A lot of noise is being made about this on a national level, and we are starting to talk about it on a professional level, but I would really like to have a local conversation about it. Our initial reaction to these questions might be defensive and negative, but the level of disruption that the national conversation is having on us leads me to believe that the issue is eminently approaching a critical juncture (the Horizon Report suggests that MOOCs are the number one thing to watch during the 2013 academic year…)
On a traditional campus such as UA, where we are currently not working on a MOOC scale, students still assume that they will have perpetual electronic access to all of the resources they need to complete their coursework, turning to the internet even before searching the library. Studies show that the cost of textbooks is a great burden on students, often affecting retention. All of this is affecting the role of the traditional library, and whether universities such as UA are involved with MOOCs currently or not, the MOOC model of accessing resources is disrupting the traditional model of higher education and is affecting the expectations of our students.
As a result, some teaching faculty have begun looking towards the library to help find solutions; librarians have begun partnering in various levels of alternative textbook creation using resources available at the library, and serving as a facilitator for the exploration and vetting of Open Access sources.
MOOCs put a lot of emphasis on Open Access. Most of what I have encountered in the newly-emerging Alternative Textbook movement is leaning towards Open Access as well. Lets get together and discuss the value of traditional vs. Open Access for alternative textbooks, specifically in the humanities classroom, and the challenges of finding quality Open Access resources for a humanities courses.
Questions I propose:
- Can a student adequately complete coursework in an upper-level humanities course without access to the scholarship that is published through traditional and often proprietary publishing?
- What are the standards that librarians and teaching faculty agree on regarding appropriate textbook resources for a course? Are the standards for textbook materials different from the standards for the sources used by a student in a paper?
- When MOOCs with their emphasis on Open Access are getting so much attention, what is the case that librarians and teaching faculty can make to justify the millions of dollars spent on (for lack of a better term) “closed access” resources?
I am sure other folks can come up with even better questions, and if this conversation happens I am really looking forward to hearing a variety of perspectives and ideas on this issue (honestly, it is swirling around in my head in a big jumble at the moment!)
