Creative Commons’ Post

🔔 ICYMI, BACK-TO-SCHOOL EDITION: Last month, I published a three-part investigative series for The Chronicle of Higher Education on courseware — products that have permeated higher ed in recent years but that many still don’t fully understand. For those who may have been out of the office (on a beach somewhere? with a drink?), here's a recap to get you up to speed. ➡ PART 1: THE SUBSTITUTE TEACHER: https://lnkd.in/dx434rG7 Courseware products offer a bundle of services, including eBooks, homework assignments, exams, and study tools. If not used thoughtfully, skeptics say they can replace professor-student interactions. In many cases, students say they have. ➡ PART 2: THE HOMEWORK TAX: https://lnkd.in/egCf44Ac Courseware for a single class can cost students $100+. Sometimes $200+. Textbook-affordability advocates ask: Why are students footing the bill for a temporary product that can be central to the operation of a class, and can make up the bulk of a student’s grade? ➡ PART 3: THE ‘TEXTBOOK’ THAT READS YOU: https://lnkd.in/exNBYqH6 Students often buy these products directly from publishers, and have to create accounts to use them. What do we know — and, perhaps more importantly, don’t know — about the data that these products collect? I enrolled in a college course and did some back-end analysis to find out. These pieces wouldn’t have been possible without my 45+ sources, including students and faculty members from numerous institutions: University of Hawaii at Manoa, Bowie State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University, and Carnegie Mellon University, to name a few. I hope you’ll give the stories a read, and pass them on. #edtech #educationaltechnology #teachingandlearning #highereducation

School business officials have a tough job - and open educational resources (OER), like those available from OpenStax, are one way to help schools and students avoid course material costs in dual credit programs! Read more from the Texas Association of School Business Officials!

💰It seems like just about everything is more expensive these days, forcing many higher education students to make hard choices about how to spend their limited funds. Affording required textbooks can be a serious concern, if not a dealbreaker. Education institutions can drastically cut costs without sacrificing quality with GT's digital courseware creation platform - a game-changer in customizable digital learning! Read more here: https://ow.ly/ZqYm50PNfNM #HigherEd #DigitalLearning #DigitalCourseware #DigitalTransformation #EdTech #ContentManagement

Want to create a syllabus your students will *actually* read? Start here 👉 https://lnkd.in/dcRU-Tes "The syllabus is more than a contractual obligation; it’s a roadmap for curiosity and a guide to a successful academic experience." #HigherEd #HigherEducation #Educators #Syllabus #backtoschool2023

As we crest the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year and actively contemplate ways in which we might continue to boldly adapt various elements of our practice to better deliver on our educational promise, Ian Bogost's recent article from the Atlantic feels particularly topical, not only for folks who work in higher education, but also for those who work in the K-12 space as well. In honoring the threads of his critique, how might we challenge ourselves as educational practitioners to reimagine our syllabi as relevant, meaningful course roadmaps that more thoughtfully and effectively balance the pedagogical with the bureaucratic, ensuring that the purpose of the document remains student-centered and serves above all to articulate clearly defined learning objectives—here, the constellation of skills, knowledge, dispositions, attitudes, and values that we hope to empower our students to grow towards during their time with us—as well as the stakes, policies, and substance of the curricular architecture that will yield the experiential conditions for such growth to occur? #independentschools #teachingandlearning #boardingschools #studentlearning #education #k12education

You don’t have to start from scratch when you begin a degree program. Whether you have existing college credits to transfer or previous learning from outside the classroom, you can receive credit for what you know at SNU. Learn more in our e-book, “Accelerating Your Path to Graduation: A Guide to Transfer Credits and Prior Learning.” https://hubs.ly/Q02kV3q_0

A few 2023 #TextbookEquity stats for University of Northern Iowa: We saved students nearly $500,000 in 1 year & $2.4 million to date. 80 instructors+ used free materials, impacting 3250+ students in 140+ sections of about 57 courses. # of instructors doing this increased 129% (!) compared with 2022, # of courses increased 58%, # of students benefitting increased 25%. Keep it up, y'all! It's about belonging, financial wellness, & academic success. #OER https://lnkd.in/d5AN2ENC

Thank you for sharing. This article gives a great insight about the savings inclusive access programs provide, but more importantly, how it improves student success. If you want to support Inclussive Access, let them know by going to this link to see what you can do. https://lnkd.in/ea8Md4Sr