Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grants

Final Report

General Information

Date: 1/7/2020
Grant Round: Spring 2018 Pilots; G2C and Scaling up OER
Grant Number: 374.a
Institution Name(s): Columbus State University
Project Lead: Rebecca Gerdes-McClain
Team Members (Name, Title, Department, Institutions if different, and email address for
each):
1) Rebecca Gerdes-McClain gerdesmcclain_rebecca@columbusstate.edu, Assistant Professor of
English Director of First Year Composition
2) Crystal Woods woods_crystal@columbusstate.edu, Lecturer
3) Clayton O’Dell odell_clayton@columbusstate.edu, Lecturer
4) Sundi, Rose holt_sundi@columbusstate.edu, Lecturer
5) Courtney George george_courtney2@columbusstate.edu, Associate Professor
6) Patrick Jackson jackson_patrick5@columbusstate.edu, Associate Professor

Course Name(s) and Course Numbers:

ENGL 0999, ENGL 1101, ENGL 1102
Semester Project Began:
Spring 2018
Final Semester of Implementation:
Fall 2019
Total Number of Students Affected During Project:
1500
1. Narrative

A. During the course of this project we investigated existing OERs for First Year
Composition (FYC) courses, redesigned the FYC curriculum to make the most effective
use of these resources, piloted our new curriculum and assessed it using impressionistic
surveys, revised our new curriculum in light of the pilot, trained all FYC instructors on
the curriculum revision and OERS, and implemented the new curriculum and OERs
across all sections in the Fall 2019 semester.

In more detail, we:

 reviewed and annotated OERs appropriate to FYC with the goal of adoption;
 chose OER adoptions for each course;
 developed 6 sets of sample syllabi, course calendars, and prompts (1 for ENGL
0999/ENGL 1101 for ENGL 1101, 3 for ENGL) that model the thoughtful and
thorough integration of OER resources.
 integrated OERs to support course and shared prompt outcomes developed by the
ENGL 1101 G2C and ENGL 0999 Learning Support redesign;
 piloted the syllabi and OERs;
 assessed the pilot and made revisions accordingly;
 created supplemental support materials designed for CSU that make use of OERs to
support the goals of the G2C and Learning Support redesigns;
 funded an OER teacher training workshop which ensured all FYC teachers
understand and are fully supported in the transition to OERs and developing their
own teaching materials (syllabi, course calendars, prompts) etc. that both utilize
OERs and meet the G2C and Learning Support redesign goals; and
 implemented the course redesign and inclusions of OERs across all FYC sections in
Fall 2019.

In terms of transformative impacts on instruction, the most significant were the

realignment of FYC curriculum and clarification of course outcomes and the integration
of the OERs. Before this project, the FYC course arc was not working. Neither students
nor instructors were clear on the differences between Comp 1 and Comp 2 or how the
classes were designed to support one another. By addressing this as we integrated OERs
into the curriculum, we were able to both improve the core structure of the course and
ensure the OERs were meaningful integrated in our FYC sequence.

Most instructors were surprised by the flexibility of the OERs, which they felt gave them
even more options than a traditional textbook. Importantly, the fact that the courses
were redesigned with the OERs in mind meant that most instructors redesigned their
classes in meaningful ways as opposed to simply substitutive one reading for another.
Often times this led to new assignments (some of which were multimodal) and greater
choice for students (in terms of class topics).
 Students’ experience of the class was most transformed by the reduced costs. One
instructor shared that when she announced to her class there would be no textbook,
the students actually broke into applause. We also anticipate that students will benefit
beyond one semester, as the transitions/link between ENGL 1101 and ENGL 1102 has
been clarified, leading to stronger scaffolding of skills between sections.

B. We learned many lessons. The most positive was that students are more appreciative of
OERs than we imagined. We knew they would appreciate saving the money, but the
level of the positive response surprised us. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that
students liked the OERs. In general, we have similar numbers of students not coming to
class prepared and complaining about the readings. This was a challenge we ran into
during our pilots and one persisted even after changes were made. It is worth noting,
however, that students seemed to feel comparably about the traditional textbooks and
OERs readings, leading us to the believe that the issue is not with the OERs themselves.
If were to do this project again, one challenge we would spend more time addressing is
student access to technology. While the vast majority of our students had access to
online materials, some truly did not. While they could use the computer labs at school,
many were working and/or had limited access to transportation. Since these students
are often the most vulnerable and likely to struggle, the fact that the OERs weren’t as
accessible as we hoped was a real challenge.
We also wished that we had more time to access the impact of our work before going
live across all students. While our pilots were incredibly helping on the micro-level
(making sure the course worked well from an instructor’s point of view), we did not
have a large enough pilot for statistical significance. While we are confident that the
redesign and OERs are good for students, we would still liked to have had to concrete
numbers before going live across all sections. Still, we intend to track data from here on
out, so we will have the opportunity to make any corrections as needed.

2. Quotes
 Provide three quotes from students evaluating their experience with the no-cost
learning materials.
o “What I’ve struggled with most during this unit is the reading. I don’t mind the
reading part of it, but the content is extremely dry. There is good info in them, but
still super dry.” ENGL 0999/1101
 This student comment is representative of the unexpected finding that
while students almost unanimously appreciated the OERs from a financial
perspective, this did not necessarily translate to liking the readings
anymore than before.
o “The chapters offered useful tips and were relatable to what we were doing in
class.” ENGL 1101
 
Even so, the texts were comparable to traditional textbooks and, because
the courses were built with them in mind, they supplemented class
instruction well.
o “What I liked best about this class was how accessible everything was.”
 We cannot overstate our surprise at just how many students found
purchasing textbooks to be a barrier, as this student captures.

3. Quantitative and Qualitative Measures

3a. Uniform Measurements Questions
The following are uniform questions asked to all grant teams. Please answer these to the best of your
knowledge.

Student Opinion of Materials

Was the overall student opinion about the materials used in the course positive,
neutral, or negative?
Total number of students affected in this project: __1500_____

 Positive: __30_____ % of ________ number of respondents

 Neutral: __55_____ % of ________ number of respondents
 Negative: __15_____ % of ________ number of respondents
 Student Learning Outcomes and Grades
Was the overall comparative impact on student performance in terms of learning
outcomes and grades in the semester(s) of implementation over previous
semesters positive, neutral, or negative?
Student outcomes should be described in detail in Section 3b.

Choose One:
 _X__ Positive: Higher performance outcomes measured over previous semester(s)
 ___ Neutral: Same performance outcomes over previous semester(s)
 ___ Negative: Lower performance outcomes over previous semester(s)
Student Drop/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) Rates
Was the overall comparative impact on Drop/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) rates in the
semester(s) of implementation over previous semesters positive, neutral, or
negative?
Drop/Fail/Withdraw Rate:
Depending on what you and your institution can measure, this may also be known as a
drop/failure rate or a withdraw/failure rate.
_______% of students, out of a total _______ students affected, dropped/failed/withdrew
from the course in the final semester of implementation.
Choose One:

 ___ Positive: This is a lower percentage of students with D/F/W than previous
semester(s)
 ___ Neutral: This is the same percentage of students with D/F/W than previous
semester(s)
 ___ Negative: This is a higher percentage of students with D/F/W than previous
semester(s)
*We have contacted institutional research for DWF rates and have not received it yet. We will
send along a supplemental reply as soon as possible with this information.

3b. Measures Narrative

In general, we found that students greatly appreciated the cost element of the redesign yet
remained neutral about the texts themselves. In other words, students were grateful not to
have to purchase a textbook but many of them complained about the readings that were
assigned. The complaints about the texts, however, were not greater than usual.
In terms of performance outcomes, we have not yet formally assessed the Fall 2019 FYC
courses for the learning outcomes. Anecdotally, instructors were split. Most appreciated either
the greater clarity about the course arcs or the incorporation of OERs, but several missed their
old textbooks or greater flexibility in course design. As a result, we have been finding additional
OERs to suggest as well as offering workshops on syllabus design with the goal of helping
instructors implement the redesign and OERs in ways that they are excited about instructors.
Happily, nearly every instructor recognizes the value of incorporating OERs and saving students
money. As the Fall semester ended, we also noticed that most instructors reported feeling
optimistic about the changes and seemed more invested moving forward.
During our pilot stage (Spring 2019) we also used impressionistic surveys of each Unit to gather
feedback about how students and teachers felt about the new curriculum and, in particular, the
inclusion of OERs. We have included the survey instrument, instructions, and responses in our
supporting data.
In general, students and teachers found the curriculum effective and enjoyable. Students also
appreciated the affordability of the OERs. However, students complained that the readings we
incorporated were too long and teachers struggled to get students to read them. These were
struggles we considered when revising the syllabi and curriculum for the program wide launch
and which encouraged us to open up the OER options for instructors (which is reflected in the
final sample syllabi).
*We have contacted institutional research for data on DWF rates but have not received it yet.
We will send along a supplemental reply as soon as possible with this information.

4. Sustainability Plan
 The FYC Director maintains a shared GoogleFolder of FYC Teacher Resources which
includes, among other things, all of the materials we have created as a part of this pilot.
All old sample materials not based on the revised curriculum and OERs have been
removed.
 As the FYC Committee periodically suggests changes to the course based on assessment
feedback, USG and CSU initiatives, and other projects we intend to periodically update
our curated list of OERs appropriate to our FYC sequence and update our sample syllabi
as appropriate. We have also committed as a program to continue using OERs in the
long-term.
 In addition, in our regular course assessments (those at the department level and not
those done by general education assessment committee which focuses on Area A
outcomes) we have added in assessment of the OERs.

5. Future Plans
 Our entire composition sequence (ENGL 0999, ENLG 1102, ENLG 1102) now uses OERs.
This will continue in future semesters and OERs are now part of our standard
training/course requirements that we share with new instructors.
  One area of future interest is incorporating more diverse OERs into our courses. Several
instructors have browsed the list of OERs appropriate for FYC courses we curated
(beyond what we officially adopted) to include in their classes. We are offering
professional development in the Spring around locating, vetting, and incorporating
additional OERs based on this feedback.
 We also plan to continuing tracking both DWF rates and the rate at which students who
successfully completed ENGL 1101 successful complete ENGL 1102. We hypothesize that
the OERs and clarified scaffolding between courses will lead to greater overall student
success in both these areas.

6. Description of Photograph
 *The photo and a description will be included with the supplemental reply including
DWF rates.