OER Digest – November 21st, 2018

From Mo Nyamweya, SPARC | Volume 70 | November 21st, 2018

With updates from Tanya Spilovoy, Kaitlyn Vitez and Cailyn Nagle

THE OER DIGEST

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

NORTH DAKOTA AUDIT: According to a new report from the state auditor’s office, North Dakota’s investment of $110,000 in OER has saved students at least 10 times that, and likely much more. Looking at the first two years of the initiative, the audit documented at least 650 courses across the public higher education system that exclusively used OER, affecting at least 15,000 students and saving between $1.1 million and $2.4 million in textbook costs. State legislators released an accompanying report with additional data from institutions that put savings related to the initiative north of $10 million. Experts say that this is the first independent audit of a state OER initiative and that it confirms the case advocates have made. Read more “OER Digest – November 21st, 2018” →

OER Digest – November 8th, 2018

From Kaitlyn Vitez, USPIRG | Volume 69 | November 8th, 2018

With updates from Camille Thomas and Mo Nyamweya

THE OER DIGEST

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

ELECTION RESULTS: The midterm elections this past Tuesday offer new opportunities to push for accessible and affordable education. One notable race was in Colorado, where former U.S. Representative Jared Polis, a sponsor of the Affordable College Textbook Act, was elected governor.

TECH SUPPORT: The 2018 Campus Computing Survey revealed that two-thirds of IT budgets have not recovered from cuts after the Great Recession, but had good news for supporters of OER. 64% of colleges had programs to encourage OER use, up 30% from 2014. Read more “OER Digest – November 8th, 2018” →

OER Digest – October 26th, 2018

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 68 | October 26th, 2018

With updates from Sarah Sweeney and Mo Nyamweya

THE OER DIGEST

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

HAPPY OPEN ACCESS WEEK: Around the world, advocates are celebrating open access to research, educational materials and other information, under this year’s theme, “Designing Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge.” Many institutions and organizations are hosting events; one major highlight being an OpenCon satellite event at the United Nations, where speakers from the World Bank, UNESCO, and WIPO joined open advocates from around the world to discuss the relationship between openness and the UN’s sustainable development goals. See more on Twitter. Read more “OER Digest – October 26th, 2018” →

OER Digest – October 4th, 2018

From Kaitlyn Vitez, U.S. PIRG | Volume 67 | October 4th, 2018

With updates from Karen Lauritsen and Camille Thomas

THE OER DIGEST

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

CONGRATS: On Tuesday, news broke that LibreTexts has been awarded  the first grant from the Open Textbook Pilot, a program which open advocates secured in last year’s federal budget. The U.S. Department of Education elected to grant all available funds – nearly $5 million – to the nonprofit. Based at the University of California at Davis, LibreTexts will use the funds to expand its STEM open textbook library over the next three years, as well as develop more materials for career and technical education. They will also create a “Z-degree” pathway for a bachelors in chemistry.

POLICY UPDATE: Meanwhile, the budget bill renewing the Open Textbook Pilot for a second year was officially signed into law last Friday. Under instructions from Congress, the second round of $5 million will be distributed in at least 20 smaller awards, as opposed to one large one. The timeline for the second competition has yet to be established.  In Colorado, applications are now open for their state grant program, which was created in the state budget earlier this year. Read more and submit your proposal by October 31st here.

PUTTING STUDENTS FIRST:  A coalition of open nonprofits have launched a new social media campaign, #ForStudentsForever, to “shift focus to where it needs to be: on making sure that students have open access to the materials they need to succeed in class.” You can read more at their website or follow the conversation on Twitter.

NEW RESOURCE: The Open Textbook Network has created an open textbook publishing curriculum. Content includes an orientation to publishing, how to structure a textbook, institutional resources, and reflective questions for guiding your program development. The course is openly available and OTN members will be invited to live sessions. Get started with a short intro to the course here.

EXCELLENCE IN OPEN ED: BCcampus has recognized Dr. Maja Krzic of the University of British Columbia with their latest “Award for Excellence,” for her work to launch the Virtual Soil Science Learning Resources (VSSLR) group with 30 Canadian soil scientists, media developers, students, and educators to develop open access tools.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

JOBS: OpenStax is hiring for a number of positions, from product manager to user experience analyst. Check out their full listing to learn more and apply.

#OPENED18: The Digest team will be at #OpenEd18 in Niagara Falls producing a special video edition. Email us at oerdigest@gmail.com if you’d like to contribute a short update!

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA: The BC Federation of Students has made a $30,000 gift to BCcampus to support their work to develop and promote open textbooks. “OERs remove the barrier of the pay-to-succeed model, creating equitable access to our classrooms and promoting open pedagogical practices that support student success in an inclusive way,” said Aran Armutlu, chairperson of BCFS. Read more>>>

FROM MARYLAND: MaryPIRG board member and former textbooks campaign coordinator Gaurav Dayal opines on how the latest textbook publisher tactics hold students back: “Access codes go against the fundamental American ideal of equal opportunity… We students tolerated high cost of textbooks despite its corrupt industry; however, we cannot and must not sit idly by as companies force us to pay to do homework.” Read more >>>

FROM TENNESSEE: Partnerships at University of Tennessee Knoxville were recognized for raising awareness and supporting faculty through the Libraries’ grant program. “I thought it would be a good chance to get some help finding better quality resources than the ones I have used,” said Associate Professor of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, Joanne Logan. Read more >>>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Daryl Janzen at the University of Saskatchewan has released Introduction to Electricity, Magnetism, and Circuits, an adaptation of OpenStax’s University Physics. The textbook promises to “making physics concepts interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the mathematical rigour inherent in the subject.”

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

• Open Ed Southern Symposium Opening Keynote | Jasmine Roberts

Interesting to Consider >>

• Latest Textbook Editions Put An Extra Burden On Students |The Pitt News
• Textbooks Arrive Late | LA Pierce College Roundup
• A Statement of Academic Purpose | Chuck Pearson

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 – September 20th, 2018

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 66 | September 20th, 2018

THE OER DIGEST

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

FEDERAL UPDATE: Last week, Congress unveiled its final Fiscal Year 2019 education budget, including proposed renewal of the $5 million Open Textbook Pilot grant program first funded earlier this year. Along with renewed funding, Congress responded to concerns voiced by the OER community by adding more explicit instructions for the Department of Education this time around, including requiring a larger number of awards, a longer application period, and clarifying open licensing requirements. The bill currently awaits a vote in the House. Meanwhile, the Department is expected to announce the first round of awards by the end of next week. Read more “OER Digest – September 20th, 2018” →

OER Digest – September 6th, 2018

From Mo Nyamweya, SPARC | Volume 65 | September 6th, 2018

With updates from Nicole Allen, Dave Dillon, Nicole Finkbeiner, and Kaitlyn Vitez

THE OER DIGEST

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

FEDERAL POLICY UPDATE: Applications for the U.S. Department of Education’s Open Textbook Pilot grant program were due last week, and the 1-3 successful proposals are expected to be announced by the end of the month. Meanwhile, things are heating up on Capitol Hill as Congress enters final negotiations on the Fiscal Year 2019 education budget. Members of the OER community have been writing, calling, and tweeting elected officials to advocate renewal of the $5 million Open Textbook Pilot. Congressional champions circulated a letter recommending language that would also strengthen open licensing requirements, increase the number of potential awards, and lengthen the application window for future grants. Letters of support were also sent by SPARC and by student leaders organized by USPIRG. News on the outcome of these efforts could come as early as next week.

ZED CRED: Kwantlen Polytechnic University has introduced their second degree with zero textbook costs. Now, along with a certificate in arts, KPU has added their adult graduation diploma to the “Zed Cred” program. KPU’s adult education graduation program enables students to complete their grade 12 equivalency credits using open resources, eliminating a costly financial barrier for adult learners. BCcampus gave KPU a $35,000 grant to help run the program.

NEW OER SEARCH TOOL: SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library has developed and launched a new search tool called OASIS (Openly Available Sources Integrated Search), which can access 52 different OER sources that contain more than 150,000 items. OASIS offers users the ability to search a range of materials, including textbooks, courses and corresponding materials, interactive simulations, public domain books, audiobooks, modules, open access books, videos and podcasts on a variety of topics. Users can also limit searches by license or by faculty review.

OER PLAYBOOK: Lumen Learning has released their OER Champion Playbook, which provides tips, how-tos, examples and tools intended to help OER leaders and advocates build effective OER initiatives. You can sign up here or access the Playbook directly here.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

FELLOWSHIP: U.S. PIRG is seeking a higher education fellow to organize student governments in support of OER, among other higher education issues. Interested applicants (or current seniors who will graduate soon) can apply here.

REMINDER: SPARC is seeking help from the OER community to document the cumulative student savings through OER to present at the OpenEd Conference. The deadline to contribute data from your campus or project is September 26, and you can sign up through this form.

DUE SOON: MERLOT and the Online Learning Consortium are seeking proposals for the OLC Innovate conference on April 3rd-5th, 2019. This year’s theme is “Moving Mountains in Digital, Blended, and Online Learning.” Proposals are due by September 12th. Submit here.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM LOUISIANA: With more professors switching from traditional textbooks to OER over the last year, students across the Louisiana Community and Technical College System saved $2.7 million. “It’s going to make teaching a little more efficient. Students can get it immediately. Now there’s no waiting. You get the resource the second you click on the link.” Read more >>>

#TEXTBOOKBROKE: Ontario post-secondary institutions have announced their own #textbookbroke campaign, hoping to highlight the devastating costs of textbooks. Students will use social media to encourage institutions, faculty, and governments to fund, adopt, or adapt OER. “eCampus Ontario has created an entire library of free options… We are asking instructors and institutions to use the library and remove the burden of textbooks from the backs of students, figuratively and literally.” Read more >>>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Georgia Southwestern State University has released a set of ancillary materials for Experimental Psychology, created by Judy Orton Grissett. The materials include slide presentations, test banks, and online resources and they are intended to be used for psychology research methods courses.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

• What students should know about OER and why professors should use them | The Lantern
• How to find, curate and assess OER | eSchool News

Interesting to Consider >>

• 4 Questions authors are asking about open textbooks | Text & Academic Authors Association
• OpenStax partner schools expected to save students $17.4M on textbooks | Rice University
• Outrage over university’s $999 online textbook | Inside Higher Ed
• 6 trends shaping the near and far future of higher ed | eCampus News
• The questionable ethics of the textbook market | The Crow’s Nest

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: August 23rd, 2018

From Kaitlyn Vitez, U.S. PIRG | Volume 64 | August 23rd, 2018

With updates from Tim Holt, Mo Nyamweya, and Camille Thomas

THE OER DIGEST

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

LAST CALL: The call for proposals for the US Department of Education’s $5 million OER grant program closes next week on August 29th. Last week, officials held a Q&A session for interested applicants with technical questions; you can watch a recording here.

STATE UPDATES: California bills supporting open are moving forward: AB2385 was sent to the governor’s desk; it urges textbook publishers to inform students and faculty about information such as the substantive differences in editions to help cut costs. SB947, which would require the state Department of Education to develop digital literacy best practices for school districts, passed through the Assembly.   Read more “OER Digest: August 23rd, 2018” →

OER Digest – August 9th, 2018

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 63 | August 9th, 2018

With updates from Kendra Lake, Nicole Allen, and Mo Nyamweya

THE OER DIGEST

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

FEDERAL UPDATE: The formal call for proposals around the US Department of Education’s $5 million OER grant program was announced late last month. Applications are due August 29th. The Department stated their intent to only make 1-3 individual grants from the pool, requiring applications to be submitted by consortia, and seeking to prioritize “technology-based” strategies. OER champions in the Senate sent a letter raising concerns with the limited number of grants and requesting the strongly maintain open licensing requirements for all materials created through the grant. Read more “OER Digest – August 9th, 2018” →

OER Digest – July 26th, 2018

From Camille Thomas and Mo Nyamweya, SPARC | Volume 62 | July 26th, 2018
With updates from Nicole Allen, Sarah Cohen, Cable Green, and Sara Hare.  

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

FEDERAL UPDATE: This week, the U.S. Congress approved legislation reauthorizing the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which governs the nation’s career and technical education (CTE) framework. Included in the bill are provisions permitting OER as an allowable use of funds for state and local activities. The Department of Education took its first public step toward implementing the $5 million Open Textbook Pilot funded by Congress in March by issuing a call for peer reviewers. Candidates interested in reviewing applications for the pilot can submit their resume by August 6th. New America has analysis on what to expect as the program rolls out here. Read more “OER Digest – July 26th, 2018” →

OER Digest – July 12th, 2018

From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 61 | July 12th, 2018

With updates from Walter Butler, Angela Davis, Nicole Allen and Camille Thomas

THE OER DIGEST

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

IMPACT OF OER: A new, large-scale study from the Association of American College and Universities (AAC&U) in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education analyzed the impact of OER on student performance, particularly among historically underserved populations. Key facts (from the abstract):

• OER improve end-of-course grades and decrease DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal letter grades) rates for all students.
• OER improve course grades at greater rates and dramatically decrease DFW rates at greater rates for Pell recipient students, part-time students, and populations historically underserved by higher education.

Read more “OER Digest – July 12th, 2018” →