The State of Ohio's Digital Bookshelf Project (Pilot Program/Emerging Technology)

For the 2010 academic year, 50,000 of Ohio's 70,000 Introductory Psychology students have had a low-cost digital option available for the textbook of their instructor's choice. Developed within a University System of Ohio Project framework in collaboration with five leading publishers of psychology textbooks, the Ohio Digital Bookshelf Project emerged from three years of research and within a social network established among faculty, librarians, technologists, and the accessibility community. We'll present strategies for improving learning outcomes, textbook affordability, and more rapid diffusion of digital resources into the teaching and learning environment. Student members of our team will discuss learning outcomes.

Learning Objectives
* Know how to overcome obstacles to class, institutional, and system-level adoption of digital learning materials.
* Discuss effective teaching and assessment strategies to capture the learning value of digital materials.
* Explore techniques for building disciplinary communities committed to learning innovations.
* Understand how the "tragedy of the commons" (pursuing individual benefits at the cost of system-level returns) guarantees the escalating cost of textbooks and the requisite reformations (changed behaviors of publishers, bookstores, institutions, faculty, students) needed to escape the paradox and increase the affordability of learning materials.
* Learn about conversion and "born digital" approaches to assuring timely access to digital learning materials for students with print disabilities (addressing one of the key challenges in digital learning environments).