In Module 2, we talked about the Workshop Strategy as essential to engaging faculty in open education and reviewing an open textbook in the Open Textbook Library. Here, watch Founder and Executive Director of the OEN, Dr. Dave Ernst, offer the first part of the workshop on making the case for open education. As you will see, this portion of the workshop defines the problem:

The cost of and way of funding higher education is different than ever before.
The high cost of textbooks is the one part of cost of higher education where faculty have agency.
Students avoid the cost of textbooks in a number of ways.
The high cost of textbooks negatively impacts student academic success.

While these four points are central to this part of the workshop, notice the ways Dr. Ernst pairs data with stories, shares both national and local data, and avoids blaming anyone for the current state of affairs. This effective and constructive way of talking about open is essential to the OEN's method for engaging and empowering faculty.

Activity: Localizing Your Deck

It's important to customize or localize the slide deck for use on your own campuses. Nothing will connect your faculty to the urgency and importance of these issues than stories and data that reflect your community. Here, you will find step-by-step instructions to localize your own Faculty workshop deck to use in presentations or conversations on your campus. Remember, all of the OEN's materials are CC-BY, so you are welcome to make these changes as long as you include attribution.

Directions: Please make a copy of the master faculty deck and customize the following slides:

1. Update the mission statement slide with your own mission statement, calling out those words that reflect a commitment to access, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

U of Minnesota Mission Statement

2. Update the state funding slide by using this state-by-state slide funding deck to copy and paste your state's slide. When you find your state's slide, you can simply copy and paste the entire slide into your deck, but when the Import Slides graphic comes up, choose "No" for auto-linking.

Higher Ed Funding Slide for State of MN

3. Insert a picture of your own food bank in order to localize this next slide.

USTA Food Pantry Screen Shot Home Page

4. In order to reflect the cost of books and supplies at your institution, Google "cost of attendance" at your institution, and then look at the breakdown for books and supplies. All institutions are required to report these costs.

Cost of Books and Supplies vs What They are Really Paying

5. Students speaking about their struggle to afford school are very powerful. If you have your own student video, please use it!

Video of Student Talking about How Textbook Costs Have Proven Difficult for Him

You can likely find other ways of localizing the slide deck and data therein to make the content even more relevant to your constituents. If you'd like to see other sample student videos, please check out this playlist as well as tips on how to create your own student video.

Activity: Localizing Your Deck

Additional Resources on Affordability

Up Next: Faculty Workshop Part II