MEDEV

School of Medical Sciences Education Development

TJ has hadly had a chance to speak as the audience has been anticipating his slides!

This is a really interesting presentation at Cambridge 2012 - relevant to PublishOER. They are in the process of creating OERs and using open texts to replace seven courses which relied heavily on expensive texts. They have undertaken research to see what it cost, initially it was more expensive but over the 7 years (that the text book would have been replaced in at an average price of $80 each) there were significant savings. 

He discussed FlatWorldKnowledge and other open publishing initiatives. They are working with a wide variety of their own and projects and partners (such as Kalidascope) to add value to the research that they are undertaking. TJ has made his prezi available on the conference website.  

An Examination of the Cost Savings and Learning Impacts of using Open Textbooks
John Hilton David Wiley & TJ Bliss, Brigham Young University, US
Conference Theme: Impact
Summary: We report on a series of studies examining cost savings and learning impact of using OER in high school and college classrooms.
Abstract: Proponents of open educational resources claim that significant cost savings are possible when open textbooks displace traditional textbooks in the classroom. We report on a series of studies we have done examining the cost savings and learning impact of using open textbooks in high school and college classrooms. In one study we worked with 20 high school science teachers (collectively teaching approximately 3500 students) who adopted open textbooks. We identified and implemented a successful model of open textbook adoption that reduced costs over 50% compared to the cost of adopting traditional textbooks. In addition, we examined the standardized test scores of students using the open textbooks and found no apparent differences in the results of students who used open textbooks. We also report on a separate study in a series of community colleges, focusing on how students and teachers perceived the open textbooks, and the correlation between the use of open textbooks and student dropout rates.