- [00:17:56.640]we could do other things
- [00:17:57.750]that could help our mental health instead,
- [00:17:59.490]and other types of, like, self-care things
- [00:18:01.230]that we didn't really realize
- [00:18:02.520]that we would subconsciously just kinda throw out.
- [00:18:10.320]You know, I didn't think about, you know,
- [00:18:12.367]$40 is four hours of work at $10 an hour.
- [00:18:15.547]You know, I guess I've been
- [00:18:17.370]out of that kind of job for so long,
- [00:18:20.040]'cause I've been salaried for a very long time.
- [00:18:22.380]I didn't even think about that.
- [00:18:23.490]But you know, that is a really great point,
- [00:18:27.600]and I wrote it down 'cause I think we all need
- [00:18:30.030]to think about that.
- [00:18:31.260]My class that I teach,
- [00:18:32.190]my main class is genetics,
- [00:18:33.630]and the genetics textbook went up to $270.
- [00:18:37.920]Science textbooks're really expensive,
- [00:18:40.410]which those of you in the sciences know that.
- [00:18:42.720]When it hit that point,
- [00:18:44.730]excuse me, when it hit that point
- [00:18:46.860]I said "Nope, we can't do this anymore."
- [00:18:49.080]So I actually created my my own OER textbook
- [00:18:52.350]that costs $39,
- [00:18:53.397]and students have access to it for life.
- [00:18:55.350]Zack was in the first class that I used that textbook in.
- [00:18:59.040]Do you think, and it made me think
- [00:19:00.930]because that semester was the first semester
- [00:19:04.020]and this's my 20th year at UNK,
- [00:19:05.730]that was the end of my 19th year when Zack took class.
- [00:19:09.690]That was the first time in 19 years
- [00:19:12.150]that I did not have anybody fail my class.
- [00:19:15.780]Do you think that OER textbooks
- [00:19:18.870]and the way that the classes are arranged
- [00:19:20.700]because they're OER,
- [00:19:22.290]do you think that that helps you with your grades,
- [00:19:25.680]helps you academically?
- [00:19:28.920]Well, I mean, I can obviously speak
- [00:19:30.210]on that very genetics class.
- [00:19:32.490]I would say that it's...
- [00:19:34.380]I mean, when the teacher's, like,
- [00:19:35.610]heavily involved in developing the textbook,
- [00:19:37.230]I think it's, you know,
- [00:19:38.340]and like, that was kinda mentioned earlier.
- [00:19:41.700]You know, like when they really build that textbook
- [00:19:45.120]and it really caters to the class
- [00:19:47.160]and it's got problem sets that're similar
- [00:19:48.690]to what the teacher is interested in, because...
- [00:19:51.270]So I'm taking physical chemistry right now,
- [00:19:52.650]and the class is insane to begin with.
- [00:19:55.200]But it's like, all the problems in there that are assigned
- [00:19:58.500]are like, nothing like what he's teaching us.
- [00:20:01.080]They're like, completely different.
- [00:20:02.640]And so, you know, you'll do these homeworks,
- [00:20:04.037]you'll spend six hours doing this homework.
- [00:20:06.450]And then you'll get to a quiz
- [00:20:08.160]and you've never seen any of it before in your life,
- [00:20:09.900]and you're like, "Well, that was a waste of six hours."
- [00:20:11.700]So it's really awesome when they can go hand-in-hand
- [00:20:14.940]and you can like, really supplement
- [00:20:17.220]your education with the book
- [00:20:18.510]because the teacher was involved in developing it.
- [00:20:20.817]And so, that's what they care about.
- [00:20:22.200]That's what they want you to know.
- [00:20:23.550]And so, it's not like you gotta go
- [00:20:25.590]and pick things out of these textbooks
- [00:20:27.300]like, "Is this what my teacher cares about?
- [00:20:29.220]Is it not?"
- [00:20:30.053]It's like, "Well, this's definitely what they care about.
- [00:20:32.100]It's following the order of the class."
- [00:20:33.503]And so, I think it's just a lot easier
- [00:20:35.160]organizationally and otherwise
- [00:20:38.250]when it's set up that way.
- [00:20:42.840]I think another helpful thing,
- [00:20:44.070]at least in my experience with it,
- [00:20:45.570]is there was like, online virtual quizzes
- [00:20:48.090]that you could complete
- [00:20:49.110]and kinda like, self-assess and test yourself.
- [00:20:52.170]And so, that really helps you learn too,
- [00:20:53.790]when it's interactive and more fun,
- [00:20:57.270]I guess, I would consider it,
- [00:20:58.560]than just sitting in a lecture
- [00:21:00.180]and being fed a whole bunch of information
- [00:21:03.270]and you're not really sure, like,
- [00:21:04.290]what's important, what's gonna apply.
- [00:21:11.700]Yeah, I have a class right now
- [00:21:13.350]where we are working on ArcGIS,
- [00:21:15.870]and the program doesn't have OER resources
- [00:21:18.630]but they just have a lot of raw data
- [00:21:20.490]out there that is accessible for free.
- [00:21:23.160]And my professor has narrowed everything down
- [00:21:26.730]where, you know, we can get the textbook if we want to,
- [00:21:29.850]but he's taken pieces out
- [00:21:31.890]so that way we can do problem sets
- [00:21:35.460]that are tailored to what he knows that we need to learn.
- [00:21:38.730]And there's something about having a flow
- [00:21:42.450]of a textbook or textbook adjacent
- [00:21:45.180]that the professor is really...
- [00:21:46.830]If the professor is very well-versed in it,
- [00:21:48.900]the students will be very,
- [00:21:51.720]they'll be much more successful
- [00:21:53.340]than they are of like, skimming through the books.
- [00:21:54.930]Like, okay I can read,
- [00:21:55.950]I don't need to read 20 pages of this chapter,
- [00:21:58.290]suddenly skip ahead,
- [00:21:59.370]but then you accidentally skip past something important.
- [00:22:01.440]And this way,
- [00:22:02.880]you know, you're not skipping anything
- [00:22:04.950]or stressed about that.
- [00:22:10.860]That's good to hear,
- [00:22:11.700]because as you guys were all talking,
- [00:22:14.130]I was thinking, "You know, we should make sure
- [00:22:16.080]that we have these as sound bites and snippets
- [00:22:18.930]that go out to all the faculty
- [00:22:20.400]to know that that is the way that the students think.
- [00:22:22.680]And I know from my class, that was the biggest problem.
- [00:22:25.320]The flow was cut off,
- [00:22:26.460]we were skipping from chapter three, to 13,
- [00:22:28.880]to you know, all over the place,
- [00:22:30.180]and I did not like the way that it went.
- [00:22:31.980]And with the book that I created,
- [00:22:34.800]it's all about the class.
- [00:22:35.880]So thank you for that.
- [00:22:37.740]I think every professor needs to hear that.
- [00:22:41.280]So I want you to think about your experiences.
- [00:22:43.710]So I'm sure you guys're all in classes that aren't OER,
- [00:22:48.240]aren't $40 or less
- [00:22:49.830]or have, you know, online parts to the class.
- [00:22:54.630]How do those classes compare
- [00:22:57.390]to your non-OER classes?
- [00:23:11.880]Kinda like I touched on before,
- [00:23:13.140]I would say it's a lot less engaging,
- [00:23:14.670]and it's kinda just being drilled
- [00:23:16.710]a whole bunch of information for an hour-long lecture,
- [00:23:19.470]which can seem longer than it is.
- [00:23:21.900]And so, that's just a big one that sticks out for me.
- [00:23:28.150]Well, I think, like,
- [00:23:29.700]a lot of times it'll be like,
- [00:23:32.580]you know, they'll be discussing something out of a reading
- [00:23:35.130]and you know, people're like,
- [00:23:35.963]"Well, I'm saving money, I'm not getting this," or whatever.
- [00:23:38.160]Like, "I'm just gonna find what I can
- [00:23:39.750]on the internet about it."
- [00:23:40.713]And, you know, there'll be just those moments
- [00:23:42.480]where it's like the teacher's up there and saying,
- [00:23:43.890]like, "What'd you guys think of this?"
- [00:23:45.150]And nobody, like, really knows what to say
- [00:23:47.190]because nobody's spending the money
- [00:23:48.930]to like, you know, pay for this.
- [00:23:50.970]So I think it's more, almost, like,
- [00:23:53.520]awkward to a certain extent.
- [00:23:54.840]Because, you know, people do try to kinda just skate by
- [00:23:58.710]and not, you know, I think,
- [00:24:00.390]probably impair their education
- [00:24:01.620]due to the cost of it.
- [00:24:02.453]And so, people, I mean, that's just what they'll do.
- [00:24:05.547]And so, it's kind of, you know,
- [00:24:07.530]there's less, yeah, like, kind of what was said,
- [00:24:10.050]you know, engagement in the class
- [00:24:11.280]because people can't even be engaged
- [00:24:13.050]because they aren't paying for these textbooks.
- [00:24:26.730]I've had a similar experience too.
- [00:24:28.200]I think my OER courses are much more engaged
- [00:24:31.620]because people, they just have more,
- [00:24:33.870]they have access to the materials
- [00:24:36.570]in a way that they're online,
- [00:24:38.880]and they're everywhere with them.
- [00:24:40.650]Like, I think in my experience...
- [00:24:43.560]I've read textbooks on my phone,
- [00:24:45.300]and I can't do that if it's a 300-page textbook
- [00:24:49.380]that's a hard copy.
- [00:24:50.760]So that is like a...
- [00:24:52.830]That's an unexpected positive for me,
- [00:24:55.110]'cause I know that,
- [00:24:55.943]you know, I'm busy and I'm running around,
- [00:24:57.390]but if I have a down five minutes
- [00:25:00.180]I can pull out my textbook on my phone
- [00:25:01.890]and I can catch up that way.
- [00:25:04.050]So that's an unexpected positive.
- [00:25:07.980]I also thought,
- [00:25:08.850]I think it's a lot easier to communicate,
- [00:25:11.820]like, inconsistencies with the book.
- [00:25:14.500]Like, if something is wrong in the book,
- [00:25:17.220]then you can just talk to the person
- [00:25:18.870]who made the book right away,
- [00:25:20.490]and then they can make a clarification about it
- [00:25:22.740]in the lecture.
- [00:25:23.790]Like, "Oh, this was a typo, I'm sorry."
- [00:25:25.950]I mean, there's been some textbooks
- [00:25:29.010]that were published by a company
- [00:25:30.930]that still have wrong information in them,
- [00:25:33.750]or old information that isn't, like, valid anymore.
- [00:25:37.260]So it's just quick and easy to get information out there.
- [00:25:41.370]Also, just in general, asking questions is a lot easier.
- [00:25:45.510]Like, asking questions about the book
- [00:25:46.950]is a lot easier when the author of the book
- [00:25:49.350]is standing in the room with you.
- [00:25:50.550]It's just fast.
- [00:25:56.100]So on that same kinda line,
- [00:25:59.970]why, and I'm really interested 'cause you're students.
- [00:26:03.510]I know what faculty say,
- [00:26:04.830]but I am interested as to your guys' opinions.
- [00:26:08.850]This's not gonna be held against you,
- [00:26:10.830]but why do you think more faculty
- [00:26:13.740]don't have their classes be OER?
- [00:26:23.220]It could, I don't know, Well-
- [00:26:24.240]it could be multiple reasons.
- [00:26:25.470]I'm sorry, but I think one,
- [00:26:28.110]maybe they just don't have time to write a book.
- [00:26:30.840]That's how I feel.
- [00:26:32.160]Writing a book takes a lot of time,
- [00:26:35.700]finding information takes a lot of time.
- [00:26:37.800]Maybe they're not, like, too well-versed in it
- [00:26:40.555]or they like the book that they're promoting
- [00:26:43.860]for their students to buy.
- [00:26:45.180]So it could be a multitude of things like that.
- [00:26:52.612]Yeah, I feel like they may not be compensated
- [00:26:55.680]for that as well.
- [00:26:56.513]So if what they're compensated
- [00:26:58.890]for is to just administer the class
- [00:27:01.020]and execute a plan that is created
- [00:27:05.640]either by the previous professor
- [00:27:07.260]or a plan that's created by a book that already exists
- [00:27:09.780]that you need to pay for,
- [00:27:11.160]that might just be what they have time
- [00:27:12.870]for if they're expected to do research outside of that,
- [00:27:16.460]or they could have all these expectations, so it's...
- [00:27:18.900]I mean, as a student, I feel like it's unfair
- [00:27:20.310]to expect my professor to be able to offer OER resources
- [00:27:23.790]if they're not equally supported to offer that resource.
- [00:27:32.070]You all're much nicer than me (chuckles) in your answers.
- [00:27:37.170]Just to give you an idea, when I did my course,
- [00:27:39.690]I never had an interest in writing a book.
- [00:27:42.240]And it was actually a very easy process.
- [00:27:46.620]There's a company called Skyepack,
- [00:27:48.300]and what they do is they take your lecture notes
- [00:27:50.700]and you turn them into a,
- [00:27:51.720]and they turn it into a book.
- [00:27:53.460]And you go through and you...
- [00:27:55.650]My job was to edit.
- [00:27:56.910]It costs me nothing but the time to put it in.
- [00:27:59.670]And we, I was releasing it as the kids were in class.
- [00:28:03.300]So Zack was in that first class first time we did it,
- [00:28:05.667]and I was releasing modules as we were making them,
- [00:28:10.080]and it has things like YouTube videos.
- [00:28:12.390]So if you think of genetics,
- [00:28:14.370]there's YouTube videos, there's quizzes,
- [00:28:18.060]there's all sorts of things that're tailored to the class.
- [00:28:21.000]I got paid nothing for it.
- [00:28:23.850]I, you know, I did it out of my own time.
- [00:28:26.910]But like I said, they took my notes
- [00:28:28.560]and then I make all the problems for my class,
- [00:28:30.810]which I've been teaching for a while
- [00:28:34.050]so I had a lot of that stuff.
- [00:28:35.490]And then they take it,
- [00:28:36.480]they make it into a book.
- [00:28:38.010]It costs 39.99 because,
- [00:28:39.810]well, that's, you know what they do.
- [00:28:42.067]$40 or under, right?
- [00:28:44.040]And then the students have lifetime access to it.
- [00:28:46.920]And then I can, as you said,
- [00:28:48.360]if there's a problem I can go in and fix it.
- [00:28:51.050]In that first semester we had some problems,
- [00:28:53.070]and people come tell me
- [00:28:53.910]and then we would go along and we'd fix it
- [00:28:55.950]as we went along.
- [00:28:57.240]So if you wanna do it from scratch,
- [00:29:00.360]write a book from scratch, you're right, it is.
- [00:29:02.790]That would be very daunting.
- [00:29:04.110]I didn't wanna do that.
- [00:29:05.220]So this company is great.
- [00:29:06.450]So I did that, and now our microbiology course,
- [00:29:08.910]they also have a Skyepack book
- [00:29:12.240]that my husband and the other co-chair
- [00:29:14.280]of the biology department put together,
- [00:29:16.230]and I know the students really appreciate that also, so...
- [00:29:19.560]The biology department here at UNK
- [00:29:20.994]is about 96% OER in our classes.
- [00:29:25.110]We've really embraced this possibility.
- [00:29:28.320]So, and more people are coming on board.
- [00:29:31.200]So I'm glad to hear, you know, what you guys think.
- [00:29:33.660]And a lot of that is true,
- [00:29:34.770]a lot of faculty don't have time.
- [00:29:36.180]There are a lot of other responsibilities.
- [00:29:38.460]So it was just wondering,
- [00:29:39.390]have you guys ever taken a class
- [00:29:41.760]where you've bought the books
- [00:29:43.800]but you've never opened them,
- [00:29:45.660]and have you said anything to the teachers about this?
- [00:29:50.790]I am in classical mythology right now,
- [00:29:53.610]and we had to buy Homer's "Iliad"
- [00:29:56.760]and Homeric hymns.
- [00:29:59.670]And I don't know, I can't understand
- [00:30:03.270]what it says at all, how it's...
- [00:30:06.330]I can't focus when I'm reading that book,
- [00:30:07.920]'cause how it's phrased is basically another language to me.
- [00:30:12.900]So I read the first, like, couple of chapters,
- [00:30:16.680]but then I was...
- [00:30:17.513]I just couldn't understand it,
- [00:30:18.990]so I wouldn't do well on the quizzes.
- [00:30:21.660]So I just started looking up the summaries online
- [00:30:24.060]of the hymns and the Iliad,
- [00:30:27.030]and it works way better.
- [00:30:28.560]It's so much easier to read.
- [00:30:30.210]So I kind of...
- [00:30:31.260]The book wasn't that expensive, thank goodness.
- [00:30:33.870]But I don't know,
- [00:30:35.580]if I had a friend that was taking classical mythology,
- [00:30:37.740]I would just tell them,
- [00:30:38.827]"Just Google everything, it's easier." (chuckles)
- [00:30:46.500]Yeah, I've had that experience,
- [00:30:48.390]where I've never touched a book
- [00:30:50.163]that I paid for for a class,
- [00:30:51.720]but I would never talk to my professor about it.
- [00:30:54.747]And I think that just has to come from...
- [00:30:57.510]This was while I was in undergrad,
- [00:30:58.710]and I was very...
- [00:31:00.030]I was very, I don't wanna say scared,
- [00:31:01.830]but I didn't wanna have a...
- [00:31:04.170]I didn't want to confront,
- [00:31:05.190]say, an authority figure
- [00:31:06.510]that is in charge of my academic wellbeing.
- [00:31:10.770]So I usually would just take it,
- [00:31:12.617]that's just how it is,
- [00:31:13.890]and then put the book on my bookshelf
- [00:31:15.450]and hope it looks pretty.
- [00:31:18.360]Yeah, I mean, seriously,
- [00:31:20.400]throughout my college, like tenure,
- [00:31:23.460]I think there've been more books
- [00:31:24.780]that I have not used that're required
- [00:31:27.450]than books that I have used.
- [00:31:29.220]And I think that's (chuckling) kinda like...
- [00:31:32.010]I find it ridiculous.
- [00:31:33.600]So actually, like, UNK was redoing
- [00:31:36.000]how they did their bookstore,
- [00:31:36.990]and there's this company called Akademos
- [00:31:38.217]and they wanted to make it so that,
- [00:31:41.070]like, you selected whether or not you wanted your books,
- [00:31:43.530]like, included in your student fees.
- [00:31:45.750]And so, you played a flat rate for books
- [00:31:47.880]and it was $18 a credit hour, I think,
- [00:31:51.210]or $16 a credit hour, something like that.
- [00:31:53.280]And, you know, if you...
- [00:31:56.520]I fought pretty adamantly against it,
- [00:31:58.560]because I was...
- [00:32:00.180]First of all the math, I mean that's pretty expensive.
- [00:32:01.860]It's like $300 or something a semester.
- [00:32:05.430]But also, it's like, there're so many books
- [00:32:07.590]that, so maybe you're cutting down the cost if you,
- [00:32:10.080]all the required books
- [00:32:11.250]that you're getting for this flat rate.
- [00:32:14.310]But in reality,
- [00:32:15.450]these required books're oftentimes not required.
- [00:32:17.790]And so, it just makes no sense for the students financially.
- [00:32:21.000]And so, I would say that other than my, like,
- [00:32:23.610]OER books where, you know,
- [00:32:25.140]you could just, it was pretty cheap.
- [00:32:27.240]Like, you know, the Gen Chem one
- [00:32:28.140]was literally free, I think.
- [00:32:29.430]Like, you could just easily get it.
- [00:32:31.170]I mean, everything else it's just like,
- [00:32:32.880]there's no point, I'm not gonna get it.
- [00:32:34.380]And I think,
- [00:32:36.060]even if it is required, a lot of times,
- [00:32:38.040]because they're required and you don't use them.
- [00:32:44.100]Great answers, and I will tell you,
- [00:32:45.630]I told you I have a son,
- [00:32:47.220]he's a junior here at UNK
- [00:32:49.530]and there's nothing more frustrating than,
- [00:32:52.080]'cause I buy his books.
- [00:32:53.100]So believe me, I feel all your pain,
- [00:32:55.440]'cause I buy his books.
- [00:32:57.150]And when he tells me "I never opened this book," I just...
- [00:33:00.840]I want to go up to that professor, and I do,
- [00:33:03.660]and say, "Why're you requiring books
- [00:33:05.400]that they don't even open?
- [00:33:06.720]That makes no sense."
- [00:33:08.730]But there is one reason, just to let you know,
- [00:33:10.767]and maybe you should get this word out,
- [00:33:13.560]athletes can only use their athletic scholarships
- [00:33:16.440]to buy books that're required.
- [00:33:19.470]That, we've gotta change,
- [00:33:20.610]and we're working on that
- [00:33:21.510]here at UNK, to get that changed.
- [00:33:23.100]We're working on that with our bookstore Akademos.
- [00:33:25.110]So we have a bookstore that is all about OER,
- [00:33:30.168]and it's a really great relationship
- [00:33:32.310]that we have with this new bookstore,
- [00:33:34.620]and we got to be on the OER team, here,
- [00:33:38.040]got to be on the hiring to talk to the people
- [00:33:41.520]for the new bookstore who we wanted.
- [00:33:42.810]And we really liked Akademos.
- [00:33:44.520]And Zack, I'm with you.
- [00:33:45.780]I voted against that also,
- [00:33:48.510]because that does get to be a really high price.
- [00:33:52.590]'Kay, so, do you guys ever,
- [00:33:56.070]I mean, this might seem like a bit of a strange question,
- [00:33:58.950]but amongst your friends,
- [00:34:01.800]do you ever talk about your classes
- [00:34:03.900]and you know, "Well, this one,
- [00:34:05.910]the book is really cheap," or "This one's OER."
- [00:34:08.280]Or if anybody's student would ask you about OER,
- [00:34:11.520]you know, what would you tell them?
- [00:34:20.417]So now I'd say my- I would tell them-
- [00:34:21.769]Oh, sorry.
- [00:34:23.730]The situation for me looks a little different
- [00:34:25.230]just because all my classmates
- [00:34:26.850]were taking the exact same courses,
- [00:34:28.320]doing the exact same course load.
- [00:34:30.990]So I wouldn't necessarily talk
- [00:34:32.190]to other students about it that're here.
- [00:34:34.620]But friend-wise, like, even I would consider,
- [00:34:37.350]like, some of the pharmacists I work with as friends
- [00:34:39.720]and I've even talked to them about OEP, or OER, sorry,
- [00:34:44.490]just because some of them that're older,
- [00:34:46.770]I don't think they realize
- [00:34:48.330]that they could really learn how to properly use
- [00:34:51.630]some of the drug platforms
- [00:34:53.580]just to check, like, drug interactions and allergies.
- [00:34:56.460]And you would be surprised how many patients
- [00:34:58.950]really, truly, need to know that now,
- [00:35:00.630]there's just a lot available
- [00:35:02.760]that I feel they inadequately don't understand.
- [00:35:18.107]I don't know.
- [00:35:19.080]So I would tell my friends,
- [00:35:21.390]like, if they were considering to take a class that was OER
- [00:35:26.190]I would tell them that they should,
- [00:35:27.300]because it's cheap, (laughs)
- [00:35:30.030]and like, you can't deny cheapness.
- [00:35:32.760]As a cheapskate myself,
- [00:35:35.100]I don't like spending money,
- [00:35:36.210]and I don't want my friends to be blowing
- [00:35:37.980]a million dollars on a class
- [00:35:40.440]or books that they're not gonna read or use.
- [00:35:43.320]And plus, in my experience,
- [00:35:44.970]the OER classes, they're a lot, like,
- [00:35:48.000]easier to follow,
- [00:35:48.833]and I'm generally more successful with them
- [00:35:50.697]and I'd like to see people that I know also be successful.
- [00:35:55.890]I would say it's like, really common for people
- [00:35:57.690]to just say, like,
- [00:35:58.597]"Yeah, this course has a required textbook,
- [00:36:00.330]but you don't need it," like, all the time.
- [00:36:02.010]I mean, people will give you that advice.
- [00:36:03.300]Like, "Yeah, take this.
- [00:36:04.500]Don't be afraid of the book
- [00:36:05.610]because you're never gonna need it anyway,
- [00:36:07.560]even if it says it's required."
- [00:36:08.730]And so, I think even more often than, like, OER stuff,
- [00:36:11.877]and that's, like, the insight I've been given
- [00:36:14.250]by people who're older than me
- [00:36:15.600]who'd gone through it before.
- [00:36:21.120]Do you feel like your campuses have done a good job
- [00:36:25.260]at embracing OER
- [00:36:27.630]and bringing it to the forefront of the students?
- [00:36:37.473]I don't really, like...
- [00:36:39.870]There's some class, as I said before,
- [00:36:41.460]like, there's some classes that tell you
- [00:36:42.810]that there's no book that's required,
- [00:36:44.670]and then you come into the first day of class
- [00:36:46.410]and then they're like, "All right, here you go,
- [00:36:47.850]you gotta buy this $100 book, Merry Christmas."
- [00:36:51.941](laughs) It's not fun.
- [00:36:53.490]So, and sometimes I'll, like,
- [00:36:55.380]you almost get, like, baited into signing up for a class
- [00:36:57.797]'cause you see that there's no books required.
- [00:37:00.240]So you might think that it's an OER class
- [00:37:02.670]and then it's not.
- [00:37:04.230]And then you have to...
- [00:37:05.310]You lose $100 or more, even,
- [00:37:07.950]if you're really unlucky.
- [00:37:09.780]So it's just, I feel like at UNL
- [00:37:12.900]they should like, make it super clear
- [00:37:16.920]when you're registering, like,
- [00:37:18.630]like have in a description or something
- [00:37:20.880]something saying that, like,
- [00:37:23.970]giving information about the books and the resources
- [00:37:26.670]that you'll need for the class well in advance
- [00:37:29.820]so that you can plan ahead, you know? (chuckles)
- [00:37:35.370]Yeah, so I think, like...
- [00:37:37.290]It's pretty tough for me to know,
- [00:37:38.220]kind of, you know, being like, a senior,
- [00:37:39.360]you're really far removed
- [00:37:40.380]from like, all the stuff that you kinda,
- [00:37:41.940]the information overload that gets fed to you
- [00:37:43.860]when you're like, first coming into college
- [00:37:45.600]where they're like, "Oh yeah,
- [00:37:46.530]this's available and that's available.
- [00:37:47.610]And, you know, you have this option."
- [00:37:48.930]So like, you know, I don't really know.
- [00:37:51.030]Like, I feel like I only kinda know of this stuff
- [00:37:53.190]because of student government,
- [00:37:54.900]because I'm like, in on some of those conversations
- [00:37:57.330]that have happened.
- [00:37:58.320]However, I think UNK has been pretty proactive
- [00:38:00.840]in, you know, making it clear on MyBLUE
- [00:38:03.723]when you're registering for classes,
- [00:38:05.190]if the courses're OER.
- [00:38:07.620]And so, if you're looking for it,
- [00:38:08.640]you can find that.
- [00:38:09.507]And I think, you know,
- [00:38:10.830]that alone is a pretty big step in the right direction
- [00:38:15.120]for these materials in general.
- [00:38:22.770]I would say that UNO
- [00:38:23.970]has done a really good good job
- [00:38:25.440]of communicating with students about what to expect
- [00:38:28.200]about book cost when they're applying,
- [00:38:30.000]when they're signing up for courses.
- [00:38:31.830]In my experience I do,
- [00:38:33.240]a lot of it was through word of mouth.
- [00:38:35.940]Professors would recommend the course,
- [00:38:38.400]recommend courses that're happening the next semester
- [00:38:40.560]and then have a plug in, of like,
- [00:38:42.127]"By the way, you know, it's a free textbook."
- [00:38:44.820]And then, you know, now I know of like,
- [00:38:46.777]"Oh, they meant OER," like, "that's great."
- [00:38:50.100]So I feel like when students
- [00:38:51.960]don't know about OER on their,
- [00:38:53.880]at least on UNO's campus,
- [00:38:55.050]they just know, like, a textbook is free.
- [00:38:56.940]And then once they take that class
- [00:38:58.440]or become connected with someone who knows what it is,
- [00:39:01.200]then it's explained to them.
- [00:39:02.280]It's like, "Oh wait, this's an incredible opportunity.
- [00:39:05.280]I'm only going to look for courses that're OER."
- [00:39:08.250]So that piece is pretty nice.
- [00:39:09.450]And I mean, I feel like UNO
- [00:39:10.770]has had the opposite experience then UNL.
- [00:39:13.860]They may say, when you're signing up for a course,
- [00:39:15.720]that a book is required.
- [00:39:18.150]And then before you even get the chance to buy the book,
- [00:39:20.580]the professor will let you know,
- [00:39:21.757]"Don't buy the book, you don't need it."
- [00:39:24.900]And they're pretty transparent about...
- [00:39:27.420]They're really transparent
- [00:39:28.253]about when things change, which is nice.
- [00:39:30.540]So that way, if you're proactive and you buy a book early,
- [00:39:34.080]they catch you before you spend that money
- [00:39:36.570]and can't get it back.
- [00:39:40.830]That's great! (laughs)
- [00:39:44.490]I wish sometimes, like I said,
- [00:39:47.100]I have learned a lot from my son being a college student,
- [00:39:50.820]because it's been a while since I've been a college student.
- [00:39:52.920]So I've learned a lot from him,
- [00:39:54.390]and, kinda, what he's gone through.
- [00:39:56.100]And I try to make it easier for my students,
- [00:39:59.100]especially cheaper for my students, to be in class too.
- [00:40:02.310]So one of the things that we've done
- [00:40:05.040]through the OER initiative
- [00:40:06.240]across the University Nebraska system
- [00:40:08.400]is we have been marking classes as one.
- [00:40:12.030]And the one is for, you know, OER Nebraska,
- [00:40:16.590]which was a acronym
- [00:40:19.080]that was actually created
- [00:40:21.960]by the student government from each of the campuses.
- [00:40:26.580]They all came up with that together.
- [00:40:28.050]So that is one way that you can look for classes.
- [00:40:30.690]Have any of you ever used that functionality
- [00:40:33.390]when you're looking for classes,
- [00:40:34.980]or have you noticed that marking?
- [00:40:46.530]I have not noticed that marking.
- [00:40:49.110]I would love to notice it in the future.
- [00:40:52.799]To be honest, I feel like I'm, like, pretty far gone.
- [00:40:55.110]Like, I don't think that there's gonna be
- [00:40:56.490]an OER P Chem textbook anytime soon.
- [00:40:58.740]Like, at the end of the day, you know,
- [00:41:00.900]like, this is what it is at this point.
- [00:41:02.790]You kinda just like, once you get up high enough,
- [00:41:04.830]it's just like, you don't really expect...
- [00:41:06.570]I think, like, the main impact, I would say,
- [00:41:08.100]like, for this stuff, is in the general studies
- [00:41:09.600]where it's like, really doable.
- [00:41:12.420]I don't know.
- [00:41:14.370]So I'm gonna ask Jane Peterson if she can pull up,
- [00:41:18.750]just so everybody can see what it looks like out there.
- [00:41:21.900]Jane, if you could please pull up the,
- [00:41:24.270]when kids search for their classes with the one marking
- [00:41:27.960]so we can show everybody here,
- [00:41:29.370]maybe we can do that in a little bit.
- [00:41:31.920]And Zack, I promise you I will work on Dr. Darveau
- [00:41:35.370]to get that P Chem book to be OER.
- [00:41:38.190]Well, I work on him all the time anyway
- [00:41:40.290]about this stuff too, so...
- [00:41:42.317]'Cause we would like,
- [00:41:43.590]I mean, my goal is to have everybody who can,
- [00:41:47.250]you know, be OER on campus.
- [00:41:49.830]And we understand there're some classes
- [00:41:51.450]that don't lend themselves to being OER, right?
- [00:41:54.000]I mean, some classes that would be kinda difficult
- [00:41:56.460]for them to do.
- [00:41:57.330]I once heard accounting would probably be really hard
- [00:42:00.300]to do as OER,
- [00:42:02.460]and that's completely understandable.
- [00:42:06.810]Let's see, so,
- [00:42:13.290]what would you want your campus to do
- [00:42:17.670]if you had your pie in the sky
- [00:42:19.890]that the campus could do for you
- [00:42:22.560]in terms of textbook costs and OER materials, and that,
- [00:42:26.370]what would you want your campus to do?
- [00:42:29.130]Because we're gonna make sure, you know,
- [00:42:30.840]that like, the senior vice chancellors on the campuses
- [00:42:34.500]you know, get to see this.
- [00:42:35.610]So this is your chance to say,
- [00:42:37.567]"Hey, this is what we would like
- [00:42:39.240]when it comes to textbooks and materials for our classes."
- [00:42:49.380]Well, (chuckles) I think that they should push for it
- [00:42:51.960]as hard as they can.
- [00:42:54.060]And it's not only, like, encouraging people to do it,
- [00:42:55.737]but maybe offering some sort of incentive on the backend
- [00:42:59.040]for the faculty that develop these things, these resources.
- [00:43:01.380]Because that does take a considerable amount of time.
- [00:43:04.080]And, you know, faculty don't, (chuckles) you know,
- [00:43:06.780]they're not making bank a lot of the times,
- [00:43:08.670]like, especially when you're just kinda starting out.
- [00:43:10.230]Like, you know, it's tough,
- [00:43:12.240]and you have to do research to supplement your income
- [00:43:14.190]and that kind of stuff.
- [00:43:15.023]You know, there's a lot of time constraints
- [00:43:17.490]that're involved with, you know,
- [00:43:18.540]making a textbook as well as the other things
- [00:43:20.370]that faculty have to do all the time.
- [00:43:22.080]And so, maybe like, for the universities
- [00:43:23.730]to, you know, help faculty or incentivize faculty to do it
- [00:43:28.380]in one way or another would be really, really helpful
- [00:43:30.630]to making this more of a broad thing.
- [00:43:40.860]Yeah, I agree with that.
- [00:43:41.730]Like adding an incentive
- [00:43:45.810]for those instructors who want to write a book
- [00:43:49.260]but yeah, don't have the time or the motivation.
- [00:43:51.570]Money is a big motivator,
- [00:43:53.130]so I feel like you could definitely get some movement
- [00:43:58.200]there if you, like, have some sort of award
- [00:44:01.590]for making a big change in your class. (chuckles)
- [00:44:12.930]We also have a question, or just a comment,
- [00:44:15.600]and Kim, you might address this.
- [00:44:18.397]"As a faculty, I was told that it was required
- [00:44:21.870]to make at least one book required."
- [00:44:25.200]So you might address
- [00:44:26.160]that question. Yeah,
- [00:44:27.510]so that's interesting.
- [00:44:28.410]So every college
- [00:44:31.230]on every campus is different.
- [00:44:33.540]So I'm in the College of Arts and Sciences,
- [00:44:36.300]and in Arts and Sciences there is,
- [00:44:38.520]and it might be department department,
- [00:44:39.750]we have no requirements for books.
- [00:44:41.250]In fact, of course, as I said in biology,
- [00:44:43.530]we'd love if we didn't use books.
- [00:44:45.840]But that's a little bit hard to get away from sometimes.
- [00:44:48.960]But sometimes faculty are given this requirement
- [00:44:51.450]and it's kind of an archaic requirement
- [00:44:54.570]that doesn't really exist anymore.
- [00:44:56.580]But you know how it is when you have history on your campus,
- [00:45:00.300]it just stays around forever.
- [00:45:02.640]And this gets told to people.
- [00:45:04.170]So as faculty,
- [00:45:07.410]us in this group who actually work
- [00:45:09.270]directly with our senior vice chancellor, now, in OER,
- [00:45:13.110]we need to make sure that she knows to tell the faculty,
- [00:45:17.190]'cause she's our direct boss,
- [00:45:18.600]that no, there is no,
- [00:45:20.940]that's not a real thing.
- [00:45:22.500]That's one of those urban legends, that you have to do that,
- [00:45:25.800]that you have to have a required book for a class,
- [00:45:27.317]'cause you don't have to have a required book for a class.
- [00:45:31.560]That's a great point, and we need to make sure
- [00:45:33.870]that we tell the senior vice chancellor that.
- [00:45:35.640]So we have a new senior vice chancellor
- [00:45:37.530]of academic affairs at UNK,
- [00:45:39.840]and she's very interested in OER.
- [00:45:42.960]And we sat down and had this conversation,
- [00:45:46.830]especially one, about required books never being opened,
- [00:45:49.890]about students getting books on the first day of class,
- [00:45:53.280]told to them that they have to buy some of these things
- [00:45:56.160]she wasn't aware of,
- [00:45:57.120]and she's actually putting something together
- [00:45:59.130]to talk to faculty for the next semester
- [00:46:02.730]so that they don't, you know, outta habit...
- [00:46:05.280]So ordering books, we get a form,
- [00:46:06.960]we go and we fill out this online form.
- [00:46:09.630]And it's already there,
- [00:46:10.747]"The book you used last time was this."
- [00:46:12.480]So the easy thing is just to push, Okay, right,
- [00:46:15.900]instead of unchecking it.
- [00:46:17.010]So there's a little bit of training
- [00:46:19.020]that needs to go on on our end, too,
- [00:46:21.030]as administrators and faculty on the campus.
- [00:46:25.680]So, and yes, Jane,
- [00:46:26.940]I did mean in MyBLUE.
- [00:46:27.773]And for everybody,
- [00:46:29.670]Brad put up the links to each campus
- [00:46:31.380]so that you can see how the classes are marked
- [00:46:34.470]on each campus.
- [00:46:35.790]Now, was talking about our senior vice chancellor,
- [00:46:37.950]and I'd really like you to have your guys' input on this.
- [00:46:40.230]So our senior vice chancellor's, very, very interested
- [00:46:43.500]in OER, really excited about it,
- [00:46:45.510]and getting on board with this.
- [00:46:46.800]And she's actually been coming to our meetings,
- [00:46:48.540]which is great.
- [00:46:50.100]She was thinking we need to have an initiative
- [00:46:52.440]that all 100-level classes,
- [00:46:54.780]so all those may be first-year classes that you take,
- [00:46:57.750]are OER, or general studies classes are OER,
- [00:47:02.190]or your gen eds.
- [00:47:04.290]What do you guys think about that?
- [00:47:05.730]If we have a target, what should our target be?
- [00:47:08.490]Should we try to make all those 100-level classes OER?
- [00:47:12.480]Should we be do the initiative,
- [00:47:13.980]all general studies classes are OER?
- [00:47:16.140]I'd really like your input on that.
- [00:47:21.403]I was just gonna input this quickly,
- [00:47:23.520]that like, as a freshman,
- [00:47:25.590]when I was doing, like, the science track,
- [00:47:28.470]I think I saw a lot of my classmates,
- [00:47:30.390]like, change routes, switch, do something else.
- [00:47:32.670]And so, it could be really helpful to have OER resources
- [00:47:36.420]just because it can really save them down the line
- [00:47:39.180]if they end up changing their major,
- [00:47:41.370]not have to buy the book
- [00:47:42.660]if they're go in science and then they switch,
- [00:47:44.820]you know, whatever,
- [00:47:45.653]it could be a waste of money.
- [00:47:46.501]So that could be really helpful.
- [00:47:51.630]Yeah, I think- And I think with-
- [00:47:52.890]Go ahead, go ahead.
- [00:47:54.290]Okay, I was gonna say the chance to take a class
- [00:47:58.320]without having to have that burden
- [00:47:59.880]of anywhere between 100 and $300 worth of books
- [00:48:03.150]just for your first semester of college
- [00:48:05.670]gives you a whole lot of breathing room
- [00:48:08.220]where, say, you don't have to pick up an extra job,
- [00:48:11.986]and you can use that time to study instead.
- [00:48:14.310]So I mean, if you don't have time
- [00:48:16.020]to really invest in the class that you're taking
- [00:48:19.080]because you're working outside of it
- [00:48:20.820]and you don't really know
- [00:48:21.653]if this's the career path for you.
- [00:48:23.580]So I think it would be best to have all of,
- [00:48:26.250]you know, all prerequisite courses to be OER,
- [00:48:29.580]that might be ambitious,
- [00:48:30.570]for each degree program,
- [00:48:31.800]and you would need a lot of resources for that.
- [00:48:33.810]But I think that graduation rates
- [00:48:35.220]would definitely see...
- [00:48:37.680]They would go higher,
- [00:48:38.513]and I think that people, students specifically,
- [00:48:40.320]would be much happier because they can find a way...
- [00:48:43.911]They have the opportunity to discover themselves
- [00:48:45.810]without having the burden
- [00:48:47.010]of working 10 hours here, 20 hours there,
- [00:48:50.310]and just be a student.
- [00:48:53.820]I have another question from the audience,
- [00:48:56.130]which somewhat ties into this question.
- [00:48:58.830]It says, "I'm curious to know
- [00:49:00.390]if any of you keep the books you purchase
- [00:49:03.510]once the course is over.
- [00:49:06.060]Why or why not?"
- [00:49:11.160]For me, it depends on the book.
- [00:49:13.140]When I've had, like...
- [00:49:14.400]For classes that involve my major,
- [00:49:16.710]I'll keep the book because it's useful information for me
- [00:49:20.040]to look back on later.
- [00:49:21.990]But if it's something general education, I'll sell it.
- [00:49:26.247]And maybe if it was a rental book, I'll turn it in.
- [00:49:29.610]That book is not staying
- [00:49:31.320]anywhere near me ever again. (laughs)
- [00:49:35.820]So I kinda firstly wanna say like, you know,
- [00:49:38.670]kinda echo what Renata said about like...
- [00:49:41.370]Like, transitioning to college
- [00:49:42.630]is such a difficult time for people.
- [00:49:44.310]I mean, like, the schooling is a lot harder
- [00:49:46.380]and it's difficult to be away from your family
- [00:49:48.600]and worry about,
- [00:49:49.433]you know, you gotta take care of yourself
- [00:49:50.870]in a lot of ways that,
- [00:49:51.828]you know, you don't necessarily have to in high school.
- [00:49:53.517]And so, like, making OER,
- [00:49:55.777]you know, available to those first-year students,
- [00:49:58.063]I think, is like, only a positive thing,
- [00:49:59.457]and I think it's a great starting point.
- [00:50:02.970]And then, when it comes to, like, keeping textbooks,
- [00:50:06.150]for me, I would say I keep them in two circumstances.
- [00:50:09.840]Like, if I'm taking a course for two semesters,
- [00:50:12.990]it no longer necessarily becomes, like,
- [00:50:14.730]financially beneficial to rent them.
- [00:50:18.600]So it's like, if I'm gonna need it for two semesters,
- [00:50:21.120]like, and it's 80-some dollars to rent
- [00:50:23.700]and you know, 180 to buy,
- [00:50:25.350]it's like, well, at this point
- [00:50:26.400]you might as well just buy it,
- [00:50:28.440]because you don't wanna have to rent it,
- [00:50:29.820]send it back, rent it again.
- [00:50:30.840]Like, it just doesn't make sense.
- [00:50:32.820]And then, also I would say that I keep them if...
- [00:50:35.550]So, like, I had to take the MCAT.
- [00:50:37.230]So if I was like, "Oh, you know, this might be helpful
- [00:50:38.423]for the MCAT down the road"
- [00:50:39.870]or, "I wanna look back on this," or something,
- [00:50:41.370]even though that's like, a little bit,
- [00:50:43.634](chuckles) maybe naive, like, you really don't.
- [00:50:45.043]I mean, at the end of the day it's like,
- [00:50:46.950]pretty rare that you're gonna have to do that.
- [00:50:48.450]Sometimes you might, like, pop it open
- [00:50:50.250]like, "Oh yeah, I was wondering about something."
- [00:50:52.677]But like, that is few and far between.
- [00:50:55.200]So I'd say, like, sometimes I've kept them
- [00:50:58.380]because I think I'm gonna use them in the future
- [00:51:00.480]when maybe I do, maybe I don't.
- [00:51:02.970]But otherwise, it's more like I'm kinda stuck with them
- [00:51:04.980]because I just was like,
- [00:51:05.947]"Well, I might as well buy it in the first place."
- [00:51:11.340]Yeah, I have all of my...
- [00:51:14.580]I kept all of my books from my undergrad
- [00:51:16.290]from my political science and environmental science degrees
- [00:51:18.750]and I always thought I'd go back on them
- [00:51:21.450]and, you know, take a look.
- [00:51:23.340]And the only time I feel like I've opened them
- [00:51:25.890]was during the quarantine part of the pandemic
- [00:51:29.520]because I had time,
- [00:51:32.310]and I reread some of the books
- [00:51:34.260]because it was interesting.
- [00:51:37.140]But now, with my master's program,
- [00:51:40.290]I feel like there's only one book
- [00:51:41.880]that I keep referring back to, and it's my ArcGIS book.
- [00:51:45.000]And that has, you know,
- [00:51:46.920]all the codes that I need to know for the program.
- [00:51:49.200]So that's the only reason I refer back to it.
- [00:51:51.450]So I keep them because I'm a sentimental person,
- [00:51:56.190]and I bought them,
- [00:51:57.240]and then there was no one else I could sell them to.
- [00:51:59.340]But I feel like if I could talk to my 20-year-old self,
- [00:52:03.960]I would tell her not to buy the books
- [00:52:06.180]and to rent them and return them,
- [00:52:07.013]'cause I'm not gonna use them again.
- [00:52:10.080]And if I do need to use them in my career,
- [00:52:12.690]it would be more cost effective to buy a book
- [00:52:15.390]then than it is to buy the book now
- [00:52:17.613]when your income is negative.
- [00:52:21.450]Excellent, and Dr. Carlson,
- [00:52:22.980]we have about eight minutes left.
- [00:52:25.230]I do have MyBLUE pulled up
- [00:52:27.300]with the place for,
- [00:52:30.150]if you want me to share that,
- [00:52:31.350]and you wanna walk through that,
- [00:52:32.640]I can sure do that,
- [00:52:33.600]okay. Sure,, that'd be great.
- [00:52:34.530]I think it'd be great, at least,
- [00:52:35.640]for everybody to get an idea of what one campus is doing.
- [00:52:39.810]I do wanna mention to everybody that in the chat,
- [00:52:42.000]Brad has put the link for the session survey.
- [00:52:44.490]We would like everybody to take that survey, please,
- [00:52:48.090]at the end of the panel, here.
- [00:52:51.390]So if you look, here, down at the bottom,
- [00:52:53.490]this is how UNK does it.
- [00:52:54.900]Every campus's a little different,
- [00:52:56.280]and Brad put those links in the chat.
- [00:52:58.410]But you could click on any of these
- [00:53:00.570]and you could search for classes
- [00:53:03.810]by looking for low-cost or no-cost materials.
- [00:53:06.690]So that's how we have our classes marked now,
- [00:53:09.120]as just two categories, low-cost and no-cost.
- [00:53:12.030]Low cost is anything under $40.
- [00:53:14.040]No-cost obviously is no cost.
- [00:53:16.560]If you're a science major,
- [00:53:18.000]that applies directly to the lecture portions of the class,
- [00:53:22.200]because like we said, the laboratory has fees.
- [00:53:24.030]Sometimes you have to buy goggles if you're in chemistry
- [00:53:27.960]or in microbiology.
- [00:53:29.520]You know, you gotta have those things,
- [00:53:30.630]gotta protect yourself.
- [00:53:31.740]So sometimes those get a little bit,
- [00:53:34.440]a little bit more expensive.
- [00:53:36.660]Renata, you said something great,
- [00:53:37.627]"If I could talk to my 20-year-old self,
- [00:53:39.630]I'd tell them not to buy the books."
- [00:53:41.670]I would tell all your 20-year-old selves the same thing.
- [00:53:45.960]Over Christmas break I got new furniture
- [00:53:48.090]for my office and I cleared out my office.
- [00:53:51.810]I had every one of my biology,
- [00:53:55.080]and believe it or not,
- [00:53:55.980]chemistry books for when I was an undergrad,
- [00:53:58.140]and I finally got rid of all of them
- [00:54:00.450]because I never opened them again. (chuckling)
- [00:54:03.660]So I get you! (laughs)
- [00:54:07.800]I get you.
- [00:54:09.300]You know, they're heavy also.
- [00:54:12.480]I mean, once again,
- [00:54:14.760]I would love us to get up to what Abby is doing
- [00:54:17.490]for her pharmacy school program
- [00:54:19.230]with having it all on an iPad.
- [00:54:21.840]Because, you know, education is changing
- [00:54:24.180]and we've all had to change with the times.
- [00:54:25.860]So, you know, when I was a kid
- [00:54:29.550]in elementary school or high school,
- [00:54:31.320]you know, we had physical books.
- [00:54:33.870]You know, we had to wrap them using grocery bags.
- [00:54:38.370]And my daughter just did that,
- [00:54:39.900]she brought a book home, she goes,
- [00:54:40.777]"Do you know how to cover a book?"
- [00:54:42.360]And I'm like, "Oh, this's where I excel.
- [00:54:44.280]I can show you how to do this."
- [00:54:45.810]And so we did.
- [00:54:46.740]You know, but even she, they get Chromebooks
- [00:54:49.317]and they all go with the Chromebook
- [00:54:50.940]and everything is online.
- [00:54:52.560]You know, so you guys learn a lot differently
- [00:54:54.390]than Jane, and Brad, and I did when we were in school.
- [00:54:57.270]So we need to keep up with you guys also,
- [00:55:01.230]what you're learning.
- [00:55:02.430]I would like to know if each of you,
- [00:55:03.810]with the last five minutes we have,
- [00:55:05.070]is there something you would like to add?
- [00:55:08.130]Some last words from each of you, please?
- [00:55:13.410]Sure, I can start.
- [00:55:17.793]I think, as a student,
- [00:55:18.690]when you're young and going through the processes,
- [00:55:22.050]we have a lot of trust in your professors.
- [00:55:24.780]And I feel like if faculty haven't implemented OER
- [00:55:28.980]because they're nervous
- [00:55:29.880]about vetting the materials themselves.
- [00:55:33.480]If they're listening out there,
- [00:55:34.680]I just wanna tell them that students trust them.
- [00:55:36.840]And, you know, we're walking into,
- [00:55:39.300]we're usually walking into these things blind.
- [00:55:41.730]And whatever you tell us,
- [00:55:43.560]we'll take it and we'll trust it.
- [00:55:45.000]Even if it's wrong,
- [00:55:45.930]we trust you to correct it later on if it is wrong.
- [00:55:49.020]So I know that if, through my undergrad,
- [00:55:51.330]it would've been very helpful to have,
- [00:55:54.009]more OER options available.
- [00:55:56.610]And, you know, as a grad student now,
- [00:55:59.580]it's been helpful by a lot.
- [00:56:01.020]I worked three jobs while I was in undergrad.
- [00:56:04.710]I probably did too much,
- [00:56:05.640]but I knew that I didn't have to worry
- [00:56:08.160]about the cost of books because I knew, like,
- [00:56:09.727]"Okay, I'm working here this weekend,
- [00:56:11.100]that's gonna cover the book costs."
- [00:56:12.270]But, you know, if I had the opportunity to not do that,
- [00:56:16.221]that would've been helpful.
- [00:56:17.130]So, you know, your students trust you,
- [00:56:19.500]even if they don't seem like it.
- [00:56:22.080]We're all looking at the ground
- [00:56:23.280]trying to connect all the things in our brains,
- [00:56:25.950]but, you know, we know that we can turn
- [00:56:27.540]to our professors for help.
- [00:56:29.130]And if they were to give us a book,
- [00:56:30.073]a textbook that was free,
- [00:56:31.530]I'm not gonna question it.
- [00:56:41.550]Well, yeah, I think...
- [00:56:44.130]So I would encourage, you know,
- [00:56:46.620]all faculty, if possible, to adopt these things.
- [00:56:48.840]And I think, you know,
- [00:56:50.880]like, if I was to tell them something,
- [00:56:52.230]it'd be like,
- [00:56:53.077]"I really think you need to have an open mind going in."
- [00:56:54.990]Like, "look at it with a positive outlook."
- [00:56:56.370]Because the truth is, whether or not you know it,
- [00:56:59.163]you know, you could be doing more
- [00:57:00.090]than just cutting down the cost of your materials.
- [00:57:02.160]I mean, you could be eliminating,
- [00:57:04.650]at least in some way, in some part,
- [00:57:06.240]that barrier of cost to education.
- [00:57:08.577]And I mean, that can greatly impact people's lives.
- [00:57:12.210]And I mean, that might sound dramatic, but that's true.
- [00:57:14.370]I mean, it's like, in other countries, you know,
- [00:57:16.440]sometimes these barriers to education don't exist.
- [00:57:18.930]And in the United States they're very steep.
- [00:57:21.060]You know, and then,
- [00:57:21.893]so if you have a positive outlook on it, you know,
- [00:57:24.630]look at the book.
- [00:57:25.740]And if you, you know,
- [00:57:26.790]don't think it's gonna compromise the quality of education
- [00:57:29.850]that you're providing to your students,
- [00:57:31.500]I think you absolutely should adopt these textbooks
- [00:57:33.720]if you can, you know?
- [00:57:34.560]I mean, there're some of them that're just not good.
- [00:57:37.470]You know, they have a lot of errors, or whatever.
- [00:57:39.720]But I think by and large,
- [00:57:41.220]they're a very positive thing
- [00:57:42.600]and they can really, really greatly impact students
- [00:57:44.730]and really help them out,
- [00:57:47.130]you know, throughout their education.
- [00:57:52.920]I think going forward, too,
- [00:57:54.060]it's really exciting to see
- [00:57:55.200]that you've had positive results in your classroom, Kim,
- [00:57:58.500]just with this last year.
- [00:58:00.630]And that can be a huge push,
- [00:58:02.820]to just try to convince these other faculty
- [00:58:05.790]that it can be a really positive step.
- [00:58:07.710]And like Zack said,
- [00:58:09.420]just to have a open mindset going forward
- [00:58:11.580]and see where these new outlooks can take us.
- [00:58:22.127]Amara, you have some final thoughts for us?
- [00:58:25.230]I guess I do.
- [00:58:26.790]So I think that if, like...
- [00:58:28.680]I think a lot of instructors
- [00:58:30.840]should consider going to OAR,
- [00:58:33.930]because they can make something that is truly theirs,
- [00:58:38.430]and that's something to be proud of.
- [00:58:40.080]And they're gonna see the results within their classes
- [00:58:42.480]and their students.
- [00:58:43.440]They're gonna see that people are more alert,
- [00:58:45.480]they understand a lot more,
- [00:58:47.100]their grades're probably gonna be better too
- [00:58:49.740]because there's no person riding by the seat of their pants
- [00:58:52.650]just Googling everything.
- [00:58:54.900]So, and I think that that would help everyone stay...
- [00:58:59.430]It levels the playing field,
- [00:59:00.930]I guess that's the word I'm looking for.
- [00:59:02.340]It makes everything fair for everybody,
- [00:59:04.410]and obviously that's something
- [00:59:06.810]that's really should be a requirement in education.
- [00:59:11.250]This has been great.
- [00:59:12.420]I wanna thank all of you,
- [00:59:14.040]Dr. Carlson and each one of you on the student panel.
- [00:59:17.970]This's been inspirational.
- [00:59:20.640]I think it's just been awesome.
- [00:59:22.470]So to the audience, please fill out the survey
- [00:59:25.890]that Brad placed in the chat line.
- [00:59:29.460]We would appreciate that.
- [00:59:30.630]And if you can,
- [00:59:32.220]I'd just give these people a great big hand, thank you
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.
Log in to post comments
Embed
Copy the following code into your page
HTML
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;"> <iframe style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;" src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/20751?format=iframe&autoplay=0" title="Video Player: Student Voices Panel OER 2023" allowfullscreen ></iframe> </div>
Comments
0 Comments