OER Digest – March 9th, 2017

From Brady Yano (SPARC) | Volume 26 | March 9th, 2017

THE OER DIGEST

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

OE GLOBAL 2017: The OE Global Conference is currently underway in Cape Town, South Africa. Each year the conference brings together leaders in open education from across the world and is organized by the Open Education Consortium. Tonight, the winners of the Open Education Awards for Excellence were also announced. Prior to this year’s event, there was also a workshop marking the 10-year anniversary of the Cape Town Declaration. Follow the conference on Twitter using the #OEglobal.

OER + IR: A new article titled Open Educational Resources and Institutional Repositories by Christine L Ferguson explores the ways in which libraries create and store open educational resources (OER) in institutional repositories (IR). The article addresses issues such as preservation and versioning of OER content, copyright and licensing, funding, and staffing and features interviews and literature from institutions such as the University of Minnesota, the University of Kansas, and Grand Valley State University.

MOTION DISMISSED: In the litigation of Great Minds and FedEx Office, the court has issued an order granting FedEx Office’s motion to dismiss. This litigation centered around the interpretation of the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license, known as BY-NC-SA. In this case, Great Minds claims that FedEx Office violated the terms of the BY-NC-SA license Great Minds applied to educational materials when FedEx Office copied material at the direction of school districts for non commercial use in classrooms. Read more>>

NEW OPINION PIECE: A new article written by nine school district superintendents from nine states explores some common misunderstandings about OER. Published in The Hechinger Report, the article features experiences from #GoOpen districts. Read more>>

IWD 2017: In recognition of International Women’s Day, the OER Digest team congratulates and thanks all of the amazing female OER leaders we are so fortunate to have in this movement. Kudos to you all for your continued dedication in championing open education initiatives around the world!

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENT: Open Oregon Educational Resources is hosting a webinar on effective strategies for OER initiatives, featuring Openstax’s Nicole Finkbeiner on March 13th from 12-1pm PST. http://openoregon.org/events/event/effectively-encouraging-the-use-of-oer-on-your-campus/

EVENT: BCcampus is hosting a one-hour Pressbooks Training Webinar on March 14th from 10-11am PST. https://bccampus.ca/event/one-hour-pressbooks-training-march/

EVENT: OpenStax and OER Commons will be hosting a webinar on Additional Faculty OER Resources on March 16th from 3-4 CDT. https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2184505684117689345

EVENT: The 14th Annual Open Education Conference will be taking place from October 11-13th.The call for proposals closes March 31st. https://openedconference.org/2017/call/

EVENT: In celebration of Open Education Week, SPARC will be hosting a webcast titled Successful OER Adoption Models: Academic Libraries Leading the Way on March 29, 2-3 EDT. RSVP to attend! https://sparcopen.org/event/successful-oer-adoption-models-academic-libraries-leading-way/

EVENT: Registration for #OER17: The Politics of Open closes soon! The conference will take place April 5-6 in London, UK. https://oer17.oerconf.org/#gref

JOB: Yale University Library is looking for a Digital Scholarship Project Manager. https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGWebHost/jobdetails.aspx?jobId=1006023&partnerid=25053&siteid=5248

JOB: BCcampus is seeking an energetic and collaborative Open Education Advisor. Deadline to apply is March 23rd. https://bccampus.ca/advisor-open-education/

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most impacted

FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA: Undergraduate students in Dr. Wyeth Wasserman’s cancer genetics class had a unique assignment: to write their own e-textbook for their course. “Textbooks cost too much and students should have high quality, free materials,” says Dr. Wasserman, who led the project. He is executive director of BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia and a senior scientist with the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics. Read more>>

FROM GEORGIA: The college’s faculty have been working since fall 2015 to expand Open Education Resources courses each semester. Almost half a million dollars’ worth of student savings was yielded the first semester alone. To date, GHC has saved students $3.8 million in textbook costs. OER course conversions are aided by the University System of Georgia’s Affordable Learning Georgia initiative, which promotes student success by providing cost-free alternatives to expensive textbooks. Read more>>

TWEET OF THE WEEK

James GlapaGrossklag‏ @JGlapaGrossklag

Students perceive profs who use #OER as more kind, creative & encouraging. @johnhiltoniii #oeglobal 1/2

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads on Education and Open

A Growing (But Controversial) Idea in Open-Access Textbooks: Let Students Help Write Them | EdSurge

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-02-08-a-growing-but-controversial-idea-in-open-access-textbooks-let-students-help-write-them

Cashing In On Textbook Rentals | Barron’s Next

http://www.barrons.com/articles/cashing-in-on-textbook-rentals-1488410596

Districts ‘Go Open’ For Instructional Resources | The Dispatch

http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=56503

Education Publisher Pearson Reports Biggest Loss In Its History | The Guardian