OER DIGEST - July 14, 2022
From Bilan Jama (CC USA) | #157 | June 14, 2022
THE OER DIGEST
Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders
PIRG OER GRANT PROGRAM SURVEY: In the last few years, many colleges and universities have established grant funding for Open Textbooks, but little research has been done on the collective impact of these programs. Student PIRGs is conducting a short survey of colleges and universities across the country to highlight the benefits of OER grant programs and help the community identify best practices. Student PIRGs are university-student-run advocacy organizations on college campuses across the United States working to achieve a vision of sustainability, equity, and democracy through their campaigns.The survey is about 20 questions and should take no more than 10-15 minutes. In collecting this data they hope to offer greater expertise to blossoming OER grant programs across the nation, all working to collectively achieve textbook affordability. They will compile the results and share them with the community before the next school year. Please complete this survey by July 22nd.
U.S. OPEN TEXTBOOK PILOT UPDATE: The 2022 application period for the Open Textbook Pilot program is open. The grant competition will award approximately $2.6 million in federal funds to higher education institutions to create new open textbooks and expand the use of open textbooks. Applications are due July 25, 2022. The Department is also calling for Peer Reviewers.
OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities
REGISTER NOW: The Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas invites you to their webinar, In Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Inclusive Access But Were Afraid to Ask, Trudi Radtke, Open Education Project Manager for SPARC, will address challenges, facts, and myths of Inclusive Access programs. The webinar will be held on July 20, 2022 @ 2:00 PM CDT. For more details and to register, see the event flyer here.
REGISTER NOW: Join the Southern Regional Education Board for their upcoming webinar series on Open Educational Resources. Can’t make the date? Register to receive a link to the recorded session. Learn more and register here.
NOMINATE NOW: The Open Education Awards for Excellence 2022 is open for nominations. Nominate from 16 categories your favorite Open Education leader or resources - or nominate your own project. Learn more about all of the OE Award categories, past winners, OE Award Committee members, and the 10+ year history of the awards on the OE Awards website.
APPLY NOW: The Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries, a member of the Association of Research Libraries, invites applications and nominations for the position of Head, Digital Libraries and Publishing. Review of applications will begin July 31, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled. The complete position description is available here.
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted
FROM SASKATCHEWAN: During the COVID-19 pandemic two University of Saskatchewan (USask) faculty members found a way to make the most of a worldwide pivot toward online learning. As most North Americans began “social distancing” and Zoom became a household name, Dr. Joe Rubin (DVM, PhD), an associate professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, shifted his focus toward teaching a completely online classroom. USask associate librarian Carolyn Doi was preparing to teach her upcoming music research methods course fully online for the College of Arts and Science’s Department of Music. Doi and Rubin had sought help from Shannon Lucky, a information technology librarian at USask. Lucky realized that despite the differences in their disciplines, both were approaching their new teaching challenges in very similar ways. “Often creating OER is something that instructors would like to do, but it’s kind of a ‘nice to do,’ not a ‘have to do.’ We’re in this context with COVID where we had to move all of these things online and other instructors had to start generating all of this digital teaching material, and we thought it would be interesting to see this as an opportunity rather than a burden,” said Lucky. Read More >>
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource
The University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing has released The Science of Plants written by Tom Michaels, Emily Hoover, and Laura Irish. The textbook is an approachable guide to the fundamentals of plant science. Created for horticulture students, gardeners, science teachers, and anyone interested in understanding plants and how they grow.
WEIGH IN
Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider
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The OER Digest is a public newsletter distributed to a broad group of stakeholders across the higher education community. Subscribe here.