Regular Edition

OER Digest – March 3rd, 2016

By Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 9 | March 3rd, 2016
With help from Bo Donoghue, Nicole Allen, and Reg Leichty

THE OER DIGEST
Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

FULL STEAM AHEAD: Last week, the U.S. Department of Education organized the #GoOpen Exchange, a gathering of state and district leaders, technology companies, and non-profit organizations about helping educators transition to using openly-licensed educational resources. The Department announced that 13 states and 40 districts have made commitments to #GoOpen through expanding the use of OER, a leap forward since the campaign launched this fall. The event included numerous workshops, live technology demos from companies including Amazon and Microsoft, two speakers from the White House who articulated a strong message of support for OER, and a remote conversation with Acting Ed Secretary John King. The Department plans to continue seeking #GoOpen commitments from other states and districts throughout the coming year. Check out the twitterstream on #GoOpen for more details on the event.

READ the press release: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-recognizes-13-states-and-40-districts-committing-goopen-educational-resources
RT John King: https://twitter.com/JohnKingatED/status/703382691270553600

FAUXPEN BOOKS: Last week the White House also announced a project entitled Open eBooks, which provides a new smartphone app for low income children to access a library of free ebooks. Despite what the project name implies, the ebooks are not open, but instead are donated on a limited basis by publishers (we are told the project’s name originated with the app’s use of open source technology). While the project is admirable for promoting reading among low income children, its equivocal use of “open” and proximity to the #GoOpen announcement has caused much confusion. Advocates are encouraging members of the OER community to keep the two projects separate, and redouble our efforts to effectively communicate why “open” is more than “free.”

READ this blog by Doug Levin: http://www.edtechstrategies.com/blog/confused-about-open/

FULL HOUSE IN THE HOUSE: More than 50 people turned out for a Congressional Briefing on open education this week, sponsored by SPARC, CCSSO, COSN, and SETDA. At least 25 House and Senate offices were represented. Congressman Jared Polis kicked off the briefing, emphasizing the potential for OER and technology to vastly improve access to learning materials. CC-US posted a few photos here>

CHAMPS ON THE HILL: This week, a coalition of national organizations wrote a letter to Senators Hatch (R-UT) and Baldwin (D-WI), as well as Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), thanking them for including OER among the allowable uses of the new Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant (SSAEG) program, which was created by the Every Student Succeeds Act. Thanks to their hard work, States and school districts will be able to use SSAEG funding to support a transition to digital learning, including investing in high quality openly licensed materials an tools. The letter also urged them to ask the Senate and House Appropriations Committees to fully fund the SSAEG program in the upcoming budget.

LIBERATING, ISN’T IT: Earlier this month, learning platform Skyepack announced the launch of the Textbook Liberation Fund, a $500,000 grant program aimed to support faculty that undertake efforts to reduce the cost of the course materials in their courses – including OER. Members of the open community have reached out and started a dialogue with them about ways to better incorporate open licensing and be involved in the open movement.

BUILDING THE CASE: A new article by BYU Professor John Hilton looks at the effects of OER on student performance. In his own words: “Across sixteen different higher education studies involving over 50,000 students and faculty, the consistent findings were that (1) students who use OER tend to do as well or better than their peers, and (2) in general, a large majority of both faculty and students perceive that OER has the same or higher quality than traditional textbooks.”

ELUSIVE NO LONGER?: Bipartisan legislation was introduced in both chambers of Congress to make reports published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) available online to the public. These reports are written for members of Congress to brief them on a wide range of topics. While technically in the US public domain because they are created by federal employees, these reports are notoriously difficult to get ahold of without either contacting a member of Congress or using a paid subscription service such as Lexis Nexis. The new legislation seeks to ensure that these reports are published freely online, so they can be used by schools, libraries, think tanks, businesses and the public.

RARE COOPERATION: In another surprising moment of cooperation on Capitol Hill, it’s looking pretty likely that the Senate HELP committee will consider – and vote on – the nomination of Acting Secretary of Education John King. That meeting is expected to happen on March 9th.

IT’S TIME: Next week is Open Education Week (March 7-11). My quick math shows over 100 events registered so far on the official site: www.openeducationweek.org/. Share your work and the reasons you support open education next week using #openeducationwk!

It’s Thursday, March 3rd. Ethan Senack here. It’s been a busy month in Open Education! Don’t forget to send tips, updates, opportunities, and feedback to @HigherEdPIRG or esenack@pirg.org. Also, want your colleagues or friends to get the Digest? Send them this link: http://bit.ly/get-the-oer-digest

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

WE’RE HEATING UP: I took a quick skim on recent campus news stories about open textbooks, and discovered something exciting. Even outside of schools where national groups are organizing, student governments (and students running for student government) have been going to bat hard for open textbooks and open education. I found student government bills and potential policies at nine schools, just in the last week or so.

From Ithaca College, whose student government just passed legislation supporting OER, a great quote from a PIRG alum! “For [faculty], it gives them the opportunity to teach the course as they see fit and then to adjust the textbook,” she said. “That’s what a textbook should be. A textbook should be a tool to help teach. It shouldn’t be the actual method of teaching.” Read more>
From William and Mary: “This was a resolution in support of Open Educational Resource textbooks as an option for both professors and students to decrease the financial burden that is placed increasingly on students in textbook costs,” O’Dea said. “This is something that the College and absolutely the Student Assembly should get behind and I think the student body will support this bill.” Read more>
From Santa Barbara City College: “I would be ecstatic if the school adopted such an amazing [open textbook] program,” said Dakota Cortez, a biology major at City College. “I work two jobs and take 14 units, so whenever textbook season rolls around my wallet dreads it.” Read More>

Want your story featured? Email it to esenack@pirg.org.

SYLLABUS:
Interesting Reads on Education and Open

The Real Value of What Students Do in College | Robert Shireman
http://bit.ly/1TVDAMJ (an interesting take on the value of student engagement)

Survey Confirms Widespread Technology Use in Early Ed | Teaching Strategies
http://bit.ly/1RKRvDg

Never Judge a Book by its Cover | Brookings Institute
http://brook.gs/1pphgzM (an analysis on textbook efficacy)

Are Open Textbooks the Cheaper Solution College Students Need? | NBC News
http://nbcnews.to/1LC2OhR

The Reason for the Rise: College Textbook Prices | GOOD Magazine
http://bit.ly/1oSuUuF

Regular Edition

OER Digest – February 4th, 2016

By Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 8 | February 4th, 2016

THE OER DIGEST
Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

UPDATE FROM LABOR: A new rule from the Dept of Labor that was announced on the eve of the new year will bring open licensing to intellectual property created under their competitive grants. Analysis by Lindsey Tepe at New America shows that the rule will likely impact around $300-400 million dollars in grants, once it’s fully implemented. At the same time, the rule will hopefully add impetus to the Department of Education’s proposed rule to require open licenses on products from some of their grants.

NEW TEXTBOOKS REPORT: Time for one quick, shameless plug. The Student PIRGs released a new report yesterday, titled “Covering the Cost.” The report reveals the results of a 5,000 student survey regarding textbook prices and financial aid use. Key findings from the report include:

Almost one-third (30%) of students replied that they had used financial aid to pay for their textbooks.
For those that used financial aid, the amount of financial aid dollars they put toward purchasing textbooks was more than $300 on average per semester.
Textbook prices disproportionately impact community college students: 50% of students report using financial aid for books at community colleges, compared to 28% at 4 year public schools.

The report highlights the potential of OER and open textbooks to solve high textbook prices, and includes recommendations for decision-makers on campus and in the government. Students on a couple dozen college campuses held stand-up release events with local administrators, librarians, and faculty.

SHARE IT: on Facebook, or on Twitter, via PIRG or Senator Durbin. We’re using #FreeTheTextbook.

CREATIVE COMMONS STRATEGY: CC announced their strategy for the next five years. They’ll focus on building infrastructure that supports sharing, pushing back against an outdated copyright system, and strengthening access and usability of the commons. Expect more information about their Open education plans soon.

CAMPUS ACTION! While state and federal policy often get all the glory, individual campuses around the country are stepping up and taking action around OER. Our “Stories from the Field” section has reported on some of them, but let’s recognize just a few of the big commitments campuses have made so far this year. This week, Rutgers University announced that it is funding a new OER initiative, and a bunch of other institutions made the news: the University of Connecticut for their leadership in a new statewide OER initiative, North Carolina State for their Alt-Textbook program, even Grand Rapids Community College for their OpenStax partnership! That’s just those who made the news – there are dozens of schools that are working to jump in on OER.

OPENSTAX ANNOUNCEMENT: Speaking of OER growth, open textbook publisher OpenStax recently announced that their books saved students $39 million in 2015. Their adoption tracking shows that their books are now in use at 1-in-5 degree granting institutions in the U.S.

STAFFING CHANGES: The state of Rhode Island has hired its first-ever Chief Information Officer – none other than former Department of Education Director of EdTech, Rich Culatta.

It’s Thursday, February 4th. Ethan Senack here; I’ve been laser focused on finishing our latest textbooks this past month, and I’m excited to rejoin the rest of the world in February. Don’t forget to send tips, updates, opportunities, and feedback to @HigherEdPIRG or esenack@pirg.org with the subject “OER DIGEST”.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD:
A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

VIDEO BREAK: University of Northwestern – St. Paul, an Open Textbook Network member, recently approved a strategic three-pronged approach involving the use of open textbooks in order to reduce instructional material costs for students. To help give a voice to this approach, they created a brief video of their students talking about how textbook prices have impacted them and how–in the second half of the video–the use of an open textbook has helped them. As a result of this high-level approval, University of Northwestern – St. Paul reports their first instances of faculty of large-enrollment courses choosing open. See the video here>

AND ONE MORE: Students at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts made a mini-documentary about textbook affordability and open textbooks (featuring one of our staff!). See the video here>

Want your story featured? Email it to esenack@pirg.org.

SYLLABUS

5 key lessons learned through the B.C. Open Textbook Project | BCcampus
http://bccampus.ca/2015/12/22/5-key-lessons-learned-through-the-b-c-open-textbook-project/

Prof finds ways to keep textbook costs down | Bloomington Pantagraph
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/prof-finds-ways-to-keep-textbook-costs-down/article_b02dbde6-b056-5acc-904c-9ed444e30919.html

Creating an Infrastructure for Open Access | Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/creating-infrastructure-open-access

Amazon Planning to Open Hundreds of Stores? | The Republic/AP
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/a59b5146751c4ef783c90cd5f163d42c/US–Amazon-Bookstores-Report

Regular Edition

OER Digest – December 17th, 2015

By Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 6 | December 17th, 2015
With help from Reg Leichty, Mary Lou Forward, Nicole Allen, and others

THE OER DIGEST

Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

STEP UP FOR OPEN: Not long ago, the Department of Education issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) around their interest in openly licensing educational materials funded by their direct competitive grants. Now, it’s crunch time. Comments to the Department are due by the end of the day tomorrow, Friday 12/18. We know they’ve received a number of comments both in support of the proposal and against it, so if you haven’t taken the opportunity to tell the Department how you feel, this is your chance. Every bit of feedback will help ensure they adopt the strongest possible policy, so we encourage you to consider weighing in.

TO-DO LIST:

Join this brief coalition comment in support of the rule> (deadline: Friday, 11:00am ET)

Check out these helpful resources, and submit your own comments here> (deadline: Friday, 11:59pm ET)

ELEMENTARY, SUCCESS: Congress has passed, and the President has signed, a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The bill update became due in 2007, and lawmakers have been working on the draft since 2010, so it’s long overdue. Besides significant changes to the No Child Left Behind policy era, the bill also includes a new OER provision in the multi-billion dollar State Support and Academic Enrichment Grant program. Looking forward, states may use that funding to support districts in making instructional content available as OER.

OPEN AND DEVELOPMENT: The mission of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Earlier this month, they released a new report titled Open Educational Resources: A Catalyst for Innovation. Here’s a key quote from their blog post:

“In the end, perhaps OER will be one of the most significant and substantive ways that technology will transform teaching and learning.

STATE OF THE COMMONS: Creative Commons has released their second annual State of the Commons report, which finds that over 1.1 billion CC licensed works have now been contributed to the shared global commons, up from 140 million in 2006.

OPEN ED WEEK: Coming up in the new year, from March 7-11. The Open Education Week Planning Committee “invites your contributions to and participation in the annual Open Education Week, featuring online and in-person events around the world. You decide how you will participate: host a local event, give a webinar, submit a video about your open education work, use the week to highlight the benefits of open education, get creative and try something new!”

A NEW CLASS OF FELLOWS: The Open Policy Network just announced 16 new fellows to carry the open policy torch – including one from the US.

STAFF CHANGES AT ED: Rich Culatta, Director of EdTech at the Department of Education, announced that he’s stepping down this month. Rich was a staunch supporter of open education during his tenure, and he’ll be missed. Deputy Director Joseph South will serve as acting director – also a champ of open education. The change comes in parallel with Secretary Arne Duncan’s retirement and John King moving into that role.

It’s Thursday, December 17th. Ethan Senack here. It’s 60 degrees in DC, and I’m bummed. Coming from New England, it’s just not the holidays if it’s not freezing outside. Don’t forget to send tips, updates, opportunities, and feedback to @HigherEdPIRG or esenack@pirg.org with the subject “OER DIGEST”.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD:
A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

#GoOPEN IN PROFILE: The Affton School District in south St. Louis County is one of 10 school systems across the country taking part in the Department of Education’s #GoOpen. Robert Dillon, director of innovation, said the prospect of allowing teacher to mix and match the best materials for students could be a game changer in the classroom. “I think the open education movement has the opportunity to bring the best resources to all kids, especially those students that may be in schools that are struggling to succeed,” Dillon said. He added that the current model of a district buying a textbook every five years is outdated. “We’re in a time and place where that cycle has to be shorter, and the only way to do that is with open resources.” Read the article>

A PROGRAM THAT’S WORKING: The OER project at North Shore Community College was launched by a campus “Vision Fund Innovation Grant” for $5000. The idea? Bring together resources on campus to help faculty identify OER for their classes. Thirty faculty attended the first summit, with ten formally applying to participate in the first semester, and five more in the second. These faculty receive a $600 “Tech Across the Curriculum” grant and are matched with an advisor from the Instructional Design Lab and a librarian, to work on replacing their texts with OER or other affordable alternatives. And while the 15 faculty are formally have saved students a modest $20,000, many others on campus are now following their lead – expanding into OER and working to get special notation for OER-based courses in the catalog.

Have a story you’d like featured? Email it to esenack@pirg.org.

SYLLABUS

Bookstore or College Store: Building a Relationship | From the Bell Tower
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/12/opinion/steven-bell/bookstore-or-college-store-building-a-relationship-from-the-bell-tower/

Sharing the Benefits of Open Educational Resources with Everyone | Hewlett Foundation Blog
http://www.hewlett.org/blog/posts/sharing-benefits-open-educational-resources-everyone

Free, open-source textbooks are catching on at colleges| Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/open-695726-textbook-source.html

U Georgia Nears $2 million Mark in OER Savings | Campus Technology
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/11/20/u-georgia-nears-2-million-mark-in-oer-savings.aspx

Regular Edition

OER Digest – November 20th, 2015

By Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 5 | November 20th, 2015

THE OER DIGEST
Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

Hi everyone! I’m happy to announce that we’re releasing a special edition video Digest this week: check it out on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm4aVBTue-Q

Regular Edition

OER Digest – November 12th, 2015

By Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 4 | November 12th, 2015
With help from Amanda Cadran, Sarah Cohen, and others

THE OER DIGEST
Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

UPDATE FROM CALIFORNIA: After a few weeks of turmoil surrounding a Cal State professor who forewent an expensive textbook he was supposed to assign in favor of more affordable (and some openly-licensed) materials, the College upheld its disciplinary reprimand. The faculty board reviewing the case stated that Professor Bourget violated the university’s rules, but also recognized that his department did not have sufficient procedures to allow discussion around changing material. The case resurfaced discussions about academic freedom, and how it applies to individual faculty, departments, and institutions.

READ MORE: An interesting analysis from the Orange County Register about their local colleges’ policies around course material adoption.

NOTE ON THE TEXTBOOK BILL: The House version of Senator Durbin’s bill to create a federal grant program that provides professional development, training, and resources for faculty interested in OER picked up two new cosponsors this month: Rep. Alcee Hasting (FL) and Beto O’Rourke (TX).

IN K-12: The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) announced the launch of their new OER Portal, in partnership with iNACOL. The portal ” provides background and understanding of OER implementation at state and district levels, as well as a more detailed look at how OER can impact classroom practices.” See it for yourself here>

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last month, the Open Textbook Network – a project launched by OER advocates at the University of Minnesota – announced that their network of institutions and campus partners have saved students an estimated $1.5 million in textbook costs. Considering they only launched last year, it’s quite a feat.

CHECK OUT: The press release, or retweet their note about this milestone!

CONFERENCE SEASON: But when isn’t it, honestly. Lots of folks will be heading to Vancouver next week for OpenEd 15, an annual conference for educators, advocates, and many others. The three-day conference will feature tracks on OER and Accessibility, the Impact of OER on Student Success, OER Adoption Models, Sustainability in OER, and much more. Others are in Belgium for OpenCon.

It’s Thursday, October 15th. Ethan Senack here. I, myself, will be at OpenEd next week – look forward to seeing many of you there! Don’t forget to send tips, updates, opportunities, and feedback to @HigherEdPIRG or esenack@pirg.org with the subject “OER DIGEST”.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD
A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

FROM VIRGINIA: “In late October, Swem [Library] posted a survey about textbook prices. Featured on the front of the College of William and Mary’s library on a large whiteboard, the survey results included 56 students who noted that high prices of textbooks caused them not to buy the required textbook, and 16 students who said they earned a poor grade as a result.

“We had quite a few students say that they didn’t purchase a textbook for a class because it was too expensive, and they thought their grade suffered because of that,” Arts Librarian and Interim Digital Scholarship Librarian Kathleen DeLaurenti said. “I don’t want to see that happening. If there’s something we can do, I want to be there to do that.” Read more about their visit with Creative Commons.
FROM OREGON: “We work with faculty—whether they teach online or whether they teach on campus—to try to help them to find no-cost course materials for their students,” said Dianna Fisher, director of Open Oregon State. “If they can’t find an open textbook that meets their needs, then we will work with them to either take an existing textbook and modify it to meet their needs, or if that’s not an option, we will work with them to create a textbook that does meet their needs, and then offer that for free to the students here at OSU and students, really, in all other places.” Read more about their program>

Have a story you’d like featured? Email it to esenack@pirg.org.

SYLLABUS

Readers Will Shape the Future | The Bookseller
(an interesting take on the publishing industry)
http://www.thebookseller.com/insight/readers-will-shape-future-316074

Harvard Law School launches “Free the Law” project | Harvard Law Today
(on digitizing US case law and providing free access)
http://today.law.harvard.edu/harvard-law-school-launches-free-the-law-project-with-ravel-law-to-digitize-us-case-law-provide-free-access/

This important conversation between Phil Hill and Mike Caulfield:
(discussing the merits of textbook price data vs student spending data)

Bad Data Can Lead To Bad Policy: College students don’t spend $1,200+ on textbooks
http://mfeldstein.com/bad-data-can-lead-to-bad-policy-college-students-dont-spend-1200-on-textbooks/
Asking What Students Spend on Textbooks Is the Wrong Question
http://hapgood.us/2015/11/09/asking-what-students-spend-on-textbooks-is-the-wrong-question/
Asking What Students Spend On Textbooks Is Very Important, But Insufficient
http://mfeldstein.com/asking-what-students-spend-on-textbooks-is-very-important-but-insufficient/

Regular Edition

OER Digest – October 29th, 2015

By Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 3 | October 29th, 2015

With help from Hal Plotkin, Lisa Petrides, Nicole Allen, Timothy Vollmer, and others

THE OER DIGEST
Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

LAUNCHING THE ‘DEPARTMENT OF OPEN’: Based on how focused they’ve been on OER this week, it might be time to rename the Department of Education. OER advocates were at the White House today for a symposium on open education, which featured the launch of the Department’s “Go Open” campaign. As we celebrate some of their historic commitments to OER, here’s a sampling of what’s been going on.

The Department of Education is proposing a new policy that would ensure educational resources and other intellectual property created through its discretionary grant programs would be openly licensed. The proposal is the first major step that the Obama Administration has taken toward fulfilling a call made by more than 100 organizations this summer for a government-wide policy to openly license federally funded educational materials.

A group of technology companies and civil society organizations have made commitments to support school districts who want to #GoOpen. Amazon, Microsoft and Edmodo have announced a set of tools that integrate with the Learning Registry, enabling schools, teachers and students to more effectively find and use OER. Creative Commons, ASCD and the Illinois Shared Learning Environment have pledged professional development and platform support.

A cohort of 10 K-12 school districts have committed to take the “#GoOpen challenge” and replace at least one traditional textbook with open resources. Six additional districts with experience successfully implementing OER have volunteered as ambassadors to provide mentorship and support for districts just starting out.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION and see some awesome reports from inside the White House event with #GoOpen

MORE OPEN GOVERNMENT ACTION: Earlier this week, the White House released their third Open Government Partnership National Action Plan. The plan, which includes dozens of commitments to transparency and openness by the government, also includes a strong commitment to open education and open access to research. The plan specifies three general activities the government will take to advance open education:

Openly license more Federal grant-supported education materials and resources,
Convene stakeholders to encourage further open education efforts,
Publish best practices and tools for agencies interested in developing grant-supported open licensing projects, detailing how they can integrate open licensing into projects

FROM MEXICO CITY: A number of OER advocates were south of the border for the Open Government Partnership Summit this week. The Open Education workshop there was cosponsored by the US and Slovakian Governments, Creative Commons US, and SPARC. Read more about it from CCUS’ Hal Plotkin.

MORE COVERAGE FOR DURBIN BILL: All told, the introduction of Senator Durbin’s Affordable College Textbook Act generated more than 60 news articles about open textbooks and OER, including positive coverage from the traditionally skeptical Fox News. Congressman Grijalva (D-AZ) has been added as a cosponsor as well.

PARALLEL VICTORY ON OPEN ACCESS IN CALI: Through a new Presidential Open Access Policy, the University of California is allowing their researchers, faculty, and others to grant rights to the University prior to any contracts with a publisher. The new policy means that, while researchers are free to publish in journals of their own choosing, this large body of research will be available to the public and liberated from paywalls.

DID YOU KNOW? The UC System is responsible for over 2% of the world’s total research publications!

BUT ALSO, OER TROUBLE: A math professor at Cal State-Fullerton was reprimanded for assigning a different textbook than he was instructed to by his Department head. The course – one in a set of successive courses – was supposed to use the $180 textbook authored by Chair and Vice Chair of said Department. Instead, Professor Bourget assigned one textbook costing $75 and other openly licensed materials that he says teach the same content as the expensive textbook. His disciplinary case is currently before a faculty grievance committee – but is being closely watched by OER advocates as well. An underlying question: does academic freedom apply to individual faculty? or to departments and institutions?

READ MORE: on Inside Higher Ed, Fullerton News

STUDENT DEBT HITS NEW HIGH: A new report from The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) sheds new light on affordability and access concerns in higher education. Their 10th annual report looks at state-by-state and national-level data. From the report:

“69% of seniors graduating from public and nonprofit colleges in 2014 held student debt, at an average of $28,950 per borrower.”
“Over the last decade, the share of graduates with student debt rose moderately (from 65% to 69%), while the average debt at graduation rose at more than twice the rate of inflation.”

SOME STABILITY AHEAD?: Congress is only a few short steps away from reaching agreement on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government for two full years! Could this be brief respite from jumping from shutdown to shutdown? Budget stability means that Congress might – just might – be able to move on to reauthorizing the HEA, ESEA, and other education-related bills.

It’s Thursday, October 15th. Ethan Senack here – so many updates this week! Halloween is just a couple days away, and I don’t have a costume. I’m guessing that going as “Guy who forgot his costume” won’t fly this year… Don’t forget to send tips, updates, opportunities, and feedback to @HigherEdPIRG or esenack@pirg.org with the subject “OER DIGEST”.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD:
A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

A STUDENT EDITORIAL IN ILLINOIS: ” I didn’t receive enough financial aid to cover the cost of textbooks, and coming up with the money to pay for my textbooks was hard. I had to wait to buy a lot of my textbooks because I didn’t have enough money to buy them all right away… The cost of my textbooks was more than a biweekly paycheck, and it’s hard seeing the money I worked for going down the drain on textbooks — some of which have barely been used. One of my classes requires a textbook with Connect Plus that ended up being about $120. Because it had Connect Plus, I couldn’t buy it used. This class has been going on for eight weeks and we haven’t used the Connect Plus once… An open-source textbook program would make college less financially stressful than it already is.” Read More>

A STUDENT LETTER FROM MA.: “My name is Thi Bui. I’m a freshman Biochemistry major. I came to school never having experienced the nightmare called “overpriced textbooks.” Then came my French class. I added it on the last day of add/drop. On the first day of class, the teacher handed out the syllabus. “Voila! + access code: $154” It hit me like a PVTA bus. I spent two hours that evening asking peer mentors and resident assistants for advice. Some told me to ask the teacher whether she could give me a free code. Some told me to quit the class since it didn’t fulfill any requirements. I even thought of sacrificing 10 percent of my score and changing the course to pass/ fail. However, my RA, who is taking a Spanish class, told me that without the homework, I wouldn’t learn anything. In the end, I had to drop the class. My education is not the only one that is jeopardized because of ridiculously expensive textbooks. We, the students, desperately need more affordable textbook options.” Read More>

Have a story you’d like featured? Email it to esenack@pirg.org.

SYLLABUS

Ed Source | Free online content helps teachers meet Common Core demands
(featuring ISKME)
http://edsource.org/2015/free-online-content-helps-teachers-meet-common-core-demands/88916

Inside Higher Ed | Getting There From Here: Confessions of a Community College Dean
(a field perspective on OER adoption models)
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/getting-there-here

T.H.E. Journal | The Promise (and Perils) of Digital Textbooks
(an interesting read on digital and OER in K-12)
https://thejournal.com/Articles/2015/10/28/The-Promise-and-Perils-of-Digital-Textbooks.aspx

Minnesota Daily | As prices soar, U expands oasis of free textbooks
(a local spotlight on the Open Textbook Network)
http://www.mndaily.com/news/campus/2015/10/27/prices-soar-u-expands-oasis-free-textbooks

Campus Technology | Penn State Technology Allows Faculty and Students to Build Their Own Textbooks from OER
(AI built textbooks?)
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/10/22/penn-state-technology-allows-faculty-and-students-to-build-their-own-textbooks-from-oer.aspx

Chronicle of Higher Ed | Campus Tech Leaders Report More Support for Free Educational Materials
(latest from the Campus Computing Survey)
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/campus-tech-leaders-report-more-support-for-free-educational-materials/57551

Regular Edition

OER Digest – October 15th, 2015

From Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 2 | October 15th, 2015
With help from Nicole Finkbeiner, Nicole Allen, and others

THE OER DIGEST
Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

DURBIN BILL A HIT: Late last week, Senators Durbin (D-IL), Franken (D-MN) and King (I-ME), along with Congressmen Hinojosa (D-TX) and Polis (D-CO) introduced federal legislation to support OER adoption and development on college campuses. The Affordable College Textbook Act establishes a federal grant program to incentivize adoption. To discuss the bill, Senators Durbin and Franken joined advocates on a press call for campus journalists and national reporters. The press call generated almost 50 media hits that discuss the bill, define OER, and educate the public.

READ MORE: In outlets as large as NBC and USA Today, and as local as the UC San Diego Guardian and the UNC Daily Tar Heel
CHECK OUT: Senator Durbin’s tweets about the bill

CALIFORNIA STEPS UP: Earlier this week, California Governor Jerry Brown signed the College Textbook Affordability Act into law. Under the law, championed by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, Academic Senates in the state that pass OER supportive resolutions become eligible for grants up to $50,000 to provide training, incentives, and other resources to help their faculty adopt OER. However, the bill requires that any money spent by the state must be first matched with private funds, the same condition that advocates feel hindered the implementation of California’s 2012 OER bill.

DUNCAN STEPS DOWN: Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently announced that he is stepping down after nearly 7 years in office. Duncan is the longest serving member of President Obama’s cabinet, and presided over a large expansion of the Department’s responsibilities. In his place, the President has tapped John King Jr. (formerly the NY Education Commissioner and a Senior Advisor in the Department) to assume the reins. King has been briefed on OER, and members of the community are hopeful that he will continue to support the progress being made at the Department. You can read more about him in his Department biography.

NEW RESEARCH: Researchers at Brigham Young University just published “A Multi-Institutional Study of the Impact of Open Textbook Adoption on the Learning Outcomes of Post-Secondary Students,” in the Journal of Computing in Higher Education. The study compares data from more than 15,000 students, and in the words of SPARC’s Nicole Allen, identifies “a striking trend that students assigned free, open textbooks do as well or better than their peers in terms of grades, course completion, and other measures of academic success.”

READ MORE: Nicole’s overview on HuffPost here, or check out the report itself here.

#OAWEEK! In related worlds, next week (Oct 19th – 25th) is International Open Access Week. Academics and researchers around the world will be hosting workshops, discussions, and presentations to educate their peers about the benefits of Open Access research. Read more about it on the event website.

NEW, FROM OPENSTAX: OpenStax College, an open textbook publisher based at Rice University in Texas, just released four new titles, all of which are available on their website. The subjects are Pre-Algebra, Physics, Macro- and Micro- Economics.

It’s Thursday, October 15th. Ethan Senack here, realizing that somehow, half of October is already behind us. I’ve Googled “What time is it in Seoul” a dozen times this week because many folks in the Open movement are there for CC Global Summit (#ccsummit15). Don’t forget to send tips, updates, opportunities, and feedback to @HigherEdPIRG or esenack@pirg.org with the subject “OER DIGEST”.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD:
A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

UCONN GALORE: The University of Connecticut is driving OER hard this year. The UConn Libraries recently posted this blog about their new Open Textbook Initiative, citing “overwhelming faculty support” and saying that “students truly make the difference in moving [these] critical initiatives forward.” Additionally, UConn Professor Edward Neth is partnering with OpenStax to adapt their chemistry book, saying about his decision to go open: “The (open-source) textbook is as good as anything else out there and that was the tipping point.” Read the Article>

CENTRAL VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE: As one of 16 of colleges in Virginia piloting the “Textbook-Free Degree” program (inspired by the Z-Degree at Tidewater Community College), CVCC is diving into the training and necessary preparation for their faculty to make the switch to OER. They’re planning to launch associate degrees in General Studies and Business Administration that can be obtained using entirely open educational resources. While the transition is a significant investment, reactions are positive. “Will we be working? Oh yeah we will, but we are excited,” CVCC Vice President Muriel Mickles said. Read the Article>

Have a story you’d like featured? Email it to esenack@pirg.org.

SYLLABUS

How ‘open textbooks’ could ease college sticker shock
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/1014/How-open-textbooks-could-ease-college-sticker-shock

Partial Credit: The 2015 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/partial-credit-2015-survey-faculty-attitudes-technology

An open letter from UNC Student Stores employees
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/chapel-hill-news/chn-opinion/article37847853.html

Durbin Pushes Bill to Lower College Textbook Costs
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-durbin-textbook-costs-1008-biz-20151008-story.html

CGCC librarian receives excellence award for OER work
http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2015/oct/02/cgcc-librarian-receives-excellence-award/

Regular Edition

OER Digest – October 1st 2015

From Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 1 | October 1st, 2o15

With help from Nicole Allen, Sarah Cohen, Meredith Jacob, and others

HELLO! Welcome to the inaugural edition of the OER DIGEST – your monthly tip sheet on everything open education. Want information faster? Sign up for the weekly update, or tell your friends and peers to do so: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/get-the-oer-weekly. It only takes two seconds, promise.

THE OER DIGEST
Your one-stop-shop for OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

DURBIN READIES TEXTBOOK BILL: Senator Durbin (D-IL) has informed advocates of the impending introduction of federal legislation supporting OER – likely next week. Although the bill doesn’t authorize new spending, it establishes a competitive grant program to allow universities to access funding for launching OER adoption programs at their campuses. The House companion bill will be introduced by Congressman Hinojosa (D-TX).

TAKE ACTION: Organizations interested in endorsing the bill should email esenack@pirg.org or nicole@sparc.arl.org

A LONG-AWAITED ALLY: During his “Ready for Success” bus tour, Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan stopped at the tiny, 500-person town of Williamsfield, IL. Williamsfield’s school district recently decided to forego purchasing a new math textbook and used the money to build infrastructure for using OER instead. The impact has been stellar in such a small town – “The walls break down,” said their K-12 Principal. At the event, the Secretary announced the creation of a first-of-its-kind Advisor on Open Education in the Department. Kudos to all those who worked tirelessly to make that a reality.

READ MORE, or watch the video: http://tech.ed.gov/stories/williamsfield_cusd/

MEETING OF THE MINDS: Earlier this week, the State Department organized an OER workshop in conjunction with the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The meeting was designed to connect OER advocates, US policy staff, and diplomats from around the world. Participants discussed the barriers they face, unique ways OER is being used, and what the real-world impacts are for different countries.

STATE OF MASS. CONSIDERS ACTION: In an interview with the Gazette, UMass’ daily newspaper, MA Sen. Eileen M. Donoghue (Vice Chairwoman of the Higher Ed Committee) said she was interested in creating a MA digital library of open-source textbooks. Earlier this year, the Chair of the Higher Ed Committee, Senator Moore, introduced a bill that would take similar measures, met with a students and librarians from around the state, and held a public hearing for feedback on improvements to the bill.

It’s Thursday, October 1st. Ethan Senack here, dreading grocery store lines as people prepare for the landfall of Hurricane Joaquin. Don’t forget to send tips, stories, updates and opportunities to @HigherEdPIRG or esenack@pirg.org with the subject “OER WEEKLY”. Also, don’t forget to follow the OER advocacy coalition at @OER_USA.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD:
A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

IN TENNESSEE: The Tennessee School Board announced a partnership with Apple to launch the Tennessee Digital Learning Project – designed to save their schools money and deliver up-to-date content through OER. The School Board’s Director, on the project: “All of our jobs nowadays, everything is online and immediate and up to date. And that’s what we want for our kids. We want all of our kids in the state to be prepared, whether they’re going straight into the workforce or to college, to be able to utilize all resources out there because all of our workplaces use things digitally.” Read the article>

IN MARYLAND: A few weeks ago, University of Maryland University College announced that it would start a major transition to OER in place of traditional textbooks. UMUC’s President, Javier Miyares, speaks: “Today, the classroom is untethered by time and space…Let’s get rid of textbooks and instead ask what are the best open, freely available resources out there.” An immigrant himself, he’s sensitive to the cost barriers that many face: “For quite awhile there’s been a narrative out there that college has become very expensive. That has discouraged new immigrants and minorities to think college is not for them. We want to push back with another narrative: If you choose the right path, college can become not only affordable, but you can do it without debt.” Read the article>

IN COLORADO: Last week, the Open Textbook Network joined Colorado State University’s Morgan Library for a faculty workshop on open textbooks. 50 faculty in attendend – double the size of OTN training’s traditional number. The event was a prequel to their Open-tober events, when they will welcome Nicole Allen and David Wiley as keynote speakers. From Sarah Cohen, OTN Managing Director, “We’re proud to see this OTN member engaging their community in open in bold and dynamic ways!”

Have a story you’d like featured? Email it to esenack@pirg.org.

SYLLABUS

Education Week: “Ambitious Initiative Blends Adaptive Tech, Open Ed. Resources”
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/09/ambitious-initiative-blends-adaptive-tech-open-ed.html

Inside Higher Ed: “A Textbook Market Strategy That Moves Beyond Professors”
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/09/textbook-publishers-explore-direct-student-marketing-and-sales

Information Today: “Cengage Learning Acquires Learning Objects”
http://news.cengage.com/corporate/cengage-learning-acquires-learning-objects/

Sonoma State Star: “Textbook Act Aims to Relieve Debt”
http://www.sonomastatestar.com/news/2015/9/28/texbook-act-aims-to-relieve-debt

TIME: “Is This the Solution to Crazy High Textbook Prices?”
http://time.com/money/4017003/high-text-book-prices-solution/

Education Dive: “Why open educational resources aren’t catching on with some faculty”
http://www.educationdive.com/news/why-open-educational-resources-arent-catching-on-with-some-faculty/405162/

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