Assessing the OER & Textbook Experience at UTSA

Please share your honest perceptions of the OER you have seen for your courses/discipline.

Current Use of Materials: Most instructors currently use the Roxy Peck textbook through Cengage/WebAssign due to its quality and alignment with course needs. Some also supplement with their own notes and problems to enhance student understanding.

Challenges with OER

• OpenStax OER for statistics was generally viewed as outdated, error-prone, and lacking in key topics like ANOVA and regression.
• Instructors expressed concern about the quality and comprehensiveness of available OER compared to commercial textbooks.
• Large class sizes make it difficult to fully transition to OER due to the need for automated grading platforms like WebAssign.

Instructor Efforts

• Some faculty members have created their own materials or books and manually grade assignments to ensure students receive meaningful feedback.
• There was interest in potentially using a faculty-authored book as an OER resource if it meets quality standards.

Student Impact

Instructors emphasized the importance of affordability and accessibility, especially for core courses like statistics that support other disciplines.

Future Considerations

There was openness to adopting or developing high-quality OER in the future, provided it meets pedagogical and logistical needs.

What criteria do you consider when adopting textbooks for your courses? How do you evaluate textbooks/learning materials for your courses?

The instructors discussed their hesitations about fully adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) for their statistics courses. Key points included:

• Preference for Current Textbook: One faculty member expressed satisfaction with the Roxy Peck textbook, appreciating its structure and quality, even though it may not be easy for students to read without guidance.
• Student Access Issues: Another faculty member highlighted that some students fail to purchase access to Cengage/WebAssign due to financial constraints, which affects their performance. This underscores a potential benefit of OER—removing cost barriers.
• Efforts to Support Students: One faculty member compensates for students who can’t afford the textbook by typing and posting all homework on Canvas, ensuring access regardless of textbook ownership.
• Scalability Concerns: One of the faculty noted that while they support the idea of OER, large class sizes make it difficult to move away from automated platforms like WebAssign, which help manage grading and assignments efficiently.

Overall, while there is interest in OER due to its affordability, concerns remain about content quality, coverage, and logistical feasibility, especially in large courses.

What are some reasons that UTSA faculty may be hesitant to adopt OER?

Challenges with Traditional Textbooks

• Library Access Limitations: UTSA’s library cannot provide multi-user access to most commercial textbooks due to publisher restrictions (typically limited to 3 users at a time), making it impractical for large classes.
• Cost Barriers: Students often struggle to afford access to platforms like Cengage/WebAssign, which affects their performance and engagement.

Faculty Suggestions and Ideas

• Library Copies: One participant suggested placing physical copies of the Roxy Peck textbook in the library for short-term use, though this is limited by publisher policies.
• Developing a Custom OER: One participant proposed creating a faculty-authored statistics textbook. Another faculty member supported the idea and suggested using Pressbooks, an OER publishing platform supported by UTSA.
• Collaborative Approach: Faculty discussed dividing the work—each taking a chapter and building a shared test bank in Canvas to replace WebAssign, enabling a fully no-cost course model.
• Time Constraints: One participant acknowledged the significant time investment required to create such resources, which has been a barrier in the past.

Support from UTSA

• Grants and Pressbooks: OER Coordinator explained that UTSA offers group grants and access to Pressbooks for creating and customizing OER. Although grants were paused due to task force work, they are expected to return with improved structure and stipends.
• Student Assistance: In past projects, students were paid to help input and format content in Pressbooks, including LaTeX coding for math-heavy subjects—an option that could support faculty in this effort.

Vision for the Future

• Faculty expressed interest in collaborating on a shared OER textbook and test bank for STAT 1053, aiming to eliminate student costs while maintaining instructional quality.

What do you feel that UTSA could do to better support faculty that adopt OER?

• One faculty member shared that he personally doesn’t need more recognition but suggested that recognition could be modeled after how other faculty are acknowledged for innovative teaching. He proposed recognition at the departmental, college, or university level, possibly through existing structures like the University Excellence Awards.
• Another faculty member suggested adding a line on faculty evaluation forms to formally acknowledge OER development work, making it part of performance reviews.
• Another faculty member expressed willingness to adopt OER materials if others developed them but noted she doesn’t have the time to create them herself. She supported the idea of recognition through evaluations or university-level acknowledgment.

Overall, the group agreed that formal recognition—whether through evaluations, awards, or institutional acknowledgment—would be a meaningful incentive for faculty investing time and effort into OER development.

What ideas do you have for recognizing faculty that adopt OER? How would you like to be recognized for adopting OER?

Faculty members discussed ideas for recognizing contributions, particularly in teaching and innovation:

• One participant emphasized that recognition can happen at any level—departmental, college, or university—and cited an example of a colleague frequently acknowledged for integrating innovative practices into teaching. They suggested formalizing such recognition through existing structures like University Excellence Awards.
• Another proposed adding a recognition-related item to faculty evaluation forms to ensure consistent acknowledgment.

What are some challenges that you have had adopting textbooks overall in your courses?

Overall Themes

• The Peck textbook is preferred for its clarity and problem sets.
• There’s a shared belief that Excel is the most accessible and practical tool for students.
• Time limitations and the need for focused instruction shape how technology and textbooks are used in the course.

• One participant noted that earlier textbooks lacked sufficient practice problems. She appreciates the newer edition of the Peck book for its expanded problem sets, which she uses in class with visual aids like Elmo.
• Another participant emphasized that:
  • Different textbooks explain concepts in varying ways, which can confuse students.
  • He values having multiple resources so students can get a “second opinion” if they don’t understand his lecture.
  • Many textbooks try to cater to all platforms (e.g., Minitab, SAS, R, Excel), which dilutes the depth of instruction for any one tool.
  • He believes Excel is the most practical tool for students entering the workforce and should be the primary focus.
• Another participant agreed and shared that she teaches Excel in class and discourages students from focusing on outputs from SAS or R, as mastering all tools in one semester is unrealistic. She assigns similar problems for homework to reinforce Excel-based learning.
• Another participant echoed the preference for Excel, noting that while they don’t teach it extensively, they incorporate it where possible due to time constraints.

What are some challenges that you have had adopting OER in your courses?

• OpenStax OER for statistics was generally viewed as outdated, error-prone, and lacking in key topics like ANOVA and regression.
• Instructors expressed concern about the quality and comprehensiveness of available OER compared to commercial textbooks.
• Large class sizes make it difficult to fully transition to OER due to the need for automated grading platforms like WebAssign.

What are some ways UTSA can better support UTSA student awareness of required textbooks prior to Class Day One?

• Simple Syllabus was highlighted as a useful tool for sharing textbook info, but:
  • It’s currently not required to be published before the first day of class.
  • Faculty suggested making it mandatory to publish at least one week before the semester starts, even if the full syllabus isn’t finalized.
• Bluebook was previously helpful for early access to syllabi, but it’s no longer in use.
• Faculty agreed that early publication of textbook info—even if the rest of the syllabus is still being finalized—would benefit students.
• Once published, Simple Syllabus is accessible to students via the UTSA website.
• It can be updated anytime, allowing flexibility for instructors while still giving students early access to key information.

What are some ways UTSA can better support textbook affordability for UTSA students?

• Collaborative Question Bank: One participant suggested pooling existing homework and quiz questions from multiple instructors to build a shared resource in Canvas, reducing reliance on paid platforms.
• Canvas Familiarity: Some faculty noted they haven’t yet transitioned their materials from Blackboard or WebAssign to Canvas.
• Inclusive Access: One faculty member raised the idea of inclusive access (textbook fees bundled with tuition), but OER Coordinator explained UTSA doesn’t use it due to:
  • Privacy concerns
  • Affordability issues
  • Legal requirements (HB 1027) mandating opt-out options
  • Limited access (students lose access after the course ends)

Copyright & OER Development

• Faculty expressed concern about copyright issues when adapting questions from commercial textbooks into OER.
  • Using questions in Canvas is generally fine.
  • Publishing them in an OER textbook would require rewriting or creating original content.
• OER Coordinator noted that OER Commons may already have openly licensed statistics materials that could help reduce the workload.

Workload & Feasibility

• Creating a full OER textbook with original problems, visuals, and tables would be a massive, multi-year effort.
• Faculty acknowledged the challenge but remained open to exploring existing resources and collaborative development.

Prior to today, were you aware of UTSA’s Free Textbook and Low-Cost Textbook filters, shown below?

Two out of three faculty were not aware of the filters.

Prior to today, how familiar were you with the UTSA OER reporting process?

Two out of three faculty were not aware of the reporting process.

Are there any other experiences, successes, challenges, or resources related to textbooks or OER that you’d like to share?

• One participant recalled using the textbook Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning from Data by Agresti and Franklin in the past. She described it as very difficult for students compared to the current Roxy Peck textbook, which she finds much more accessible.
• Another participant agreed, noting that Peck is an easier read and more aligned with how they teach. She emphasized that if the team were to create an OER resource, it would be best to write it in their own voices to maintain consistency and clarity for students.

The conversation reinforced the value of clear, approachable language in instructional materials and the importance of aligning OER development with the teaching styles and needs of both faculty and students.