Regular Edition

OER Digest – December 7th, 2017

From Saman Azimi and Kaitlyn Vitez, US PIRG | Volume 46 | December 7th, 2017

With updates from Ethan Senack, Katie Steen, and Nicole Allen

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

STUDENTS SPEAK UP: A new report details student impressions of courses that switched to OER at Reynolds Community College in Virginia. Hundreds of students across 11 courses participated. The data reveal that 74% of students surveyed found the OER content more engaging than a traditional textbook, and 21% specifically mentioned how open materials were more flexible and tailored to their class.

COURSE LABELLING: Four states – California, Texas, Washington and Oregon – as well as individual institutions across the country are requiring a logo or other indicator of cost in their course catalogues. Advocates, oppositions, and faculty weigh in on the challenges of getting their projects off the ground. They detail the technical challenges of posting the essential price information, as well as debating the threshold of affordability for students.

CENGAGE UNLIMITED: Cengage announced the release of a new subscription service that gives subscribers access to the entirety of Cengage’s digital portfolio for a set price. The Netflix-style service doesn’t include any OER, but represents another new model that OER advocates may encounter on campus. It is available at the cost of $119.99 for a semester’s access to more than 20,000 Cengage resources.

OTN GOING GLOBAL: The University of Southern Queensland became the first non-U.S. university to join the Open Textbook Network. The Open Textbook Network, based out of the University of Minnesota, maintains the Open Textbook Library and helps higher education institutions and systems advance the use of open textbooks and practices on their campuses. SQU is currently planning on developing Australian editions of Open Textbook Library resources.

OPEN CITATIONS: Scientometrics researchers are calling on scholarly publishers to provide open citation data in an open letter with more than 200 signatories. Proponents claim that citations, which the letter says “provide essential information for studying science and making decisions about the future of research,” should not be limited to scholars with access to expensive database subscriptions. The letter builds on the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC), which aims to establish a global, public web of linked scholarly subscription data.

THE OA EFFECT: Research group Springer Nature released a report comparing the performance of open access and non-open access academic books, measured by usage, citations, and online mentions. Key findings, including that open access book see seven times more chapter downloads, 50% more citations, and ten times more online mentions than non-open access books, conclude that there are tangible benefits to publishing using open access models.

THE NEW KNEWTON: Knewton announced that it will be releasing its own line of online courseware in January. This marks a major pivot for the company, which gained publicity over the last year by marketing its services as offering artificial intelligence to help major textbook companies make their content more adaptive. The announcement places Knewton as a competitor to the major publishers, but the company claims that its mix of OER and adaptive learning will set it apart.

OPPORTUNITY: SPARC is seeking OER leaders to serve as mentors for its Open Education Leadership Program pilot. Learn more and sign up by December 11th here.

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Festival of Learning 2018 is accepting session proposals until December 11th. The theme this year is “Handle with Care” and proposals can be submitted here: https://bccampus.ca/festival-of-learning-2018/call-for-proposals/

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Submit proposals for the Southern Regional Faculty & Instructional Development Consortium’s Annual Conference, this year titled “Creative Connections: Teaching, Learning, Open Educational Resources,” due December 17th. http://srfidc.weebly.com/conference-information.html

CALL FOR PROPOSALS EXTENDED: The Utah OER Forum has extended the call for proposals until December 17th. Registration opens January 1st. http://oerutah.org/index.php/oer-forum/

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted

FROM TEXAS: “In the process of complying with the state mandate to identify potential for low- and no-cost textbooks, we are demonstrating the value of partnerships between departmental faculty and subject librarians. Faculty have more control over what and how the material is covered, and the savings to students are estimated at greater than $600,000 per year. I think that’s a story worth shouting about!” Read More >

FROM NEW JERSEY: “I participated in the [Open and Affordable Textbook] project because of my belief that the university education now, more than ever, should not be restricted to textbooks in many cases. Students should browse and learn from available resources on the internet. With so much emphasis on research, this project sends the message that teaching/learning is still important.” Read More >

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Each edition, we’ll highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource

Professor Ellen C. Carillo of the University of Connecticut partnered with the University Press of Colorado and the Colorado State WAC Clearinghouse to release A Writer’s Guide to Mindful Reading. As part of the openly licensed “Practice and Pedagogy” series, it offers “a comprehensive approach to literacy instruction by focusing on reading and writing.”

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

Why Should Institutions Consider Publishing Open Access Textbooks | Jisc

https://etextbook.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2017/12/04/why-should-institutions-consider-publishing-open-access-textbooks/

Interesting to Consider >>

Exploring the Use of E-Textbooks in Higher Education | EDUCAUSE

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/10/exploring-the-use-of-e-textbooks-in-higher-education-a-multiyear-study

Carlsbad Plan Would Put Technology in the Hands of Students | San Diego Union-Tribune

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/sd-no-carlsbad-devices-20171129-story.html

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – November 22, 2017

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 45 | November 22, 2017

With updates from Brady Yano

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

SIGNING OFF (from Digest co-author Brady Yano): I’m sad to share that this will be the last OER Digest I contribute to in my capacity at SPARC. Thank you to our readers for engaging with our bi-weekly content and thank you to Ethan Senack for bringing myself and SPARC onto this fantastic project! While I leave my role at SPARC at the end of the month, you can still find me on Twitter @bradyyano. Bye for now!

IN THE STATES: California passed a bill last year requiring most state institutions to mark courses using OER or no-cost materials on their course schedule. That legislation is set to become operative in just a few weeks on January 1st. In Washington, a bill to create grants at six different state universities is still on hold, though proponents are hopeful.

ON CAMPUS: Institutions – and increasingly, their student governments – are stepping up on open education. SUNY Oswego made news around their Shakespearean Acting OER, Lansing Community College’s OER Project Manager Regina Gong was featured on their Fox affiliate, and student governments advocating for OER made news at the University of Tennessee, University of Missouri, and University of Illinois. In Canada, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance released a policy paper on their vision for OER in province.

ON THE RANGE: The Wyoming Department of Education announced this week that they’re developing a statewide, K-20 Learning Management System in hopes of encouraging more educators to incorporate OER into their classes. Officials say they hope the change will spur greater personalization and reduce costs.

PUBLISHER PRESENCE: The increasing interest of textbook publishers like Cengage in OER has made headlines this week, following the announcement of their new OER-based learning platform. While many questions remain unanswered, their team is working to sell the higher education community on the idea. More discussion of the changes from their perspective in the Community College Daily and on Xconomy.

OPENSTAX IN ACTION: The open textbook publisher and the math technology company Carnegie Learning have announced a partnership to combine their open books and materials with Carnegie’s deep AI-based learning software to improve student access to and performance in developmental math. Also from OpenStax, their open textbooks are now available through VitalSource and RedShelf, two major digital textbook providers for college campuses.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING: To all the folks celebrating tomorrow!

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: BCcampus’ Festival of Learning is set to return next spring! The deadline to submit a proposal is December 11th. https://bccampus.ca/festival-of-learning-2018/call-for-proposals/

CALL FOR PROPOSALS EXTENDED: Missed out on submitting to #OER18 in Bristol? Fret not, the deadline has been extended to November 26th. https://oer18.oerconf.org/call-for-proposals/.

REPORTING BACK: Last week nearly 200 early career open advocates from around the world convened in Berlin, Germany as participants of the 4th annual OpenCon. This year’s program featured four plenary sessions ranging in topics from next generation open initiatives to a highly regarded panel on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as for the first time seven regional workshops and a full day do-a-thon! To catch up on what you missed, check out #OpenCon, outputs from the conference on GitHub, and recordings from the event here.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted

FROM ILLINOIS: “Jose Loazda, freshman in FAA, notes that many books are published by the University, and that professors expect a quick turnaround to purchase books right away. “I have to make a pros and cons list for each book like, ‘Do I really need it?’” Lozada said. “A lot of classes’ curriculums follow the books, so if you don’t have it, then you cannot follow along.” Ashley Garcia, junior in Education, said she sometimes just asks classmates to borrow their textbooks, or sometimes she will split it with someone.” Read more >

FROM TEXAS: “Through our membership…Texas Tech instructors can easily find affordable, quality textbook solutions that have not only been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality,” Gerlich said, “but also are funded, published and licensed to be freely used, adapted and distributed.” Read more >

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Each edition, we’ll highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource

Authors working in partnership with the Rebus Community have just released a new open textbook, Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The book, in their description: “is the first edition of a modular open textbook designed for entrepreneurial journalism, media innovation, and related courses.” The book will be available for print-on-demand in December and you can read more about it here.

The Center for OER and Language Learning is out with an openly-licensed student workbook called Recorridos to improve understanding of don Quixote in upper-level spanish courses. More information here.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

If a textbook falls in the forest… | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/if-textbook-falls-forest

Interesting to Consider >>

The Era of the Textbook is over | EdWeek

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2017/11/the_era_of_the_textbook_is_over.html

A PlayBook to Go Open: 5 Steps to Adopting OER | EdSurge

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-11-19-a-playbook-to-go-open-5-steps-to-adopting-oer

OER: Bigger than Affordability | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2017/11/01/oer-catalyst-national-conversation-about-public-higher-education

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – November 8th, 2017

From Brady Yano and Katie Steen (SPARC) | Volume 44 | November 9th, 2017

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

DISTRICT ADOPTION RATES: A new report by the Babson Survey Research Group investigates the process by which K-12 school districts select curricula materials in four critical subject areas: Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science, and History and Social Studies. The key findings while expansive include the following:

Over three-quarters of K-12 districts have made at least one full-course curricula adoption decision over the past three years, with the need to meet changing standards driving most of these decisions
Most districts make an adoption decision for Mathematics (59%), followed by English Language Arts (44%), Science (29%), and History and Social Studies (19%).
Districts with a high proportion of students in poverty have adopted open licensed full course curricula materials at twice the rate of districts with low rates of child poverty (22% as compared to 10%).

ON THE RISE?: Earlier this week, Inside Higher Ed published a story on “inclusive access” highlighting the publishing industry’s move to new business models. In the article, OER advocates Nicole Allen and Rajiv Jhangiani cited concerns that these models allow publishers to control when and how students access materials while restricting student choice. Catch up on Nicole Allen’s tweetstorm on inclusive access models here.

ZED CRED: Last week, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and BCcampus announced the release of Canada’s first Zed Cred! Students working towards a Certificate of Arts at KPU can now choose from nearly 50 zero textbook cost course offerings. As part of BCcampus’ Open Textbook Project anniversary last month, they announced that KPU is their leading institutional adopter.

TEXTBOOK GAME: No, we’re not kidding! Staff from De Anza College developed a new game aimed at showcasing how students struggle with college expenses, especially textbooks. The game is licensed CC BY, and is available for download and adaption here.

OER METAFINDER: Last month, George Mason University in collaboration with Deep Web Technologies released a new resource marketed as a one-stop search box for Open and Affordable Educational Resources. The resource sources its findings from many popular OER repositories and referatories such as MERLOT, OER Commons, and the Open Textbook Library. You can learn more about the resource here.

IT’S UP TO LIBRARIANS: Acknowledging the progress made in other states, a new paper written by Steven Bell and Joseph Salem outlines a framework for how Pennsylvania’s academic librarians can develop a statewide initiative to tackle the challenge of textbook affordability.

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

REGISTER: OpenCon Live will be taking place this weekend, November 11-13th. Tune in for a few hours, or a few days, from wherever you are to become an expert in different areas of Open, build your network, and get involved in an Open project or two! http://www.opencon2017.org/opencon_2017_live

REGISTER: Michigan is hosting a #GoOpen Summit at three sites across the state on December 5th.The program’s breakout sessions are designed for K-12 district administrators. http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/GoOpen_Summit_Flyer_600903_7.pdf

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted

FROM ALBERTA: “The next steps are really looking at the longevity of the OER pilot project, of its potential renewal and of the effectiveness of this first go-around,” Miller said. “Ideally in the future, this pilot project, if successful, gets expanded to impact more and more students, especially lower-year classes, first-year and second-year students who have especially expensive textbooks.” Read more>

FROM CALIFORNIA: “A summer’s worth of research eventually led Harris into his fall semester film documentary class with a big idea to find the answer to the question: why are textbooks so expensive? So Harris along with classmate Evan Waugh, a 28-year-old film major, decided to find out by focusing on how students are affected by the inelasticity of the textbook market in their short documentary.” Read more>

FROM SASKATCHEWAN: “King stressed that although textbook cost is very important when he is assigning textbooks for his courses, the textbook must meet his minimum standards. The textbook has to be peer reviewed and King knew the reputation of the open textbook author, Dr. Timothy Taylor. King, himself, has written for textbooks in the past and was looking for a textbook that included instructor materials, such as powerpoints, solution manuals, and testbanks.” Read more>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Each edition, we’ll highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource

The Open Textbook Network has added a new title, Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2. This textbook is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

OER: Bigger Than Affordability | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2017/11/01/oer-catalyst-national-conversation-about-public-higher-education

Interesting to Consider >>

Faculty Buy-in Builds, Bit by Bit: Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/faculty-buy-builds-bit-bit-survey-faculty-attitudes-technology

How Two Virginia Colleges Are Reducing Costs and Accelerating Completion | Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-two-virginia-colleges-are-reducing-costs-and-accelerating-completion/2017/11/03/a763b7ce-b28c-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.8d207f63f880

Nonprofit Launching 2 New OER English Language Arts Curricula | THE Journal

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/11/02/nonprofit-launching-2-new-oer-english-language-arts-curricula.aspx

Pricey College ‘Extras’ Undercut Student Efforts to Graduate | Campus Technology

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/10/30/pricey-college-extras-undercut-student-efforts-to-graduate.aspx

States, Not Publishers, Driving Innovation in the Curriculum Marketplace | New America

https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/states-driving-curriculum-innovation/

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – October 26th, 2017

From Kaitlyn Vitez (USPIRG) | Volume 43 | October 26th, 2017

With updates from Brady Yano, Ethan Senack, and Katie Steen

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

HAPPY OPEN ACCESS WEEK: In celebration of International Open Access Week, Stephen Hawking announced that his 1966 Doctoral Thesis on Properties of Expanding Universes would be made publicly available for the first time. Demand to view his work was so high it crashed the Cambridge University’s repository! Be sure to check out local events near you, and follow the conversation at #OAWeek.

CENGAGE SIGNALS CHANGE: Earlier this month, publishing giant Cengage launched OpenNow, a new product line targeting general education courses. Cengage has indicated that they plan to license the narrative and assessment content in OpenNow under a CC-BY open license. OpenNow includes content from OpenStax and other sources, new content created by Cengage, and content previously under a Cengage copyright. Cengage advertises the starting cost per course as $25.

CALL TO ACTION: Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo published a letter last week that highlighted the state’s open textbook initiatives. The governor’s letter calls for students, faculty, and staff to do more at Bryant University and other schools to do more to promote OER.

KEY QUOTE: “One year into the initiative, we can report over $870,000 in savings for over 6,000 Rhode Island students. And that number is growing.”

TWO NEW TOOLS: Creative Commons USA, the Rebus Community, and the Open Textbook Network created an Adaptable Open Educational Resources Publishing Agreement, designed to be a starting point for higher education institutions looking to contract with their faculty to create OER. Earlier this week SPARC in conjunction with a team of librarians released a new resource entitled OER Mythbusting, aimed at busting seven of the most common North American higher education OER myths.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: On behalf of the entire OER Digest team, happy birthday to our friends at BCcampus who earlier this week celebrated the 5th birthday of the BC Open Textbook Project!

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

FEEDBACK: Have feedback after attending #OpenEd17? Submit your suggestions here.

REPORT BACKS: Read (or listen to) some hot takes on #OpenEd17: Kelsey Merkley, Daniel Williamson, Amanda Coolidge, Bonni Stachowiak, Karen Cangialosi, David Wiley, Lauri Aesoph, and Scott Robison. Send us your own additions at oerdigest@gmail.com.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: OE Global 2018 has extended their call for proposals until October 30th! https://conference.oeconsortium.org/2018/call-for-proposals/

REGISTER: OpenCon Live will be taking place November 11-13th. Tune in for a few hours, or a few days, from wherever you are to become an expert in different areas of Open, build your network, and help accelerate progress! http://www.opencon2017.org/opencon_2017_live

REGISTER: The 2017 Textbook Affordability Conference will be held on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology, November 10th-12th. https://tac.nacs.org/

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted

FROM MISSOURI: “At first we were seeing some resistance [from instructors to OER],” scholarly communications librarian Josh Bolick. “But I think they are beginning to see that this is a reality moving forward and it can not be ignored… More lower-income bracket students are going to college today than ever before, so you see universities around the country starting to pay more attention to cost issues.” Read more>>

FROM CONNECTICUT: The Daily Campus editorial board highlights the work of student activists in promoting OER at UConn, and calls on the school to provide more resources to make the switch to OER in introductory courses: “As long as the textbooks are of the same quality, there is no justifiable reason for professors not to switch to open source resources. Students are already weighed down by the cost of tuition and room and board, as well as other university fees and expenses. If the university can save students several thousand dollars by merely switching textbooks, it should do so.” Read more >>>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Each edition, we’ll highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource

The Rebus community released their first book, Financial Strategy for Public Managers, by Sharon Kioko and Justin Marlowe. It was peer-reviewed by a team of eight experts, and holds the top ranking on Amazon for Government Accounting books. It covers everything from the basics of accounting to the politics and process of budget preparation.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

EdTech Hero: Barbara Soots paves the way for OER adoption in Washington | EdScoop

http://edscoop.com/edtech-hero-barbara-soots-washington

Interesting to Consider >>

A Horizontal Move in the Right Direction | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/10/26/benefits-horizontal-approach-open-educational-resources-essay

Imagining the “open” university: sharing scholarship to improve research and education | PLOS Biology

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002614

Openness and the Decline of the Textbook Author | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/10/24/openly-licensed-educational-content-and-decline-author-essay

Why am I spending three hundred dollars on textbooks? | The Student Life

http://tsl.news/opinions/6992/

Textbook Capitalism | The Stanford Daily

https://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/10/20/textbook-capitalism/

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – October 5th, 2017

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 41 | October 5th, 2017

With updates from Manuela Ekowo, Katie Steen and Brady Yano

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

TIME FLIES! This past week marks the two-year anniversary of the OER Digest. What started as a project to reduce time spent on conference calls has grown significantly since then. Today, we provide news and updates for hundreds of advocates and educators around the country, and we’re the primary source of OER news for more than a quarter of our readers. That’s why – to better serve our community – we asked for your feedback, and we’ve made some small changes. But don’t worry! The principle remains the same: we’ll keep things short, focused, and useful.

TEXTBOOK ACT IS BACK: On September 26th, bicameral and now bi-partisan legislation to support the creation and adoption of OER was introduced in Congress by Senators Durbin (D-IL), Franken (D-MN), and King (I-ME), and by Representatives Polis (D-CO) and Sinema (D-AZ). This is the fifth iteration of the bill, which creates a grant program at the U.S. Department of Education for colleges and universities to develop pilot programs that use OER to reduce the cost of textbooks for students. While the bill does not have a strong chance of passing by itself, it does create groundwork for OER to be included in reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Update: Congressmen Curbelo (FL) and Nolan (MN), as well as Senator Reed (RI) recently co-sponsored the bills.

OPEN GOVERNMENT: On Friday, September 29th, the White House Office of Management and Budget hosted a workshop with civil society on the 4th Open Government Partnership U.S. National Action Plan. The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral initiative to promote transparency, accountability, public participation, and technology and innovation in governance. A number of advocates submitted commitments on open data, open science, and open education, which have been included in previous National Action Plans. The 4th NAP will be published this month.

BIG MONEY: OER racked up some big dollar savings in the higher education arena this week, as the state of RI announced it had saved students $870,000 on textbooks in just one year, Santa Fe College announced $1 million in student savings from almost 300 course sections using OER, and the University of North Dakota announced $3.7 million in savings over the last two years of their OER program.

OER REACH INCARCERATED YOUTH: Two tech companies are launching an initiative using open-source technology and open educational resources to provide incarcerated youth the opportunity to continue learning and building re-entry skills. The initiative will be piloted in 5 states – Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Florida and Utah – and organizers say they’re hoping to “dispel the myths, and shine a light on the value of digital literacy in rehabilitating young offenders.”

SCHOOLOGY REPORT: A new survey of nearly 3,000 K-12 educators from LMS-provider Schoology attempts in investigate barriers to digital learning in the classroom. Lack of teacher time to incorporate technology into materials and inadequate access to devices for students topped the list, followed quickly by ineffective professional development.

Also in the survey: 95% of educators said that digital learning has positive impacts on students. 90% reported using ‘static’ digital resources like PDFs, and only 37% reported using OER by name.

GLOBAL RECOGNITION: The CU Boulder OER project, known as the PhET Interactive Simulations was recognized with a 2017 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Award. This prestigious international award highlights innovative educational projects that address challenges and bring transformative societal change. Since its inception, PhET has been used more than 80 million times a year by students and teachers across the educational spectrum.

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

NEXT WEEK: is OpenEd 2017, and the full Digest team will be in attendance. We’ll be putting together a special video edition from Anaheim, so if you’re interested in having your organization/project featured, please email us at oerdigest@gmail.com!

DEADLINE: The call for proposals for the Open Education Global 2018 Conference closes on October 23rd. https://conference.oeconsortium.org/2018/call-for-proposals/

REGISTER: Enrollment is now open for the David Wiley/George Siemens EdX MOOC on OER. https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-open-education-utarlingtonx-link-oex

REPORTING BACK: Cable Green shares his thoughts and takeaways from the 2nd World OER Congress. https://creativecommons.org/2017/10/02/2nd-world-oer-congress-2017-ljubljana-oer-action-plan/

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted

FROM ALABAMA: “Smith, a junior economics major, stressed the importance of adopting [an OER] program… “I think the rising price of textbooks hurts a lot of students’ ability to gain knowledge… and it restricts the free flow of knowledge that college is supposed to foster,” Smith said. “There’s this broken economic model. It’s not consumers and producers; there’s this third external party, so there’s not any competition.” Read More >

FROM MICHIGAN: “Bay College will hold its second “Free the Textbooks OER Rally” on Tuesday, October 17, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., in the Student Success Center (the “HUB”). The event, featuring free food, soft drinks, and prizes, is being held to bring awareness and energy to Bay College’s open educational resources (OER) degree initiative.” Read More >

FROM NEW BRUNSWICK: “It’s an issue that is not going unnoticed by the UNB Student Union. In an effort to raise awareness on the issue of the high textbook costs, the UNBSU is moving forward with a textbook pricing campaign. According to Bempah, the Student Union wants UNB to “explicitly support open education resources—and to promise that they’re going to work on it and to ensure that it becomes a reality here at UNB.” Read more >

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Each edition, we’ll highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource

The Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges just released Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology – an open access, peer-reviewed cultural anthropology textbook. See the story of how it was created, and check out the resource here: http://perspectives.americananthro.org/

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

Top districts use savings from OER curriculum to invest in professional learning | Education Dive

Interesting to Consider >>

How Machine Learning Is Easing OER Pain Points | Campus Technology
How a $14 Billion Industry Robs Students and Professors | NDSU Spectrum
Elsevier launches free science definitions service | Times Higher Education
How do you choose an open educational resource? | Education Dive
Leading Curriculum Reform Efforts Using Open Educational Resources | New America

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – September 21st, 2017

From Kaitlyn Vitez and Saman Azimi (USPIRG) | Volume 40 | September 21st, 2017

With updates from Ethan Senack, Manuela Ekowo, and Brady Yano

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

SECOND WORLD OER CONGRESS: Earlier this week, UNESCO and the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport brought together 550 registered participants from 111 countries for the 2nd World OER Congress. The event marked the 15th anniversary of the term “OER,” initially coined at a UNESCO meeting in 2002. Outputs from the Congress included the Ljubljana OER Action Plan, which presents 41 recommendations to mainstream OER in effort to achieve the 2030 UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal 4 on “quality and lifelong education.” Suggested actions include:

Provide capacity building for teachers, teacher trainers, learners, parents, educational policy makers, librarians and other stakeholders as needed to raise awareness on how OER can increase access to effective educational resources, improve learner outcomes and significantly reduce costs, and empower learners to become co-creators of knowledge.
Empower educators and learners to develop gender-sensitive, culturally and linguistically relevant OER appropriate to local cultures and to create local language OER, particularly languages which are less used, under-resourced and endangered as well as indigenous languages.
Support for public investments in bandwidth infrastructure to provide increased access to mobile learning, particularly for rural and remote communities.
Develop national and institutional standards, benchmarks and related criteria for the quality assurance of OER.

CAPE TOWN +10: In recognition of the 10 year anniversary of the Cape Town Open Education Declaration, Centrum Cyfrowe, Educadigital Institute, and SPARC co-organized a satellite event at the 2nd World OER Congress which explored 10 directions to move open education forward for the next decade. Featuring speakers from around the world, this session also included the launch of a new community resource building on the Cape Town Open Education Declaration. Catch up on the conversation at #CPT10.

NEW RESEARCH: Babson Survey Research Group released a new report, entitled “What We Teach,” on K-12 curriculum choices and the extent to which OER factor into those choices. Some key findings from the report, which surveyed a national sample of over 500 K-12 decision makers, include:

Awareness and adoption of specific OER materials is higher than awareness of the term itself; two-thirds of all districts are aware of at least one open full-course curriculum alternative and over a third have actively considered at least one, while one-third of districts are aware of both the term “OER” and its licensing.
Open licensed full-course curricula materials have been adopted by 16% of all districts.

HILL BRIEFING: Achieving the Dream held a congressional briefing earlier this month on the performance and lessons learned from their first year of OER degree grants. Speakers included the presidents of the Odessa College and Bunker Hill Community College, two of the 37 grant recipients. A copy of the report can be found here.

OPENSTAX EXPANDS: OpenStax, based at Rice University, is working with Open University’s UK Open Textbooks program to bring free OpenStax’s textbooks to the UK. “International expansion is an exciting and intuitive next step for us,” said OpenStax managing director, Daniel Williamson. OpenStax also announced a partnership with Katalyst Education to bring OER to Poland.

PLATFORM LAUNCH: HP announced the the launch of the new HP School Cloud featuring the HP Open Learning Platform, aimed at providing access to educational materials for students, teachers, and adult learners in rural and poor communities around the world to support the company’s commitment to improving learning outcomes for 100 million people by 2025. The platform will leverage a range of free resources from OpenStax, with more OER partners to be announced soon.

OPEN DATA NEWS: The Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act passed the Senate this week. The bill, which is part of the National Defense Authorization Act and thus expected to be passed by the House and signed into law, would require all federal agencies to publish their information in open, machine-readable formats.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENT: Join CCCOER for a webinar Wednesday, September 27th 2pm EST to hear from librarians and faculty who are working together to support the selection and adoption of high-quality OER. Register for the webinar here.

EVENT: The Rebus Community and Open Textbook Network are hosting their September Office Hour event on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in OER. The call will be taking place on September 26th at 12pm EST. Click here to RSVP.

EVENT: The Lumen Learning team is holding regular weekday office hours from 4:30-5:30 EST for anyone that needs help with Lumen Candela and Waymaker courses and Open Educational Resources (OER). Click here to learn more.

EVENT: Registration is open for the Open Educational Global Conference 2018 in Delft, The Netherlands, on April 24-26, 2018. Learn more, register, and submit a proposal here.

JOB: Forsyth Tech Community College in Winston-Salem, NC is looking for an OER Research Fellow (part-time) to assist with resource management, data collection, and tracking. This position is grant-funded and will remain open until filled.

JOB: Reading Area Community College in Reading, PA is seeking an Instructional Technology Specialist to provide Learning Management System support, assistance in use of educational technology, and training to staff and faculty, both full and part time.Review of applications began in August but the position is still open.

SUBSCRIBE: If you haven’t already – subscribe to the OER Digest here.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

FROM ARKANSAS: “It is a point of pride that UA Cossatot was the very first college in the state to offer this type of [OER] program for students,” said Chancellor Steve Cole. Read more >>>

FROM UTAH: “I had a student who was like ‘I’m living out of my car. I can’t buy a textbook.’ You’re so happy that they’re there and they’re trying to better their lives. You want to remove every financial burden from their lives you can possibly remove. I think we’re ahead of the pack on that, moving more and more to open educational resources where we can,” said Brenda Gardner, associate professor of math at Salt Lake Community College. Read more >>>

FROM MICHIGAN: The UM Flint “Textbook Affordability Initiative” is now in its second year as a pilot project. This fall, five math courses will use free OpenStax digital textbooks. It is anticipated that about 900 students will enroll in these five courses, and they will save an average of $200 per student in avoided textbook costs. Read more >>>

TWEET OF THE WEEK

World OER Congress @OERcongress

Discover the Ljubljana Action Plan 2017 here: ow.ly/9TjJ30fjZLA #SDG4 #OER #Education

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads Relating to Education and Open

A New Way to Learn Economics | the New Yorker

https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/a-new-way-to-learn-economics

The Dilemma of Fair Use and Expressive Machine Learning | Intellectual Property Watch

https://www.ip-watch.org/2017/08/23/dilemma-fair-use-expressive-machine-learning-interview-ben-sobel/?utm_content=bufferfbc3e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

College Textbooks are Going the Way of Netflix | Quartz

https://qz.com/1039404/end-of-textbooks/

Teachers Can Now Use IBM’s Watson to Search for Free Lesson Plans | EdSurge

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-09-13-teachers-can-now-use-ibm-s-watson-to-search-for-free-lesson-plans

A Question of Marginal Utility | Harvard Crimson

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/9/21/ec10-mankiw-royalties/

Students are Opting Out of Purchasing Textbooks Because of Cost | EducationDIVE

http://www.educationdive.com/news/students-are-opting-out-of-purchasing-textbooks-because-of-cost-how-oers/505242/

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – September 7th, 2017

From Katie Steen and Brady Yano (SPARC) | Volume 39 | September 7th, 2017

With updates from Apurva Ashok and Ethan Senack

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

HOT OFF THE PRESS: This week SPARC released the first “Connect OER Annual Report, 2016-2017,” detailing insights from their Connect OER pilot which ran from May – July 2017. The report comprises of information collected from 65 SPARC member institutions. During the pilot phase, Connect OER profiles were available only for SPARC member institutions. In early October, all higher education institutions in the U.S. and Canada will have the opportunity to join the directory. To be notified when registration is available, academic libraries may sign up here. Key Insights:

Libraries are the most engaged entity on campus in efforts to advance OER.
Mathematics and statistics is the academic subject with the most OER traction.
Nearly half of the participating institutions have a faculty or staff person with explicit OER responsibilities.
SPARC member institutions saved students an estimated $5 million through the use of OER in the 2016-2017 academic year.

STATE UPDATE: The Colorado Open Educational Resources Council, created after a bill passed the Colorado legislature this session, has already started meeting to discuss the current state of OER in the state and to develop recommendations for future OER development. You can check out Council membership and meeting agendas here. A digital discount bill in California, SB 727, has been amended after OER advocates in the state expressed concerns over the bill’s impact on OER and students. The amendments removed language promoting digital materials that can only be “used within a course” and added language to protect students from being required to purchase materials through an “innovative pricing technique”.

REBUS RESOURCE: The Rebus Community has developed a new resource to support those interested in running an open textbook project in their classroom. The new collaboratively-created Guide to Making Open Textbooks With Students contains project ideas, case studies, resources, sample assignments and more. You can learn more about the project here.

AMAZON INSPIRE: The Amazon Inspire Beta—geared towards the K-12 OER market—has once again started to allow contributors to upload OER to the site. This time, however, all content submitted is set to be reviewed prior to publishing. The Beta allows four different Creative Commons licenses and an Amazon Inspire Custom License.

PLATFORM LAUNCH: The Creative Commons Global Network announced the launch of their Open Education Platform, an international community focused on collaboration and coordination around furthering open education. These platforms are open to all interested parties working in the platform area and adjacent spaces. Those interested can join via Slack, Google Groups, or phone from the link above.

‘OPEN’ MATH: Open Up Resources released an open version of major middle-school math curriculum aligned with the Common Core Standards. The most recent release comes with edits from feedback gathered after the curriculum was initially piloted. Open Up Resources will provide training on how to use the open curriculum for an added cost.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENT: Please note that due to potential impacts from Hurricane Irma, the Florida OER Summit has been postponed.

EVENT: The Rebus Community and Open Textbook Network are hosting their September Office Hour event on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in OER. The call will be taking place on September 26th at 12pm EDT. Click here to RSVP.

EVENT: The Lumen Learning team is holding office hours from 4:30-5:30 ET Monday-Friday for anyone that needs help with Lumen Candela and Waymaker courses and Open Educational Resources (OER). http://lumenlearning.com/office-hours/

JOB: Farmingdale State College is looking for a new Scholarly Communication Librarian at the Greenley Library. Applications close on September 29th. https://farmingdale.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=88908.

JOB: The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga Library is hiring for a Director of Desk and Patron Experience. Applications opened on August 28th and will remain open until the position is filled. https://www.utc.edu/library/about/jobs/index.php

SUBSCRIBE: If you haven’t already – subscribe to the OER Digest here.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

FROM CALIFORNIA: “For me, it was getting over this textbook mentality, which was developed before the internet was around,” says Farmer, a recipient of Sonoma State’s Excellence in Teaching Award. “When I started teaching, I thought you have to have a textbook for the course. That’s how I learned to do it.” Read more >>

FROM MICHIGAN: “One of the big initiatives that I’m working on is open textbooks,” Appiagyei-Dankah said. “I just really think that textbook affordability is something that is really important and it is a huge barrier to student success, so I’d really like to have some faculty members adopt open textbooks.” Read more >>

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Open Up Resources @OpenUpResources Aug 28th

BIG NEWS! We’ve debuted our first freely licensed curriculum. Check out Illustrative Mathematics 6–8 Math: http://im.openupresources.org #OER

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads Relating to Education and Open

An Unlikely ESSA Provision: Warning on Copyright Piracy | Education Week

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/08/30/an-unlikely-essa-provision-warning-on-copyright.html

Free Textbooks? Effort Aims to Take Some Financial Burden Off Students’ Shoulders | Berkeley Library

http://news.lib.berkeley.edu/2017/08/28/free-textbooks/

State to Study Open Source Materials to Lower Textbook Costs | The Durango Herald

https://durangoherald.com/articles/181264

Barnes & Noble Education Shares Plunge on Earnings Miss | USA Today

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/08/30/barnes-noble-education-shares-plunge-earnings-miss/615691001/

Sharing Information Globally: BU Should Utilize OER in order to Benefit Students | Pipe Dream

https://www.bupipedream.com/opinions/83954/sharing-information-globally/

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – August 24, 2017

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 38 | August 24th, 2017

With updates from Manuela Ekowo and Katie Steen

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

SEEKING FEEDBACK – A QUICK ASK FOR OUR READERS: The two-year anniversary of the OER Digest is coming up this October, and we have a quick favor to ask. We’ve put together a quick, 9-question survey about the Digest to help us understand what’s useful, and what we can improve. We’re hoping to learn more about what you – and all our readers – think, so we can make the Digest even better moving forward. Would you be willing to fill it out?

ACTION ITEM: Take the Survey >

BRIEFING CONGRESS: Achieving the Dream – the national, nonprofit championing evidence-based institutional improvement and coordinating a massive OER degree pathway program – is hosting a briefing for Congressional staff next month on their OER degree initiative. The briefing will include presidents of two community colleges that are running OER degree programs.

SUMMER INSTITUTE: The Open Textbook Network welcomed 100 delegates to its annual Summer Institute & Summit in Minneapolis. The institute focused on supporting OTN members to advance their local initiatives, strengthening relationships in this fast-growing community, and explore ways the OTN can pool resources and expertise to address challenges in open education.

MOOC ON MOOCS: Two familiar faces to the open education community – David Wiley and George Siemens – are teaming up to offer a six-week MOOC around, well, MOOCs and open education. The duo hopes to reach graduate students pursuing careers in education and teaching, so they can confront misconceptions and build understanding of OER among the next generation of educators.

#ASKCC: Creative Commons USA hosted a twitter chat with more than 100 participants – primarily educators and librarians – around the country to answer questions about copyright and open licenses in real time.

FASTR: The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) was reintroduced in both the House and Senate with bipartisan cosponsors a few weeks ago. The bill requires federal agencies with research budgets in excess of $100M to have a public access policy for federally funded research. The House version requires that research publications be made accessible to the public within 6 months after publication in a journal, and the Senate version requires they be made public within 12 months. SPARC is tracking the bill.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENT: Rebus Community is holding office hours next week on August 30th, discussing open textbook metadata. RSVP here: https://about.rebus.community/2017/07/august-office-hours-metadata-for-open-textbooks/

EVENT: CCCOER is hosting a panel on open education degrees with representatives from BCcampus, WikiEducation, and Lumen Learning on August 30th. See more here: https://www.cccoer.org/2017/08/11/aug-30-open-education-degrees-panel-discussion/

OPPORTUNITY: Creative Commons Global is seeking stories about collaboration in the commons. Submit one here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdqwV_8L-si9WB6eqWQr1z_l7u6X_pGgkNzl-xyiTc6tUBcJw/viewform

OPPORTUNITY: Contribute toward the Ljubljana OER Action Plan on Open Educational Resources leading up to the 2nd World OER Congress co-organized by UNESCO and the Government of Slovenia here: http://www.oercongress.org/woerc-actionplan/

LAST CHANCE: Deadline tomorrow! There are a number of OER-focused panels up for consideration at next year’s SXSWedu. Create an account and upvote your choices here: https://auth.sxsw.com/users/sign_up.

SUBSCRIBE: If you haven’t already – subscribe to the OER Digest here.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

FROM MICHIGAN: “For an LCC student paying about $309 for a psychology class where the textbook new costs $150, open educational resources represent significant savings, Kelland said. Moving forward, LCC is working to finalize its first Z degree in psychology – a degree obtainable with zero textbook costs. It’s just the start, according to Kelland. “Five years from now I’d expect lots of Z degree options.”” Read More >

FROM TEXAS: “The policy that I’m most passionate about is our open educational resources initiative, that I anticipate having an immensely positive impact on our campus and students. The Clegg-Merritt administration has been working throughout the summer to alleviate some of the financial strain students experience regarding textbook prices.” Read More >

FROM OKLAHOMA: “TCC encourages professors to use the OpenStax books to save students money. “I am really happy to be doing this work. I feel like it’s philanthropy at work,” said Jennifer Kneafsey, professor. The OpenStax books are available now for mainly core classes, but as that selection expands, TCC hopes more professors will adopt these low-cost textbooks. “We hope to spread this year into more of the social sciences, history, the federal government, but we hope to expand,” Kneafsey said. Read More >

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Office of Ed Tech‏ @OfficeofEdTech Aug 17 Click to ReTweet >>

Want to learn more about Open Educational Resources? Start here! http://tech.ed.gov/open/ #OER #GoOpen #edtech

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads Relating to Education and Open

How New Technologies Can Help K-12 Schools Do More with Less | Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/08/18/how-new-technologies-can-help-k-12-schools-do-more-with-less/#73213e344ae4

Mohave Community College plans to bolster free online curriculum | Havasu News

http://www.havasunews.com/news/mohave-community-college-plans-to-bolster-free-online-curriculum/article_9c21a952-8181-11e7-b938-2bfde77bc99a.html

Open education resources create engaging learning experience | The Suburban Times

http://thesubtimes.com/2017/08/14/open-education-resources-create-engaging-learning-experience/

Textbooks’ decline tied to tech advances, increase in digital access | The Herald Sun

http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/education/article165778757.html

If Higher Education Were A Public Good… | Forbes Opinion

https://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2017/08/18/if-higher-education-were-a-public-good/#52133daa3dc6

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – August 10th, 2017

From Ethan Senack (Creative Commons USA) | Volume 37 | August 10th, 2017

With updates from Manuela Ekowo, Jacob Berkman, and Brady Yano

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

ED REGULATIONS: As previously reported in this Digest, the Trump Administration has requested comments from the public on rules and regulations at the Department of Education that are overly burdensome or reduce local control – and ones that are working well. It is expected that the publishing association will submit comments in opposition to the recent open licensing rule, so expect an opportunity to sign onto a coalition letter similar to this one, highlighting the potential of the rule and how it works on behalf of the public.

STAX ON STACKS: Open textbook publisher OpenStax announced today that they’re expecting nearly 1.5 million students to use OpenStax books this year – saving an estimated $145 million. That estimate is nearly double their estimated student savings of last year.

STATE LEGISLATION: In California, legislation around innovative textbook pricing models and bulk purchasing agreements has passed the Senate and is under consideration in the House. A number of other states, including Ohio and North Carolina, will be returning from summer recess with OER and textbook legislation on the table. Check out SPARC’s new OER legislative tracking tool for more info.

NACS REPORT: A new report from the National Association of College Stores finds that student spending on textbooks has decreased slightly since last year, down to $579 on average per year from $602 in 2015. NACS cites OER as a factor in this decline. From their press release, key findings from the survey of nearly 20,000 students also include:

“Students are opting to rent more; campus store the primary source: 43% of students rented at least one course material in fall 2016 compared to 40% in fall 2015. And, 57% of students who rented a course material, did so through the campus store.”
“Campus store remains top source for course materials: In Fall 2016 students report that 82% of course materials were purchased from the campus store, 40% from Amazon, 8% from a peer/student, 7% from Chegg.com and 7% from a publisher website.”
“New print format is most purchased: In fall 2016, when purchasing course materials, 74% of students reported buying new print, 70% bought used print, and 23% bought digital. Purchasing of digital materials increased by 8% from 15 % in fall 2015 to 23% in fall 2016.”

OPEN UP RESOURCES: Announced this week that they are launching two new openly licensed K-12 core curricula. The first, a comprehensive high school math curriculum, will be designed in partnership with Illustrative Mathematics, and the second, a middle school English Language Arts curriculum, comes in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Education.

CAMPUS ACTION: A number of institutions made news this week for their work on OER – Florida International University for their new Textbook Affordability Taskforce and Cal State Fullerton for their new Affordable Learning Solutions ambassador program (both universities are also part of OpenStax’ institutional partners program); Ohio University for joining the Open Textbook Network; Borough of Manhattan Community College for converting the most courses to zero-textbook cost courses out of the CUNY system; and University of Wisconsin for a faculty member writing an open textbook.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENT: Creative Commons USA is hosting an #AskCC twitter chat for educators, librarians, and other practitioners to ask experts questions about licensing, copyright, and OER. The event will be on August 16th, at 2pm EST. Read more at http://bit.ly/askcctwitter

EVENT: Registration for the first Florida OER Summit on September 7-8th is now open. Register at https://www.flvc.org/oersummit.

EVENT: Registration for the 2017 MI OER Summit on September 22 is now open. Register at https://www.cvent.com/events/2017-mi-oer-summit/registration-6cd769897901462ba5f1c22dafa49d20.aspx?fqp=true.

OPPORTUNITY: There are a number of OER-focused panels up for consideration at next year’s SXSW, including Achieving Equity with Open Educational Resources, Can OER Take On The Publisher Giants?, What Happens When States Fund OER?, and The Information Revolution You’ve Never Heard Of, as well as many more. Create an account and upvote your choices here: https://auth.sxsw.com/users/sign_up.

RECORDING: Missed Monday’s ALA webinar with Anita Walz’ on her experience as a consultant on open education and the role of libraries in newly democratic post-soviet Kyrgyzstan? The recording is available here: http://connect.ala.org/node/268814.

SUBSCRIBE: If you haven’t already – subscribe to the OER Digest here.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

FROM WASHINGTON: “Veteran science teacher John Coe and his colleagues at North Lake Middle School in Lake Stevens, Washington, saw an instructional need that was not being addressed by their traditional textbooks. In 2013, they began using OER. With OER, Coe says, “we can edit down the sections of text quickly. We can create leveled readings [that] help solve some of the differences in reading levels … and give relevance to the text.” Now, student performance levels on eighth-grade state assessments are 10 percent to 15 percent higher than those in neighboring districts.” Read More >

FROM NEW YORK: “At CUNY, where almost half of the student body comes from households earning less than $20,000, officials said the cost of a student’s books can total as much as $1,200 a year. The officials said faculty members were converting 350 popular courses to free digital materials for the fall and were being trained on their use. These resources will be shared publicly. The infusion of funding for this project is “a real shot in the arm for efforts to make college attendance even more affordable,” said CUNY Chancellor James Milliken. He said the course catalog will show which classes have no textbook fees, and, in a year or two, some CUNY degrees won’t require such fees.” Read More >

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Via: Layla Bonnot‏ @LaylaBonnot Aug 3 Click to ReTweet >>

From Washington to Utah, #OER help #students succeed. @CCSSO shares their stories: http://bit.ly/2v3og9F @The74

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads Relating to Education and Open

Free Online Course Materials Help Take Textbooks off N.Y. Students’ Shoulders | Wall Street Journal

https://www.wsj.com/articles/free-online-course-materials-may-help-take-textbooks-off-cuny-students-shoulders-1500589194

To Find Alternatives to Capitalism, Think Small: Why co-ops, regional currencies, and hackerspaces are pointing the way toward a new economic vision | The Nation

https://www.thenation.com/article/to-find-alternatives-to-capitalism-think-small/

Big Publishing Wants To Co-Opt The Open Textbook Revolution | Fast Company

https://www.fastcompany.com/40432973/how-academic-publishers-are-looking-to-get-in-on-the-open-textbook-revolution

Nowhere is tech more important than in curriculum-here’s why | eSchool News

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/08/09/tech-important-curriculum/

The Pros and Cons of OER | Direct Network

http://directnetwork.mbsdirect.net/the-pros-and-cons-of-oer

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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

Regular Edition

OER Digest – July 28th, 2017

From Brady Yano and Katie Steen (SPARC) | Volume 36 | July 28th, 2017

With an update from Lisa Petrides

THE OER DIGEST

Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

#NAACP108: This week, over 10,000 people gathered in Baltimore, MD for the NAACP’s 108th Annual Convention. OER advocates organized by ISKME, including, OpenStax, SPARC, Creative Commons-USA., and Foresight Law & Policy, staffed a booth for the entirety of the conference discussing how equity and inclusion can be achieved through OER with NAACP state chapter members. ISKME is working to connect the larger OER community and NAACP state education chairs to help put into practice the resolution that was passed in 2016 that urged NAACP members to support the use and adoption of OER in their states and districts.

AMAZON INSPIRE: Amazon recently opened the beta version of Amazon Inspire, a repository of K-12 learning materials, after nearly a year of invitation-only access. However, the controversial share feature has not yet been made available. All materials submitted to the platform hold either a Amazon Inspire Custom License or Creative Commons license. Read more here.

GROWING COLLECTION: BCcampus announced last week the addition of five new open textbooks to their collection. The new textbooks cover the disciplines of film studies, financial accounting, history and academic success.

OPEN OREGON UPDATE: The Open Oregon Educational Resources 2016-17 OER grant projects are complete – congratulations grantees! 8,370 students at 21 institutions have saved over $1,000,000 to date. Check out more of the details here.

ALG GOES CC BY: Affordable Learning Georgia has just opened their RFP process for this year’s Textbook Transformation Grants. The changes accompanying this grant cycle include the licensing of all newly-created grant resources as CC BY, emphasis on core curriculum courses to maximize impact, as well as grant funding for OER revision and ancillary resource creation.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENT: Less than one week left to apply to attend OpenCon Nov 11-13 in Berlin, Germany! Click here to apply now!

EVENT: The Rebus Community and Open Textbook Network is hosting their August Office Hours on Wednesday August 30th at 2pm EDT. The topic is Metadata and Open Textbooks. Click here to RSVP.

JOB: The Open Education Consortium is looking for a new Executive Director. Check out the job description here.

SUBSCRIBE: If you haven’t already – subscribe to the OER Digest here.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

FROM GEORGIA: “I have the fortune to work with faculty who are very progressive and not afraid of change,” said Vargas, who has been teaching college-level math for 13 years. “Once they heard the narrative behind all this — ‘Are we going to help students to be able to stop paying $250 or $350 for textbooks?’ — they were all on board.” Read more>>

FROM MICHIGAN: Prystowsky and Kelland say Lansing’s initiative is moving forward quickly because of Gong’s tenacity. “The barrier is that faculty say they don’t have time to look for OER,” Gong said. “Since I am managing it … I can help them. I can find five [open] books for them to review. I can’t mandate, but I can say that this is a good candidate for a replacement,” she added. “That’s the most effective approach.” Read more>>

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Daniel Williamson‏ @new_edu

Just read initial report showing that the presence of #OER decreased Drop Fail Withdrawal rate by 25.1% compared to non-OER courses.

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads Relating to Education and Open

Campus launches new research support website | The Daily Californian

http://www.dailycal.org/2017/07/21/campus-launches-new-research-support-website/

CCC to Offer New Online Degree Program | Press Republican

http://www.pressrepublican.com/news/local_news/ccc-to-offer-new-online-degree-program/article_5186427b-1da4-5cf3-8066-e5d4840132e0.html

Language Open Education Brings Teachers Around the Country to UT | The Daily Texan

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2017/07/25/language-open-education-brings-teachers-around-the-country-to-ut-0

Open Ed. Provider Appealing Decision in Closely Watched Lawsuit | EdWeek

https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/open-ed-provider-appealing-decision-in-closely-watched-lawsuit/

‘Precision Education’ Hopes to Apply Big Data to Lift Diverse Student Groups | EdSurge

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-07-19-precision-education-hopes-to-apply-big-data-to-lift-diverse-student-groups

Report: K-12 educators more confident about technology use | EdScoop

http://edscoop.com/report-educators-more-confident-about-technology-use

What About the Bookstore? | College & Research Libraries News

http://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/16700/18183

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