OER DIGEST - June 30, 2022
Aishah Abdullah (SPARC) | Volume 156 | June 30, 2022
THE OER DIGEST
Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders
BAY VIEW ANALYTICS: Turning Point for Digital Curricula: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2022 found that students are returning to the classroom, with 58% of faculty stating they taught at least one face-to-face course in the 2021-22 school year. While this is a large increase over the just 14% of faculty who did so in 2020-21, it is still far below the pre-pandemic level of 96% from 2018-19. In addition, over half of the faculty stated that they “agree” or “strongly agree” that they would like to teach their courses as a combination of in-person and online and also as fully online. The report also finds that awareness and usage of open educational resources (OER) has grown.U.S. OPEN TEXTBOOK PILOT UPDATE: The 2022 application period for the Open Textbook Pilot program is open. The grant competition will award approximately $2.6 million in federal funds to higher education institutions to create new open textbooks and expand the use of open textbooks. Applications are due July 25, 2022. The Department is also calling for Peer Reviewers.
OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities
NOMINATE NOW: Open Education Awards for Excellence 2022 is open for nominations. Nominate from 16 categories your favorite Open Education leader or resources.REGISTER NOW: LibreFest registration is open and will be held virtually on July 18, 20, and 22, 2022. This workshop will provide three days of working sessions covering how to create OER, how to modify existing OER, as well as how to use the new ADAPT homework system. REGISTER NOW: Join the Education & Behavioral Science (EBSS) Scholarly Communication Committee on July 27th to watch & discuss, “Boundary Spanners: Bridging Gaps Between Higher Education & PK12.” Register here. APPLY NOW: The University Libraries at Virginia Tech Residency Program is offering up to six entry-level resident librarian positions to recent graduates of a master’s degree program or entry-level library, data, or information professionals. Learn more and apply here.
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted
FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Four Penn State campuses have awarded faculty members the Open and Affordable Educational Resources (OAER) award for the spring 2022 semester. The OAER award recognizes faculty who go above and beyond in promoting OER. The recipients of this award have contributed to the expansion of OER in different ways. While some switched their traditional course materials out for OER, others made their own open textbooks for their students. These four individuals have collectively saved students thousands of dollars. Read More >>
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource
Jacob Moore, an engineering professor at Penn State Mont Alto, published a new open resource, Mechanics Map Digital Textbook. The Mechanics Map is an open textbook for engineering statics and dynamics containing written explanations, video lectures, worked examples, and homework problems.
WEIGH-IN
Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider
Great to Share >> Embrace of Digital Course Materials Grew During Pandemic | Inside Higher EdInteresting to Consider >> Nonprofit Provides Free High Quality Instructional Materials for Teacher Prep Programs | Philanthropy Roundtable
Have suggestions for the next edition? Let us know at oerdigest@gmail.com, or tweet us @OERdigest.
The OER Digest is a public newsletter distributed to a broad group of stakeholders across the higher education community. Subscribe here.