"Partner in Publishing" OER project?

[Julius, Jim]

Hello, all - 

A faculty member received the following email and is wondering if this is legitimate/worthwhile. I hadn't heard of this before so am wondering if any of you have insight:

Dear Professor 

Open Education Resources (OER) provide students, faculty and institutions with a proven path to improved academic performance.

Partner In Publishing is a nationally recognized market research & development firm working with educational service providers to improve the quality of courseware through feedback obtained from the marketplace.

We are currently engaged in a project focused on the development of the next generation of courseware, which will use Open Educational Resources as its foundation in an effort to significantly lower cost and improve access to students. 

A recent higher education study, conducted with 16,000 students at 10 post-secondary academic institutions across the United States, found that students using Open Education Resources (OER) performed as well as or better than students using commercial textbooks.

Our goal is to engage 50 faculty and their schools to do a similar study piloting specific OER courseware. Participation by qualified faculty and institutions is key in optimizing the current and future generations of OER.

We will offer a modest stipend based on your level of participation in a variety of opportunities coming in the Fall of 2016.

If you are interested please click on this link to complete a brief qualifying survey.  If you are selected you will hear from a project manager within 3 days of submission. 

 

Participation Grants

$75.00 for qualified faculty willing to attend a focus group where you will be asked to participate in feedback regarding technology platforms and OER.

Between $250.00 and $1000 for faculty/committees willing to pilot several chapters of existing turn-key OER courseware.

Additional grant funds available for faculty willing to help author, review and curate OER content.

* Note - this is project is for qualified faculty interested in textbook affordability, OER & digital resources.

Best Regards,

Lisa

Lisa March

Partner In Publishing

Managing Partner

860-430-9440

lma...@partnerinpublishing.com 

Thanks for any feedback you have.

- Jim

Jim Julius, Ed.D.

Faculty Director, Online Education

MiraCosta College

[Una Daly]

Hi Jim,

Interesting … Lisa March and her company Partners in Publishing (PIP) have been involved in a number of EdTech and OER ventures over the last couple of years such as the Kaplan Tech Stars accelerator program and the PanOpen product.  She helped with the launch of PanOpen a couple of years ago.

Best Regards,

Una

------------------------------------------------

Una Daly

Director, Curriculum Design and College Outreach

Open Education Consortium

http://oerconsortium.org

(408)348-4346

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[bart852]

Jim,

Depending on what state a professor or department is in, accepting payment for the second activity listed would be a violation of state law.  The focus group activity and the review activity would probably be OK depending on nature of that activity.  But the short of it is in many states, faculty cannot be compensated  as an inducement to use certain course materials.  

That is the case in California since 2008.  Linking and pasting the relevant Code further below with underlines.  I don't know Lisa, but I can reach out to her and reminder her of the faculty course material ethics laws governing inducement.  

This is the second time in recent months I've seen a company pitching payment to faculty for adopting OER.  In the other case it was required to be on the company's e-platform and a requirement students pay for the platform as part of the agreement with the faculty.  A big no no under most states with course material transparency, ethics and affordability laws. 

Hope this helps!

Rich Hershman

National Association of College Stores

See 66406.7 of the state code. 

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC&sectionNum=66406.7  

(i)  An adopter at an institution of higher education shall not demand or receive anything of value, including the donation of equipment or goods, any payment, loan, advance, or deposit of money, present or promised, for adopting specific course materials required for coursework or instruction, except that an employee may receive any of the following:

(1) Complimentary copies, review course materials, or instructor copies. The adopters shall not sell instructor copies.

(2) Royalties or other compensation from sales of course materials that include the instructor’s writing or other work. Receipt of these royalties or compensation is subject to the employer’s standing policies or collective bargaining agreements relating to employee conflicts of interest.

(3) Honoraria for academic peer review of course materials. Receipt of honoraria is subject to the employer’s standing policies relating to employee conflicts of interest.

(4) Training in the use of course materials and course technologies. Payment for travel and lodging and or meals shall be subject to the employer’s standing polices relating to employee conflicts of interest and compensation.

(1) “Adopter” means any faculty member or academic department or other adopting entity at an institution of higher education responsible for considering and choosing course materials to be used in connection with the accredited courses taught at that institution.