OER Digest – January 26, 2023
Michael Basmajian (PIRG) | Volume 167 | January 26, 2023
THE OER DIGEST
Your monthly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders
Happy New Year!
From all of us on the OER Digest Team, we’d like to wish you a happy and fulfilling new year! The OER Digest has switched to a monthly newsletter, so welcome to the January edition. In addition, you may see some other exciting changes to the digest coming in the new year as we reevaluate how we can best serve the OER community. Stay tuned!
OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities
SAVE THE DATE: The 2023 Open Education Conference will be held as a virtual event on Nov 7-9, 2023. Join more than 1,600 advocates and practitioners to learn about the latest research, practices, and innovation in open education. Save the date and join the conference mailing list for updates. Read More >>
REGISTER NOW: Registration is open for the 2023 Open Educational Resources and Dual Enrollment Conference: Making a Case for Student Success, hosted by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). The conference will take place on March 2 and 3 in Atlanta, GA. Learn More and Register Now >>
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Creative Commons is hiring an Open Climate Data Manager to facilitate the creation of a community-supported, long-term solution for the better sharing of large, distributed open climate datasets. The position is a 12-month grant-funded and remote position. The application deadline is January 31. Learn More and Apply Now >>
WEBINAR: Adrian Stagg, Open Educational Practice Manager at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia is presenting a webinar on February 21 about 'Exploring the reality of open educational practice in Australia: An ecological perspective'. All are welcome to tune in! Learn More and Join >>
DISCUSSION: On February 8 at 1:00pm ET join EDUCAUSE members for a QuickTalk on the topic “Should Students Pay to Turn in Homework? Navigating Digital Courseware Models.” Learn More and RSVP >>
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted
FROM TEXAS: The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and Rice University's OpenStax are working to address staffing shortages in the nursing profession and reduce financial barriers for nursing students by launching a comprehensive free online curriculum for nursing education in spring 2024. “Nursing students and faculty face a multitude of challenges,” said Denise Neill, department head and director of the Department of Nursing at Texas A&M University-Commerce. “One is high course-materials costs, which can be a significant barrier to entering the profession. We learned throughout the pandemic how crucial it is to adapt and improve instructional practices. Dynamic, high-quality open educational resources have the potential to address both issues — increasing access and improving teaching and learning." Read More >>
FROM CALIFORNIA: Loyola Marymount University has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to lead a three-year initiative that will support the creation and use of open educational resources (OER) across four California private institutions. Librarians at LMU, Saint Mary's College, Santa Clara University, and the University of San Francisco will use the funds to train and prepare up to twelve faculty teams to create, modify and publish OER that can integrate diverse, inclusive and anti-racist resources into high-enrollment courses in numerous disciplines. Read More >>
FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Two Penn State University Libraries employees received Open Education (OE) Global’s 2022 Open Education Award for Excellence in Open Pedagogy. Christina Riehman-Murphy, open and affordable educational resources librarian and Sally W. Kalin Librarian for Learning Innovations, and Bryan McGeary, learning design and open education engagement librarian, received the award for their Open Pedagogy Project Roadmap. “Collaborating with students on contributing to public knowledge within their course work is highly engaging for both students and faculty alike. It might involve authoring an anthology chapter, customizing a textbook, writing for the web, or editing Wikipedia, but it brings additional considerations for faculty to navigate to ensure that students have agency over their contributions,” Read More >>
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource
Dr. Laura Neser’s new OER, Introduction to Earth Science, is an exciting addition to the Virginia Tech OER library. It's an update and adaptation of three different OER and includes a number of features designed to enhance the student learning experience including a multitude of high quality images, self-test assessment questions, and QR codes that allow students using a printed copy to easily access quizzes online. It's been public since late December and has over 10,000 downloads already!
WEIGH IN
Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider
Great to Share >>
U.S. Open Textbook Pilot Program Renewed for Sixth Year | SPARC
Confused by open-access policies? These tools can help | Nature
Issue #21: Open Educational Resources | Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy
Interesting to Consider >>
AI, Instructional Design, and OER | OpenContent.org
Why NASA and federal agencies are declaring this the Year of Open Science | Nature
Have suggestions for the next edition? Let us know at oerdigest@gmail.com, or tweet us @OERdigest.
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