From Hailey Babb (SPARC) | Volume 117 | November 19th, 2020

 

THE OER DIGEST

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

COMBATTING SYSTEMIC RACISM: The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation has pledged $15M to groups working across a range of issues—from health to education to human rights—to advance racial justice by centering Black communities. “Realizing the potential of open education is only going to be possible to the extent that it roots out structural racism”, says Angela DeBarger, Education Program Officer at the Hewlett Foundation. “We must be more ambitious about dismantling racist policies, practices, and ideas through our work”.

BIDEN-HARRIS TRANSITION: Congratulations to Kristina Ishmael of Open Education Global who has been appointed to the Biden-Harris Transition Team as a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s Agency Review Team. Agency review teams are responsible for understanding the operations of each agency, ensuring a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and their cabinet to hit the ground running on day one of the new administration, January 20th 2021. 

OPENED20 AND OEGLOBAL: Over the past two weeks, both the Open Education Conference and the OE Global Conference successfully hosted their first ever fully virtual editions. Both events reported fantastic attendance and engagement, and they intend to share their recorded content with the open education community in the future. OE Global has been sharing recorded sessions via their Youtube channel, and the Open Education Conference plans to release the content openly in the coming months (for conference attendees, all sessions are already posted in the conference website). Be sure to check out the great sessions from both events! You can see more at the hashtags #OEGlobal20 and #OpenEd20.

 

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

SURVEY: Pressbooks is looking for people of various roles to participate in a 1hr paid remote interview to improve their understanding of the higher education OER ecosystem. To participate, fill out the survey here. 

JOB OPPORTUNITY: The Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD University) in Toronto, Ontario is hiring a temporary/contract role of Project Manager, Hybrid & Online Learning. Applications are due no later than Monday, November 30, 2020. View the job posting here. 

 

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM CANADA: The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has released a communiqué entitled “Equitable, Affordable Access to Digital Course Materials for University Students: Issues and Solutions”. The document endorses measures to create digital access models that foster an accessible, affordable, and inclusive environment for students, and invites other stakeholders involved in academic publishing to develop solutions that will better serve the common community of users. Read more>>

FROM NEW YORK: The student association at Syracuse University is coordinating with Syracuse University Libraries on an initiative to improve textbook affordability for students. “SA is working to expand students’ access to open educational resources”, said Ryan Golden, SA vice president. He also said the organization is on a “fact-finding mission” for how to make textbooks more affordable to students. Their goal is to urge faculty to use more textbooks available on the Open Educational Resources Commons so students don’t have to spend as much money on textbooks. Read more>>

FROM MONTANA: The Montana University System and the Treasure State Academic Information & Library Services (TRAILS) consortium are proud to share details of their statewide open education program, “Montana Higher Education’s Open Education Initiative” in their Year One Report. After creating and launching the dynamic program in 2019,  students and faculty across the state are already seeing its benefits. Read more>>

 

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Sophie Mackenzie and Juan Pablo Alperin of Simon Fraser University have published a first draft of The Web, Publishing, and Ourselves, a new open textbook that critically explores the relationship between technology and publishing. You can take part in their open review process here. 

Bahram Assadian, Matthew Knachel, Cassiano Terra Rodrigues, Michael Shaffer, Nathan Smith, Benjamin Martin (Book Editor), and Christina Hendricks (Series Editor) have released Introduction to Logic, an open textbook that provides students with the concepts and skills necessary to identify and evaluate arguments, as part of the Rebus Community library. 

The OER Lab at Ontario Tech University, alongside contributors Ayman Abdulkadir, Pranjal Saloni, Rebecca Maynard, Dr. Ana Duff and Sarah Stokes, have released Business Math I, an open textbook aimed at university business students as an introduction to the mathematics required for the field of business.

 

WEIGH IN

Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider

Great to Share >> 

Want to Make College More Affordable for Your Students? | University of Nevada, Las Vegas Campus News

Interesting to Consider >> 

How a Pandemic Could Change Higher Education | EdSurge

 

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. Subscribe here.