Reducing barriers for students

Advisory group encouraging faculty to provide zero-cost course materials

By California State University, Bakersfield

December 7^th, 2022

Like many students, Maria Espinoza struggled with making ends meet when she first came to California State University, Bakersfield five years ago.

As a freshman living on her own for the first time, money was tight. When it came to buying textbooks, Espinoza often weighed whether she really needed it and would often wait until the last minute.

“If a textbook was too expensive, I wouldn’t buy it,” she said. “At the beginning of the semester, I would go online seeing if I could find any free versions.”

Two years later, when Espinoza was about to start her junior year, she found that her Child, Adolescent and Family Studies courses were offering free online textbooks.

“It was amazing,” she said. “Realizing I didn’t have to pay for them was great. It made my transition from semester to semester a lot easier. It was a tremendous help. I can’t imagine what my education would have been like if I had always had to purchase textbooks.”

What started off a few years ago with just a couple of courses has now led to all courses in the Human Development, and Child, Adolescent and Family Studies (HD-CAFS) Department offering open educational resources (OER) for its students.

CSUB is one of only three CSUs that have a program that is completely OER.

Dr. Elaine Correa, professor and chair of the HD-CAFS Department, said offering free textbooks, readings and other ancillary course materials has saved students a total of over $220,000 a year. This cost-savings for students started in the 2019-20 school year.

“We have a lot of students who can barely make ends meet, so textbook costs are really an issue of concern,” she said. “A lot of times, we don’t really think about the impact something like textbooks would have on a student’s ability to go to school, the ability to retain right to graduation. It’s sort of a cost nobody really talks about.”

Dr. Correa said OER is beneficial not only because it saves students money that they can use on essentials such as rent and food, but also because it leads to higher retention rates. Students are more likely to utilize class materials and have constant access to them, since they are all available online.

“We know that it makes a huge difference in the lives of our students and can change the trajectory of what comes next for them,” she said. “If we can make things cheaper for the students, that’s one less stressor in their lives. They can spend more time concentrating on learning and being successful.”

'Shared funds of knowledge'

Providing OER to students can be challenging, however. Faculty have to either search for them online or create them themselves if they can’t find an alternative to a paid textbook.

Sometimes, Dr. Correa said a faculty member might find materials they really like but can’t find something comparable that’s open access.

“It’s a lot of work to do OER, but we see the value of this in terms of reducing equity gaps and retention to graduation. We see the value in making sure that students have the materials they need to be successful,” she said.

Although it can sometimes be difficult to find, OER does have some advantages over paid materials, according to Dr. Correa.

“A lot of times, you can find things that are very interesting that you wouldn’t necessarily find in a textbook because you’re choosing from all different types of open repositories that have been peer-reviewed and vetted,” she said. “You have greater access to shared funds of knowledge that becomes another level of learning and exchanging that students wouldn’t have exposure to with traditional textbook course materials.”

HD-CAFS was the first department to offer an entire program with open educational resources, but faculty members in other departments have followed suit with creating OER for their courses.

Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Dr. Zachary Zenko currently offers OER in all but one of his courses. He also co-edited a free online textbook called “Essentials of Exercise and Sport Psychology: An Open Access Textbook” that was published last year.

“That was a major catalyst for me,” he said. “I was just unhappy with the existing options, and that experience allowed me to get more educated about OER.”

Dr. Zenko started offering OER in his classes in fall 2020 and has no intention of going back to using a traditional textbook.

If we are trying to make education more equitable and accessible, this is a no-brainer,” he said. “If we can have open and free resources that are still high quality, let’s do it.”

Raising awareness

While some faculty members provide open educational resources for their courses, most classes still require paid textbooks. That is something that Dr. Correa and Dr. Zenko are hoping to change.

They are part of an Affordable Learning Solutions (AL$) advisory group on campus. The AL$ initiative is sponsored by the Chancellor’s Office.

Besides Dr. Correa and Dr. Zenko, the group also includes HD-CAFS Assistant Professor Dr. Alexander Reid, Distance Services Coordinator and Antelope Valley Librarian Kristine Holloway and Dean of Libraries Sandra Bozarth.

The advisory group is working to encourage more faculty on campus to provide OER to their students.

“Many faculty at CSUB have already reduced textbook costs by selecting lower cost materials, reducing the number of required textbooks, using software, articles or chapters, library eBooks and such, that are less expensive or free,” Bozarth said. “We hear a lot of talk about OER, and that is great. We want more to join the efforts.”

The group is working with Associated Students Inc. (ASI) on a campaign encouraging faculty to adopt open educational resources. This semester, ASI passed a resolution in support of OER at CSUB.

Espinoza, who is the executive vice president of ASI and is currently pursuing her master’s in public administration, has been assisting with the effort.

“We’re really excited about it. This could be a huge change for students,” she said. “I really hope that more faculty do this and that this is something that can become system-wide throughout the CSU.”

In speaking with fellow students such as herself, Espinoza said she sees there’s a clear need for OER.

“They’re stressing out at the beginning of the semester about how they’re going to pay for textbooks. Nobody wants to stop going to school because of textbooks,” she said.

Besides the resolution, the advisory group is also working to get the university to provide credit to faculty for doing OER work. There is no such credit currently, despite how time-intensive finding and creating zero-cost materials can be.

“If we can get those efforts to be recognized, especially for tenure and promotion, maybe more faculty would be willing to do it because there’s something in it for them,” Dr. Correa said. “Otherwise, they’re doing a lot of work with no additional pay, no extra support or release time.”

Dr. Zenko believes most faculty members on campus want to reduce costs for students and are open to finding and creating OER for their courses.

“We need more support for the time needed to do it. More recognition of those herculean efforts could go a long way,” he said.

Dr. Correa hopes to eventually see HD-CAFS majors get their entire education with OER, including their required general education classes. She would also like to see community colleges begin to offer OER so students could have a zero-cost materials pipeline all the way from community college through the completion of their four-year degree.

First, however, more faculty at CSUB need to get on board. Dr. Correa is confident that other faculty will see the benefits for students and themselves.

“I think when professors see how appreciative students are and what it means to their lives, they’ll be more willing to do it,” she said. “We really need our students to have the best shot of being successful as they learn because that will have a profound impact on the kinds of opportunities that are available in the workforce.”