OER Digest – June 18, 2020

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

With updates from Nicole Allen

THE OER DIGEST

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

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” →

OER Digest – June 4th, 2020

From Kaitlyn Vitez and Cailyn Nagle | Volume 107 | June 4th, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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BLACK LIVES MATTER: We stand in solidarity with those protesting the killing of George Floyd, those whose right to free speech and peaceful protest has been attacked, and with all victims of systemic violence against Black communities. We encourage you to check out resources at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and consider sharing a recent webinar on “Working Towards Antiracism and Culturally Responsive Teaching in Open Education” by Creative Commons USA and New America (to be posted to YouTube in the next few days) with educators on your campus. If you know of other openly-licensed anti-racism resources, please share them with our team at oerdigest@gmail.com so that we can include them in our next edition. Read more “OER Digest – June 4th, 2020” →

OER Digest – May 21st, 2020

From Bilan Jama  (CC USA)  | Volume 106 | May 21st, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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COVID-19: This edition, we’re highlighting some relevant upcoming webinars:

• The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law and Creative Commons USA are hosting a series of webinars on best practices in fair use, divided into two tracks. The next webinar “Working towards Antiracism and Culturally Responsive Teaching in Open Education” will be held tomorrow, May 22nd at 12 PM EST. Click here to register.
• New America is hosting a webinar on Thursday, June 4 from 3-4:30 PM EST on leveraging OER to meet student and institutional needs. Presenters will cover available resources and repositories of OER, how to identify high-quality resources, how to build institutional teams to support OER usage, and best practices for using OER in online or hybrid course environments. Click here to register and find more information. 

Read more “OER Digest – May 21st, 2020” →

OER Digest – April 30th, 2020

From Kaitlyn Vitez and Cailyn Nagle (USPIRG) | Volume 105 | April 30th, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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

COVID-19: This edition, we’re highlighting some relevant upcoming webinars:

• Join NC State’s library team for their Open Cafe workshops. Their Discovering Open Textbooks workshop on finding open resources is tomorrow, May 1st, at 12:30pm EST. Next week, their Making Your Online Course Even Better with OER workshop will feature a faculty member currently using open textbooks in her class. 
• The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law and Creative Commons USA are hosting a series of webinars on best practices in fair use, divided into two tracks. The next webinar of the series on creating teaching materials for Fall 2020 and beyond will be held tomorrow, May 1st, at noon EST for K-12 and 3:00pm EST for higher ed. Click here to register and find more information.
• Join CCCOER for their incredibly timely webinar “Open Education Resilience in Crisis and Beyond” on May 6th at noon PST. Learn more and register here.
• Join FLVC and USPIRG for their webinar “Responding to Publisher Course Materials Proposals,” on May 7th at 10am EST. Learn more and register here.

OPEN TEXTBOOK PILOT: Today, April 30th, is the last day to submit a public comment to the federal Open Textbook Pilot grant program. The U.S. Department of Education seeks comment from community members on the number and size of grants, the definition of open educational resources, grant deliverables and accomplishments, and other priorities. Community input will be vital to shaping the PIlot grant program to meet community needs. Comments will be reviewed over the summer, before a final version is announced and the application window opens. Read more “OER Digest – April 30th, 2020” →

OER Digest – April 16, 2020

From Mo Nyamweya | Volume 104 | April 15, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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#COVID19: We will continue to share some of our favorite, new links for planning, reading, and supporting our communities during this time:

• • Free Resources for Schools During COVID-19 Outbreak
  • Open in a Time of Crisis
  • MindEdge’s Practical Guide to Online Teaching and Learning
  • E-books During COVID-19 Crisis
  • Teaching with Digital Tools and Apps
  • Resources for Distance Learning

WEBINAR SERIES: As teachers are making an emergency shift to online education, one component of that struggle is navigating concerns around copyright when finding digital teaching materials. To help with this transition,The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law and Creative Commons USA are  hosting a series of webinars on best practices in fair use, divided into two tracks – one for K-12 education and another for higher education. The first webinar on educational fair use in the COVID-19 emergency will be held on April 17th at 12:00pm ET for K-12 and 3:00pm ET for higher ed. Click here to register and find more information. Read more “OER Digest – April 16, 2020” →

OER Digest – April 2nd, 2020

From Bilan Jama, Torrey Feldman, and Kennina Ip (CC USA)  | Volume 103 | April 2nd, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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#COVID19: We will continue to share some of our favorite, new links for planning, reading, and supporting our communities during this time:

• Reading Aloud: Fair Use Enables Translating Classroom Practices to Online Learning
• NPR’s All Things Considered shared a short exploration of the new learning reality for children across the country in a story entitled, The Biggest Distance-Learning Experiment In History: Week One.
• 50 Resources Schools & Teachers Can Use During COVID-19 Closures

Read more “OER Digest – April 2nd, 2020” →

OER Digest – March 19th, 2020

From Kaitlyn Vitez and Cailyn Nagle (USPIRG) | Volume 102 | March 19th, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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#COVID19: As nearly all institutions of higher education and many K-12 districts shut down in response to the threat of coronavirus, remote work has become the new normal. CCCOER and TechKnowTools have started crowdsourced, comprehensive listings of helpful resources, and New America and EDUCAUSE have published resource roundups. We also want to share some of our favorite links for planning, reading, and supporting our communities: Read more “OER Digest – March 19th, 2020” →

OER Digest – March 5, 2020

From Bilan Jama and Torrey Feldman (CCUSA) | Volume 101 | March 5th, 2020

With updates from Kennina Ip and Kaitlyn Vitez

THE OER DIGEST

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

#OEWEEK: It’s Open Education Week! Be sure to check out #OEWeek and follow @OEWeek for updates on what’s going on this week and to engage with the community.  Read more “OER Digest – March 5, 2020” →

OER Digest – February 7th, 2020

From Kaitlyn Vitez and Cailyn Nagle (USPIRG) | Volume 99 | February 6th, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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AUTOMATIC BILLING LAWSUIT: Major textbook publishers and college bookstore chains are facing a class action lawsuit from independent booksellers. The independent bookstores argue that the automatic textbook billing programs, also known as “inclusive access”, promoted by the defendants amounts to a “conspiracy” that edges independent bookstores out of the market. Last year, an independent bookstore in South Carolina filed a lawsuit on similar grounds against Trident Technical College due to their automatic billing process, claiming it was an anticompetitive practice.  Read more “OER Digest – February 7th, 2020” →

OER Digest – January 23, 2020

From Hailey Babb & Mo Nyamweya (SPARC) | Volume 98 | January 23rd, 2020

THE OER DIGEST

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FROM CALIFORNIA: On January 10th, Governor Newsom released his budget proposal that included a $10 million allocation for the Zero-Textbook Cost Degree program. The program seeks to reduce the overall cost of education for students and decrease the time it takes students to complete degree programs offered by community colleges. This year’s proposed funding is twice the amount of the previous $5 million allocation, which allowed twenty-three community colleges across California to develop thirty-three ZTC degrees or Career Technical Education certificates over two years. Read more “OER Digest – January 23, 2020” →