OER Digest – November 5th, 2020

From Bilan Jama (CC USA)  | Volume 116 | November 5th, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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OER & ONLINE LEARNING: ISKME has just released OER & Online Learning: Faculty Quick Start Guide, Strengthening the Shift to Online Learning in California Community Colleges Through the Use of OER. The guide is supported by a grant from the Michelson 20MM Foundation, to conduct a study and develop a set of resources to accelerate OER use for distance education, especially the urgent shift to remote learning during the pandemic in 2020. Tailored to faculty and campus administrators both in California, the Guide has the aim is to enable system-wide shifts to meet postsecondary institutions’ long term goals for distance learning, and faculty’s emergency plans for remote learning in response to the COVID-19 and potential future crises. Read more “OER Digest – November 5th, 2020” →

OER Digest – October 8th, 2020

From Cailyn Nagle (PIRG) | Volume 115 | October 8th, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

OPENED20: With the theme of “Reimagining Open Education” the 2020 Open Education Conference (#OpenEd20) is now open for registration. The conference is virtual this year and will take place from November 9-13th. Currently, the conference is being redesigned through community input. Early registration runs until October 30th. Scholarships are available. Read more “OER Digest – October 8th, 2020” →

OER Digest – September 24th, 2020

From Bilan Jama (CC USA)  | Volume 114 | September 24th, 2020

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APPLY NOW: The 2020 application period for the Open Textbook Pilot program is now open. The grant competition will award approximately $6 million in federal funds to higher education institutions to create or expand the use of open textbooks. This is a great opportunity to seek funding to support effective and impactful open education work. 

• Applications are due November 16, 2020. See the notice inviting applications for further instructions.
• U.S. institutions of higher education and state higher education agencies are eligible to apply.
• The maximum grant size is up to $2 million for a period of up to 36 months. 
• Grants are awarded on a competitive basis according to their score. A call for reviewers is also currently open.

Read more “OER Digest – September 24th, 2020” →

OER Digest – September 10th, 2020

From Mo Nyamweya | Volume 113 | September 10, 2020

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OPENSTAX MILESTONE: OpenStax has officially surpassed $1 billion in student savings since publishing their first open textbook in 2012. In just under a decade of operation, OpenStax has had a massive impact on teaching and learning, serving over 14 million students worldwide. They’ve also just announced that they have plans to double their library of open textbooks with $12.5 million in grant support from various national foundations, marking the largest investment in OER to date. Read more “OER Digest – September 10th, 2020” →

OER Digest – August 27th, 2020

From Cailyn Nagle and Kaitlyn Vitez (USPIRG) | Volume 113 | August 27th, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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FEDERAL UPDATE: The U.S. Department of Education is seeking peer reviewers to read and evaluate grant applications for the Open Textbooks Pilot program. This pilot program supports projects at eligible institutions of higher education that create new open textbooks and expand the use of open textbooks in courses that are part of a degree granting program, and particularly those with high enrollments. The program has been funded for two cycles already, each for $5 million dollars. The Department is interested in peer reviewers from various backgrounds and professions including: administrators, college and university faculty, educational strategists and evaluators, grant makers, and others with expertise in adult and postsecondary education, open educational resources and practices, work-based learning, and career and technical education. Check out the call for reviewers for more information and instructions on how to apply.  Read more “OER Digest – August 27th, 2020” →

OER DIGEST – August 13, 2020

From Bilan Jama  (CC USA)  | Volume 112 | August 13th, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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NEW FACULTY SURVEY: Bay View Analytics has released a new survey in partnership with the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET). The survey found that initiatives to raise awareness of OER are having a measurable impact on the number of faculty members using OER in their classrooms. Faculty members who are aware of one or more OER initiatives are much more likely to be adopters of OER. This is true regardless of the instructors’ type of institution, the level of course they teach, or where they are located in the U.S. “If you’re aware of an OER initiative, you’re much more aware of OER in general, much more likely to adopt, and if you haven’t adopted, you’re much more likely to say that you will adopt in the future,'” said Jeff Seaman, director at Bay View Analytics. A total of 4,399 faculty and 1,431 chairpersons responded to the survey, which took place in the fall of 2019. The results do not capture the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on OER awareness and decisions, but OER proponents told Inside Higher Ed that they have seen a notable increase in interest since March. Read more “OER DIGEST – August 13, 2020” →

OER Digest – July 30, 2020

From Mo Nyamweya, SPARC | Volume 111 | July 30, 2020

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SUPPORT OER: The Steering Committee of DOERS3, a collective of 23 higher education systems and state/province-wide OER initiatives in the U.S. and Canada, released a statement urging higher education institutions to accelerate their adoption of high-quality OER this summer and fall. The statement outlines the advantages of OER over traditional textbooks in the COVID-19 learning environment and calls on senior officials to take action by positioning OER as the “first option,” developing OER strategic plans, and providing financial support.  Read more “OER Digest – July 30, 2020” →

OER DIGEST – July 2, 2020

From Bilan Jama  (CC USA)  | Volume 109 | July 2nd, 2020

With updates from Kaitlyn Vitez

THE OER DIGEST

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NEW REPORTS:  The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) released their report by its Open Education Working Group (OEWG) that examines the landscape of regional and institutional post-secondary support for open education in Canada. The report illustrates the state of open education in Canada, and highlights regional variations, strengths and weaknesses of current approaches, as well as gaps and opportunities. The Open Education in European Libraries of Higher Education report was just released, which summarizes the results of a survey of European libraries on Open Education (OE) and Open Education Resources (OER) prepared by SPARC Europe in consultation with the European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL). The survey was launched at the beginning of this year, and targeted academic libraries across Europe, garnering 146 responses from 29 countries.  Read more “OER DIGEST – July 2, 2020” →

OER Digest – June 18, 2020

From Mo Nyamweya, SPARC | Volume 108 | June 18, 2020

With updates from Nicole Allen

THE OER DIGEST

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NEW REPORT: U.S. PIRG has released a new study titled Fixing the Broken Textbook Market, SecondEdition, a follow-up to their 2014 survey, which found that 65% of students skip buying textbooks because of their high cost. The new study, which is based on a survey of over 4,000 students across 83 college campuses, shows that despite the supposedly lower cost of access codes versus hard copy textbooks, students still report skipping buying textbooks at the same rate as 2014. In addition, nearly 1 in 5 students reports having skipped buying an access code. Read more “OER Digest – June 18, 2020” →