OER Digest - September 15, 2022
Aishah Abdullah (SPARC) | Volume 161 | September 15, 2022
THE OER DIGEST
Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders
OPEN CLIMATE CAMPAIGN: To make open sharing of research outputs the norm in climate science, Creative Commons, SPARC and EIFL are proud to launch a 4-year Open Climate Campaign with funding from Arcadia Fund, which builds on planning funds from the Open Society Foundations. Climate change, and the resulting harm to our global biodiversity, is one of the world’s most pressing challenges; however, knowledge and data about these global challenges and the possible solutions are too often not publicly accessible. One purpose of this campaign is to bring attention to the issue of access to knowledge on climate change and biodiversity. Another goal of this campaign is to work directly with national governments, funders, and environmental organizations to create open access policies and make it easier to share their climate change content.
OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities
REGISTER NOW: Early bird registration for the 2022 Open Education Conference on October 17-20, 2022 is ending on September 16th. There is also a student rate of $25 USD and scholarships by application. Register here.
APPLY NOW: The Open Education Network is accepting applications for a cohort of librarians to be certified in OER Librarianship. The Certificate in OER Librarianship offers formal training, a community of peers, and expert mentors in order to build sustainable, collaborative, and effective open education programs on higher education campuses. Learn more and apply here.
REGISTER NOW: Join PIJIP and New America for the Creating Culturally Responsive Materials with Open Educational Resources: Beyond Commercial Publishing II webinar on October 6th at 6 pm ET. Learn more and register here.
REGISTER NOW: Join Wiki Education on Tuesday, October 11 at 9:00 AM PT to learn how to run a Wikipedia assignment. During this session, you'll gain a better understanding of how the assignment is structured, what types of support you'll receive from Wiki Education, and how the assignment may play out in your own class.
REGISTER NOW: LibreFest workshop will be held virtually over two days on October 10-11. Learn how to construct, edit, and remix content on the LibreTexts platform, and get an in-depth look at their open homework system, Adapt. Learn more and apply here.
REGISTER NOW: The Open Education Network (OEN) is hiring an open educational practices specialist to serve as the point of contact for members regarding the use of all OEN-supported online platforms and technologies to advance open educational practices. Learn more and apply here.
REGISTER NOW: The Pathways Project team is hosting free webinars this fall. Join their Digital Humanities and Authentic Resources discussion on October 12th. Their final webinar, titled Remixing and Redistributing, is occurring on November 10th.
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted
FROM ALBERTA: The Student Union (SU) at the University of Calgary is advocating for Alberta to fund open educational resources to help struggling students. The high cost of textbooks is paired with a rising cost of tuition, which has risen 25% at the University of Calgary since 2019. In 2021, the SU committed $500,000 to support the development of OERs, creating up to 50 new OERs over five years. Their work is not stopping there. This year the SU, along with other students, have been pushing for their University to address the textbook crisis. SU spokesperson Shaziah Jinnah Morsette shared, “Students aren’t just broke, they’re at a breaking point. Affordability is such an issue for students. It's not just isolated to saying, 'Can we afford to participate and receive a quality education?” Read More>>
FROM CONNECTICUT: University of New Haven’s Open Pedagogy Project began its new cohort. The University’s Open Pedagogy Project offers faculty and students exciting opportunities to collaborate to create meaningful educational experiences. The program and the grant-funded projects that several faculty and staff members are a part of also foster the creation of open educational resources, which provide important learning tools while reducing textbook costs. The co-director of the Open Pedagogy Project, Dr. Wranovix shared how they include students in the creation of their OER, “Involving students in the creation of course content makes the classroom feel like a more collaborative environment because students and faculty are creating something together.” Read More>>
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource
The Open RN team is pleased to announce that the first edition text, Nursing: Mental Health and Community Concepts, has been released in Pressbooks with CC-BY 4.0 licensing. They will continue to collaborate with XanEdu to create affordable print versions of the Open RN textbooks and anticipate the print version of this book will be available in January 2023.
WEIGH IN
Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider
Great to Share >>
Inflation Impacting Education: The Rapidly Rising Cost of Textbooks | The Review
Interesting to Consider >>
For Open Education we Need Staff, Infrastructure, and Courage | Archynetys
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.