LCC and OSPIRG have recently focused on Open Educational Resources (OER) as a way to help students by reducing or eventually eliminating the need for costly textbooks. Basically, "free" materials found on the web would be used as a replacement.

While this sounds like a great idea on the surface, it would involve many changes in the way instructors and students interact with class materials.

I can think of at least two very substantial changes that would have to happen immediately.

#1 Materials would come from any number of websites and sources. This would necessitate incredible organization on the part of the instructor and student: keeping reading links in order, which specific pages of that multipage website are required reading, hoping that the links don't become "dead" links. Also, just because an instructor could add a new link at any time, some students may not "get the message" about the new required materials in a timely fashion. In short, think of a textbook with potentially "disappearing" pages and magically reappearing "new" pages.

#2 You would have to do all of your reading online. (Of course, some students may choose to print out the materials, but think of printing out your current textbook, either a few chapters at a time or everything that is needed for the term. Do you have a printer? Do you have that much paper and ink? Does the replacement of a textbook that results in the printing of volumes of paper cause more problems than it solves?) Do you like to read online, whether it be on computer screen, or Kindle/Nook/iPad, or even smart cell phone? Do you have access to (money for) these devices? Does this affect how you would take written/typed/highlighted notes on the materials?

These are some of my thoughts, but the question to you is simple. What can you tell me about your own readiness or willingness to buy or not to buy a textbook and save money (or not), surf to many different websites (or not), read online (or not), print webpages (or not) for a history class such as this one?









I've often thought of reducing the number/amount of video clips I show in class by 50%. Instead, I'd put the other 50% online and require that all students view those clips outside of class (just as you are required to read the textbook chapters). Of course, all students would be responsible for learning this material. 

I experimented this term by including five required web videos for five of the ten class weeks. However, the Moodle logs showed me that less than half of the students watched them.

What feedback do you have for me about this term's experiment or my future term idea? (great, okay but..., terrible, 25%, 100%, etc.)
 




The Announcement forum, which was used about once a week to send class updates via email to students, how would you rate this element of the class?
If you were to advise future students, how important would you say it is to regularly check their email to be successful in this class.
If you were to advise future students taking this class, how important would you say it is to have high speed internet access where they live and study?
If you were to advise future students taking this class, how important was it to actually attend class (lectures/charts/images/discussions/videos) to be successful in this course?
How important was it to your understanding and/or success to read the textbook chapters that were assigned each week BEFORE class lectures that week?
The textbook I was required to buy and read was a helpful, valuable, and important part of my success and understanding for this class. 
1 Extremely Important  
2 Somewhat Important  
3 Not Very Important  
4 Useless