Regular Edition
OER Digest – October 28, 2021
Michael Basmajian (PIRG) | Volume 140 | October 28, 2021
THE OER DIGEST
Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders
OPEN ACCESS WEEK: This week, October 25-31 is Open Access Week! Open Access Week, a global event now entering its tenth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of open access to scholarly research, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research. Follow the conversation online with hashtag #OAWeek.
FEDERAL OPEN TEXTBOOKS FUNDING: U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with U.S. Senators Angus King, Tina Smith, and Krysten Sinema, announced last week the inclusion of $14 million for the Open Textbook Pilot Program in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. “Open textbooks are a proven way to save students money while providing quality instructional materials,” said Durbin. The bill awaits approval by both the House and Senate before it is officially signed into law. Read More >>
OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities
APPLY NOW: OpenSkill is supporting institutions to implement high quality OER, and providing up to $10,000 in grant funding, through the spring, summer, and fall of 2022. The team at Arizona State University will be providing services ranging from technology integration to learning design to course development in LMSs. Faculty will work with OpenSkill to bundle active learning tools and curated OER to use as textbook replacements at scale. Read More >>
APPLY NOW: The University of Oklahoma Libraries is hiring an Open Educational Resources Librarian. The Open Educational Resources Librarian manages the Alternative Textbook Grant, which has saved students nearly $4M in displaced textbook costs since its inception, and otherwise works to increase students’ access to educational resources via creative and inclusive strategies. Apply Here >>
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted
FROM OREGON: Oregon State University has launched a new OER Commons collection which allows users to search by subject area and type of material, from openly licensed textbooks and interactive course modules to online labs and entire courses. Since 2019, Oregon State faculty have helped students save more than $7 million by assigning OER in their courses. “I’m a big proponent of open access to information in general,” said professor Marit Bovbjerg of Oregon State University, “not everyone is in a privileged position. Open access materials help to democratize knowledge.” Read More >>
FROM TEXAS: Texas A&M International University’s library launched a new website this week focusing on increasing access to academic research. The website launch coincides with Open Access Week and provides access to university theses and dissertations, faculty publications, white papers, datasets, teaching and learning resources, audio and visual recordings, OER, and more. Read More >>
FROM WEST VIRGINIA: West Virginia University’s library system has selected three faculty members to receive OER grants. This year’s recipients are Erin Jordan from the College of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences; Mandy Weirich from the School of Social Work; and Adrienne Williams from the Department of Biology at the WVU Institute of Technology. The aim of the grants is to encourage development of alternatives to high-cost textbooks, lower the cost of college attendance for students, and support faculty who wish to implement new pedagogical models for classroom instruction. Read More >>
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource
University of Cape Town Professor Maria Keet of the Department of Computer Science has won the university’s Open Textbook Award for her “exemplary resource”, An Introduction to Ontology Engineering. It is her first open textbook, and a world-first textbook on the subject for computer scientists. The work was praised by the award committee for it’s “localisation, technical innovation, accessibility, and the integration of assessments and other ancillary components.” Read More >>
WEIGH IN
Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider
Great to Share >>
Why OERs are a great first step towards education affordability | The Cavalier Daily
Going All in on OER | Faculty Focus
Interesting to Consider >>
There’s What You Assign, and Then There’s What They Read | Inside Higher Ed
Faculty Awareness of OER Has Increased for 5 Years Straight, Yet Adoption Is Flat | Campus Technology
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.
