OER Digest- March 8th, 2018

From Saman Azimi and Kaitlyn Vitez, U.S. PIRG | Volume 52 | March 8th, 2018

With updates from Karen Vaites and Jeremy Smith

THE OER DIGEST

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

HAPPY #OEWEEK: from the OER Digest team! It’s been great to see the many events happening across the globe to promote open education — from student tables to faculty workshops to regional events. Check out the list of events around the world at the official Open Education Week website, or keep up with the latest coverage under the many permutations of #OEWeek on Twitter.

CALL CONGRESS TODAY: to ask that an open textbooks grant be included in the federal budget for the current fiscal year, due to be finalized in the next few days. The budget deal reached last month sets aside $2 billion this year for “college affordability and completion” initiatives, and we’d like to see $10 million go to support OER adoption and creation via a short term federal grant program. Thanks to the OER community’s support, SPARC and U.S. PIRG delivered letters from libraries and student governments calling on Congress to fund open textbook grants, and have generated hundreds of calls to key House and Senate lawmakers. Check out the twitterstream at #opentextbooksFY18 or contact katie@sparcopen.org or kvitez@pirg.org for more information on how to get involved.

CHART-TOPPING CURRICULUM: The second openly-licensed curriculum from Open Up Resources, EL Education K–5 Language Arts, has just become the top-rated K-5 ELA curriculum on EdReports, the Consumer Reports of K–12 materials. It’s now the highest-rated elementary curriculum that they’ve ever reviewed.

IN THE STATES: Legislation in Iowa would require institutions to mark OER in course catalogs. The bill was recommended favorably by Senate subcommittee, and if passed would make Iowa the first state in the Midwest to enact this kind of law. A bill in Washington creating a pilot grant program for four-year institutions now heads to the governor’s desk.

DEFINING OPEN: In light of the recent introduction of new OER-based products by Cengage, Macmillan, and other publishers, there has been a flurry of blogs on what materials or characteristics can be considered open. Paul Stacey reflects on framing good citizenship in the commons, and ISKME, Ed Tech Strategies, and AAC&U released their “CARE” framework for evaluating OER-based courseware as the movement grows: contribute, attribute, release, and empower. Have your own thoughts on the topic that you’d like to share? Send them to the OER Digest to be featured in the next edition!

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: Some major news broke in the traditional publishing market that OER advocates should know about: Pearson announced that it is selling its K-12 division despite a rise in profits in the past fiscal year as it pushes out more digital content. Their K-12 offerings, mostly traditional textbooks, are out of sync with the publisher’s  “digital transformation strategy” rebrand as a courseware developer. This is part of a larger trend of publishers moving away from print towards what Pearson’s CEO calls the “Spotify” model – streaming digital access without ownership.

GROWING #GOOPEN: The U.S. Department of Education announced a new partnership with the Institute for the Study and of Knowledge and Management in Education (ISKME) to expand and enhance the #GoOpen network. The partnership will facilitate the sharing of OER and implementation strategies and integrate evidence of the efficacy of OER into the broader education policy dialogue.

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs  

REGISTER: CC’s Global Summit is just over a month away on April 13-15th in Toronto. Register for the conference before it sells out: https://summit.creativecommons.org/register2018/

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: The #OpenEd18 call for proposals has now opened. Submissions are due by midnight on Friday, April 6th. Submit here: https://openedconference.org/2018/call-for-proposals/

LAST CALL: Regular registration for OpenStax’s Creator Fest in Houston, TX on April 5th-6th ends tomorrow. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/openstax-creator-fest-2018-tickets-38510722608

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM ILLINOIS: “I pay $30,000 a year to learn from expert professors and access DePaul amenities, I don’t pay $30,000 a year to then pay an extra hundred dollars to have my professors pawn their work off to a third rate, for-profit company.” Read more >

FROM MASSACHUSETTS: “I avoid buying textbooks at all costs,” said one student in UMass’s latest mini-documentary on their OER initiatives. The video features student and faculty testimonials. Watch more>

FROM IOWA: “Students could potentially save $3,000 over the course of their Liberal Arts degree. Textbooks are becoming unaffordable for our students, so we decided to use a different approach.” Read More >

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

From Rebecca Morales and Alesha Baker comes an article in the Journal of Interactive Media in Education titled “Secondary Students’ Perceptions of Open Science Textbooks.” The article, which explores the perceptions of 6th-8th graders in a suburban public school, includes findings that students’ perceptions of an open textbook in place of a standard textbook are improving students’ attitudes and behaviors toward learning.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

A Guide to Good OER Stewardship | Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/03/05/advocates-develop-framework-stewardship-open-educational

How OER can help overcome the higher education equity barrier | EdScoop

https://edscoop.com/how-open-education-resources-can-help-overcome-the-higher-education-equity-barrier

Interesting to Consider >>

‘One and Done’ Model of Higher Ed is in the Past | Education Dive

https://www.educationdive.com/news/one-and-done-model-of-higher-ed-is-in-the-past/517801/

The Future of Educational Publishers | eLearning Industry

https://elearningindustry.com/future-of-educational-publishers

Five Examples of How Higher Education is Changing with Technology | Business & Finance

https://businessandfinance.com/guest-blog-five-examples-higher-education-changing-with-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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.

OER Digest – February 22, 2018

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 51 | February 22nd, 2018

With updates from Nicole Allen

THE OER DIGEST

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

FROM THE DEPARTMENT: The Department of Education’s open licensing requirement for educational resources produced through competitive grants is now in full swing. Language is now being included in new grant programs specifying the requirement for prospective grantees. Check it out in the recent call for applications to the Native American Career and Technical Education Program.

IN THE STATES: A bill in Virginia directing public higher education institutions to adopt guidelines for OER has passed the House and is up for a hearing this afternoon in the Senate. Advocates are pushing to remove language that would call for guidelines on “low-cost commercially published materials.” A bill in Hawaii that originally drew concern has been amended to create a statewide task force and grant fund for open education, following the recommendations of stakeholders and advocates across the state. Legislators in New Jersey, California, Ohio, and Iowa also introduced bills that could impact OER.

NEW MICROSOFT PARTNERSHIP: Microsoft announced a partnership with EdGate to supply “links and metadata for carefully curated and vetted OER that have been aligned to national and international K-12 educational standards” through their Educational Resources platform in Office 365. They aim to narrow results so teachers can find resources that are specifically applicable to their own state or regional curricular standards.

ON MACMILLAN: Textbook publishing giant Macmillan announced what they call a new OER-based service last week. The announcement triggered much discussion among OER community members, particularly around how the word ‘open’ is used by industry members when they are charging a fee for the wraparound service. Macmillan has since said that they plan to make any OER used in their courses publicly available on their partner Intellus’ website. Stay tuned for more information as Macmillan launches the courses throughout the spring.

STUDENTS OUT FRONT: Students are increasingly joining the vanguard of on-campus efforts to move away from expensive course materials and support OER. At West Virginia University, students have recruited legislators to introduce an OER-focused bill. At Tufts, students created a textbook exchange to help facilitate the used book market on campus. Students from East Tennessee State University encouraged their institution to join the Open Textbook Network. At Grand Valley State University, students are collaborating with faculty to advocate for campus OER grants.

NEW STAFF: Creative Commons HQ welcomes Jennryn Wetzler as Assistant Director of Open Education. She’s worked on open education for years through the U.S. Department of State.

OPEN ED WEEK: We’re less than two weeks away from the start of Open Education Week 2018. This year, it “is a celebration of the Global Open Education Movement. Its purpose is to raise awareness about the movement and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide.” See the call for participation, and more ideas for hosting events here.

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

SUBMIT PROPOSAL: PressED is a twitter conference (#pressedconf18) looking into how WordPress is used in teaching, pedagogy and research. Submit a proposal by March 2nd here: http://pressedconf.org/

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

IN K-12, FROM NORTH CAROLINA: “One of the biggest values of using the two comprehensive sets of open educational resources, says Kingsley, was that it enabled the district to free up dollars that would have been spent on textbooks for professional learning. The district has invested more than $1.5 million in professional learning this year tied to the new curriculum materials.” Read More >

IN H.E., FROM CALIFORNIA: “It takes 19 hours working a minimum wage job to pay for a $200 book, according to data collected by Hancock, and Scarffe said the college serves a very high percentage of low-income and first generation college students. In a survey of 609 students conducted by Hancock’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness in 2017, 65 percent of students said they had dropped a class due to the price of a required textbook. Sixty-one percent of students surveyed said they spent at least $200 on textbooks each semester, and 45 percent said they had avoided registering for courses with costly required textbooks.” Read More >

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

BCcampus Open Education’s Lauri M. Aesoph released a Self-Publishing Guide for producing open textbooks. The 188-page guide covers everything from early planning to post-publication actions, and is available under CC-BY. See more about the guide and BCcampus’ other helpful docs here, or go straight to the PDF.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

Where OER can (and can’t) close the opportunity gap | OpenStax

https://openstax.org/blog/where-oer-can-and-cant-close-opportunity-gap

Interesting to Consider >>

Services Go Up, Stuff Goes Down (Except Textbooks) | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/services-go-stuff-goes-down-except-textbooks

5 Insights to Help Prepare Students for the Future of Work | EdWeek Market Brief

https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/5-insights-help-prepare-students-future-work-economist-google/

What We Mean When We Say “Ecosystem Coordinator” | The Learning Accelerator

https://learningaccelerator.org/blog/what-we-mean-when-we-say-ecosystem-coordinator

Stories of Sustainability | American Libraries

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/stories-of-sustainability/

Pearson hit again as weak U.S. demand weighs on education group | Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pearson-outlook/pearson-hit-again-as-weak-u-s-demand-weighs-on-education-group-idUSKBN1F60ZZ

Have suggestions for the next edition? Let us know at oerdigest@gmail.com, or tweet us @OERdigest.

OER Digest – February 8th, 2018

From Katie Steen (SPARC) | Volume 50 | February 8, 2018 

With updates from Matt Ruen

THE OER DIGEST

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

WA STUDENTS HAVE SPOKEN: 10,000 students across Washington’s 34 community and technical college were asked about the affordability of course materials. The responses showed that an alarming amount of students do not have access to the required course materials they need. 44% of students indicated that they have sometimes or often taken courses without the required materials due to the cost. Student respondents recommended that institutions use open educational resources to combat expensive materials.

OER APPROVED IN OH: Ohio State surveyed students and instructors in 12 courses across a diverse set of disciplines about their experience with OER and other low-cost materials. The survey found that students and faculty were generally pleased with the quality and experience of using open and affordable digital materials. According to David Mullins, Evaluation and Feedback Lead from ODEE, “The key to making learning affordable is focusing on high-quality OERs that enhance the educational experience for students in their courses.”

GEORGIA HITS MILESTONE: The University System of Georgia’s OER repository hit a milestone! Since its launch in 2016, the repository has clocked 100,000 full-text downloads.

STATE UPDATE: Thus far in 2018, there are 35 active K-12 and higher education bills in 14 states that impact OER or mention it directly. We’ve seen legislation filed that would positively impact OER and others that could have negative consequences. Stay tuned for updates on these bills as legislative sessions progress.

OEC ANNOUNCES NEW ED: On February 6th the Open Education Consortium announced its new Executive Director, Paul Stacey. Paul joins OEC after five years as Associate Director of Global Learning for Creative Commons. Prior to Creative Commons Paul helped found BCcampus in 2003 and led its open education initiative for nine years.

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs  

REGISTER: Registration is open for the Open Education Symposium hosted by  Florida State University Libraries on March 8th. Register here: https://www.lib.fsu.edu/events/open-education-symposium

SAVE THE DATE: The 15th Annual Open Education Conference (#OpenEd18) will be October 10-12, 2018 in Niagara Falls, NY.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Participate in Open Education Week (March 5-9) by submitting an event you’re hosting or an open resource to be featured on the OEW website. Submit by February 25th here: https://www.openeducationweek.org/page/call-for-participation

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM QUEBEC: “The OERs offer a way to relieve some of the financial burden of purchasing class materials on students,” Archer said. “It’s hard being a student. Within a single term you may even have $1,200 worth of textbooks, and making even a few of them available as OERs [can be] helpful.” Read more >>

FROM CALIFORNIA: “The main benefit is cost reduction,” said project director Jessica Scarffe. “Hancock has a high percentage of first-generation college students and a high percentage of low-income students. Removing textbook costs makes college more accessible and supports the college’s student equity effort.” Read more >>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Grand Valley State University has released Innovative Lessons Plans for Active Learning: Teaching Research and Evidence-Based Practice, a guide for instructors to create engaging classes on nursing research. Its sixteen chapters contain ideas for activities to supplement regular classroom instruction and any undergraduate textbook for the course. Watch the introductory video, and access the guide here.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

OER reaches ‘inflection point,’ and states are leading the charge | EdScoop 

http://edscoop.com/oer-reaches-inflection-point-states-leading-charge

Open Education Resources Going Mainstream | MDR Education

https://mdreducation.com/2018/02/02/open-education-resources-going-mainstream/

Interesting to Consider >>

Provosts’ Views on Online Learning and OER | Inside Higher Ed

http://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/data/2018/01/31/provosts-online-learning-and-oer

Amazon’s Newest Hire Could Have a Big Impact on Online Open Education Resources | In Cyberdefense

https://incyberdefense.com/featured/amazons-newest-hire-big-impact-online-open-education-resources/

Opinion: Open Resources in an Age of Contingency | Inside Higher Ed

http://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2018/01/31/oer-movement-poses-risks-time-and-resource-starved-contingent

Why Students Are Still Spending So Much for College Textbooks | The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/why-students-are-still-spending-so-much-for-college-textbooks/551639/

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.

OER Digest – January 25th, 2018

From Saman Azimi and Kaitlyn Vitez, U.S. PIRG | Volume 49 | January 25th, 2018

With updates from Nicole Allen, Cheryl Cuillier, and Katie Steen

THE OER DIGEST

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

OPEN 101: U.S. PIRG released a new report titled “Open 101: An Action Plan for Affordable Textbooks,” The report investigates the cost of course materials in the ten highest-enrollment courses in the country, zeroing in on how bundled materials prevent students from finding low-cost alternatives. The report also provides a comparison of course materials used for those ten courses across criteria such as availability unbundled, retention, and the cost for new and used books. Key findings include:

• Of the access code bundles (text + access code) examined in the report, 45% were unavailable from any source besides the campus bookstore, forcing students to pay full price. For courses using textbooks only, students could cut costs as much as 58% by buying online.

• Schools that have invested in OER generated significant savings for students, e.g. at Greenfield Community College, where three of six courses investigated used OER, students spent as little as $31 per course versus a national average of $153 per course.

• If the ten highest-enrollment courses nationally switched to using OER, students save up to $1.5 billion each year.

TOP OF THE CLASS: EdReports, an independent education nonprofit that reviews K-12 curricula on a set of three criteria – alignment to Common Core standards, academic rigor, and usability – gave its highest ever rating to Open Up Resources’ Illustrative Mathematics 6-8. The curriculum, which is fully OER, was the only one of fifty-four math curricula reviewed by EdReports to earn a designation of “meets expectations” in all three criteria.

STATE POLICY: SPARC and Creative Commons USA released a pair of companion documents examining state policy on OER and offering recommendations and analysis for lawmakers and advocates:

• SPARC’s OER State Policy Playbook provides a framework of ideas that state legislators can pursue to harness the power of OER to reduce the cost of college for students. The playbook suggests several policy strategies, like establishing a grant program, assembling a statewide task force, issuing a savings challenge, and requiring course designations, and provides real life examples.

• Creative Commons USA’s OER State Legislative Guide looks at seven examples of state legislation supporting OER, each representing a different perspective and legislative language. The guide annotates the bills to highlight strengths, areas for improvement, and unique tactics.

OER IN OR: A new report from Open Oregon Educational Resources covering the cost savings community college students have seen in the two years since Oregon established an OER initiative found that students in three transfer degree programs spent 16% less in 2017 than 2015, for over $1 million in savings. The report also found that the number of hours working at minimum wage it would take to cover materials costs has fallen by ~25% across all three degrees because of lower prices and higher wages.

HBD CAPE TOWN DECLARATION: Happy 10th Anniversary to the Cape Town Open Education Declaration! To celebrate, a small group of open education advocates met in Cape Town in March 2017 to discuss the accomplishments and challenges in the movement over the last decade. At the meeting, advocates identified ten key directions to move open education forward. Check out the conversation on twitter at #CPT10.

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

REGISTER: OpenStax is hosting its first Creator Fest for biology, physics, math, and chemistry instructors in Houston, TX from April 5th-6th. Register here: OpenStax.org/OXCFRegister

REGISTER: The Puget Sound Educational Service District is hosting a summit on the state of OER in K-12 in Washington at their office in Renton, WA on March 26th. Register here: https://s01.123signup.com/servlet/SignUpMember?

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Participate in Open Education Week (March 5-9) by submitting an event you’re hosting or an open resource to be featured on the OEW website. Submit by February 25th here: https://www.openeducationweek.org/page/call-for-participation

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM PENNSYLVANIA:  A committee being formed by provost Patricia Beeson is expected to explore options, including a student-developed idea calling for expanded use by faculty of these lower-cost materials, and creation by Pitt of grants and other incentives for professors willing to participate. Read More >

FROM INDIANA: The four-week course will focus on finding educational materials that are both high quality and reviewed, highlighting those available through IU South Bend or IU-subscriptions. “We will also learn about copyright considerations and, finally, creating new, homegrown OERs here at IUSB. Faculty and instructors taking the redesign institute will identify and integrate alternative materials into existing or future courses,” states the syllabus for the course. Read More >

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

From Steven W. Ellingson of Virginia Tech comes a beta of Electromagnetics Volume 1 (CC BY-SA 4.0). The text, which is intended for third-year undergraduates in an electrical engineering program, employs the “transition lines first” approach and is currently being field tested in a Spring 2018 course.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

5 Ways to Get Started with OER | eSchool News

Ehttps://www.eschoolnews.com/2018/01/23/oer-get-started-open-resources/?all

Interesting to Consider >>

Amazon’s Education Hub, Amazon Inspire, Has Quietly Restored “Sharing” Function | EdSurge

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-01-11-amazon-s-education-hub-amazon-inspire-has-quietly-restored-sharing-function?

Administrators Consider Teachers’ Professional Learning Needs Using Digital, OER Resources | Education Dive

https://www.educationdive.com/news/administrators-consider-teachers-professional-learning-needs-in-using-digi/504588/

This 1 Particular Area of Ed Tech is Ripe for Disruption | Entrepreneur

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/307712

Opinion: It’s Time to Rid Ourselves of the Textbook Industrial Complex | Collegiate Times

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/opinion/it-s-time-to-rid-ourselves-of-the-textbook-industrial/article_c66d980e-fe15-11e7-a970-a77a06c48e72.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.

OER Digest – January 11th, 2018

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 48 | January 11th, 2018

With updates from Nicole Allen, Cheryl Cuillier, and Karen Lauritsen

THE OER DIGEST

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

CHEERS TO 2018: As we kick off the new year, the Digest team just wants to express a quick word of thanks to our readers. Send us your predictions, blogs, or other reflections for 2018 at oerdigest@gmail.com or @oerdigest and we might include them in the next edition!

HITTING A GROOVE: If the first couple weeks of this month are any indication, the OER community seems to be heading for a banner year. Check out some of the most recent headlines from articles featuring OER:

• Inside Higher Ed: The Truth (About OER) Is Out There

• Chronicle of Higher Education: Use of Free Textbooks Is Rising, but Barriers Remain

• Inside Higher Ed: OER Adoptions on the Rise

• EdSurge: As Campuses Move to Embrace OER, College Libraries Become Key Players

• EdSurge: OER Had Its Breakthrough in 2017. Next Year, It Will Become an Essential Teaching Tool

BREAKING, FROM CA: California Governor Jerry Brown proposed a new, public, online community college for the state as a means to improve economic mobility and prepare the workforce for a changing job market. As part of the proposal, the college will leverage OER and “z-degree courses” to keep the cost of attendance as low as possible. More details are expected in coming weeks.

IN OTHER STATES: A host of legislators in Virginia, Washington, New York, Mississippi, and Indiana introduced bills around access to- and cost of- course materials this past week, including many provisions around OER. The Digest will be following these, and other bills, as they proceed.

BIG NUMBERS: So far in 2018, institutions are putting big numbers on the board – Pierce College announced last week that they crossed the $1 million mark in student savings from OER, and the University System of Maryland’s annual scorecard revealed $1.6 million in savings for their students. In a different vein, UMUC hit record enrollment last year after years of struggling to maintain existing levels – and they credit their switch to OER as a major factor in the improvement. They’ve also seen increased retention, and dropped their average ‘books and supplies’ cost to zero. Additionally, Wiki Education announced that their programs had added more than 7.68 million words of science content to the open online encyclopedia.

10 YEARS: January 22, 2018 marks the official 10 year anniversary of the publication of the Cape Town Open Education Declaration. Consider marking the occasion on the 22nd with a blog post on your predictions for the next 10 years or join in on social media with #CPT10.

NEW EFFORT: Late last year, the Open Textbook Network announced the creation of The Publishing Cooperative, a group of institutions working together to “establish publishing infrastructure, processes, and community to expand the development of open textbook publishing in higher education.” Their goal is publish two dozen CC-BY textbooks by 2020.

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

REGISTER: Early bird registration is open for the Creative Commons 2018 Global Summit in Toronto, April 13-15th. Register here: https://summit.creativecommons.org/register2018/

REGISTER: The 2018 OE Global Conference take place in Delft, The Netherlands on April 24-26th. Register here: https://conference.oeconsortium.org/2018/registration/

REGISTER, TAKE 2: The Florida OER Summit takes place next month, February 7-8th, after it was postponed due to Hurricane Irma last year. Registration is open now, here: https://www.flvc.org/oersummit-registration

REGISTER: The Library Collective is hosting a conference February 28-March 2nd in Tennessee. Register here by February 1st: http://www.thelibrarycollective.org

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM PENNSYLVANIA K-12: “It really is a grassroots effort,” he says. “It’s not a top-down [situation], where we have to submit resources to the state level or the intermediate unit level to be approved. … Instead, it starts at the district level where teachers, who are the best evaluators of the content that they’re utilizing in the classroom, can begin that process.” Read More >

FROM PENNSYLVANIA HIGHER ED: The resolution cited the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, which recommends students prepare to pay $772 for textbooks for the 2017-2018 school year. “That cost, that’s someone’s rent. That’s someone’s grocery money for the entire semester,” Patel said. “That impacts the students way more than people really see.” Read More >

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

The Public Data Lab released under CC-BY A Field Guide on “Fake News” – exploring the best ways to identify and fake news and verify real stories. The authors are also attempting to build the guide out into a full textbook as well.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

To combat soaring textbook costs, look to an open-source approach | The Globe and Mail

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/to-combat-soaring-textbook-costs-look-to-an-open-source-approach/article37477566/

Interesting to Consider >>

How OER Can Help Low-Income School Districts | Kajeet.net

http://www.kajeet.net/extracurricular/how-oer-can-help-low-income-school-districts

As Textbook Companies Try New Options, Many Students Say Price Is Biggest Factor | EdSurge

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-01-09-as-textbook-companies-try-new-options-many-students-say-price-is-biggest-factor

White Paper on Open Educational Resources | Ontario Council of University Libraries

https://ocul.on.ca/node/6820

Highlights From a Year of Tracking Future Trends in Education | EdSurge

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-12-22-highlights-from-a-year-of-tracking-future-trends-in-education

Districts to watch in 2018 | Education Dive

https://www.educationdive.com/news/districts-to-watch-in-2018/513734/

Have suggestions for the next edition? Let us know at oerdigest@gmail.com, or tweet us @OERdigest.

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.

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.

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

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/

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.

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: 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

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.

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.