THE OPEN COURSE LIBRARY: USING OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY COLLEGE ACCESS By MARY ANN LUND GOODWIN A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology DECEMBER 2011 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. Mary Ann Lund Goodwin, 2011 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of MARYANN LUND GOODWIN find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. ______________________________ Kelly Ward, Ph.D., Chair ______________________________ Paul E. Pitre, Ph.D. ______________________________ Pat Sturko, Ph.D. iii THE OPEN COURSE LIBRARY: USING OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY COLLEGE ACCESS Abstract by Mary Ann Lund Goodwin, Ed.D. Washington State University December 2011 Chair: Kelly Ward Community colleges are committed to meeting the educational needs of the communities they serve and they have increased access to higher education by offering new and innovative services to students often unable to attend traditional baccalaureate institutions. An innovation known as Open Educational Resources (OER) promises to make college more accessible and affordable by reducing textbook costs. OER are digital materials offered openly and freely for others to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research. This dissertation, based on a descriptive qualitative study, examines how faculty participating in the Open Course Library, a grant project sponsored by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, redesign community college curriculum using OER to improve access, student success and reduce student costs to attend institutions of higher education. The study used interviews and document analysis to look at how faculty approach innovation and adopt and change curriculum in light of new resource and delivery options. The study also considered how OER influence curricular redesign and looked at the iv resources faculty relied on to redesign course curriculum for the Open Course Library. Viewed through the lens of Rogers’ (2003) theory of the diffusion of innovations and Innovation-Decision Process model, study findings suggest that while faculty may be motivated to adopt new innovations like OER, for some, the time it takes to identify and integrate OER into courses presents a significant barrier to adoption. Financial and other incentives can mitigate these barriers, however, and encourage faculty to adopt new curricular innovations. Further research is needed to determine the most effective way to motivate faculty to develop and use OER in order to increase educational access and student success. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... .. iii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. xii DEDICATION ....................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 Curriculum Reform to Increase Access ............................................................. 2 Washington State and the Open Course Library Project ................................... 5 Description of the Open Course Library .................................................. 6 Purpose / Significance of the OCL Study .......................................................... 8 Methodology of the Study ................................................................................. 8 Definitions ......................................................................................................... 9 Open Educational Resources .................................................................... 9 Open Textbooks ..................................................................................... 10 Research Questions ......................................................................................... 10 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 12 Public Policy and Access to Higher Education ............................................... 12 Public Policy and the High Cost of Textbooks ...................................... 14 Sharing Educational Resources Created with Public Funds .................. 17 Technology and Open Educational Resources ....................................... 18 History of Distance Education Initiatives .............................................. 19 Innovation and Distance Learning in Higher Education ........................ 21 vi Open Educational Resources (OER) ............................................................... 23 History of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement ............. 23 Defining Open Educational Resources (OER) ....................................... 24 Sustainability of Open Educational Resources (OER) ........................... 25 Theoretical Basis for Study ............................................................................. 27 Rogers and the Diffusion of Innovations ......................................................... 27 Innovation ............................................................................................... 28 Communication ...................................................................................... 29 Time ........................................................................................................ 30 Social System ......................................................................................... 30 Development of the Theory of the Diffusion of Innovations .......................... 31 Using the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations in Educational Research ........ 33 Limitations Affecting the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations ....................... 34 3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 36 Methodology .................................................................................................... 37 Theoretical Framework: Rogers’ Theory of the Diffusion of Innovations ..... 38 Sample ............................................................................................................. 39 Methods ........................................................................................................... 39 Study Protocol ........................................................................................ 40 Study Participants ................................................................................... 41 Interview Analysis .................................................................................. 43 Document Analysis ................................................................................ 44 The Openness Scorecard: A Document Analysis Rubric ...................... 46 vii Analyzing Course Documents ................................................................ 48 Validation of Study Findings ........................................................................... 50 Limitations of the Study .................................................................................. 51 Summary .......................................................................................................... 51 4. FINDINGS FROM FACULTY INTERVIEWS ...................................................... 53 Emerging Themes ............................................................................................ 53 Five Themes .................................................................................................... 54 Theme One: Enhancing Course Accessibility ........................................ 54 More affordable courses ................................................................. 56 Accessibility through universal design ........................................... 57 Theme Two: Faculty Attitudes Related to Textbooks and Open Source Material ................................................................................... 59 Faculty views about replacing textbooks with OER ....................... 60 Theme Three: OER and the Role of Incentives ..................................... 64 Altruistic incentives ........................................................................ 66 Incentives to collaborate and share educational resources ............. 67 Incentives to share resources openly ............................................... 69 Financial incentives ........................................................................ 70 Theme Four: Barriers to Adopting OER ...............................................