OER Digest – October 31, 2024

Oct 31

Written By

Michael Basmajian (PIRG) | Volume 185 | October 31, 2024

THE OER DIGEST
Your monthly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

WEBINAR: University of Florida Levin College of Law professor Derek Bambauer returns to bring the community up to date on Generative AI and copyright. November 7th at 2pm ET. Register here.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS AND REVIEWERS: A new journal, the Journal of Open Initiatives in Academic Libraries (JOI), aims to explore and promote the advancement of open research and scholarship initiatives involving academic libraries or other academic and research support units. JOI is calling for contributions from academic library professionals, researchers, educators, and practitioners. The submission deadline is March 7th, 2025 with the expected publication in September 2025.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: The OERizona Network is hosting the 7th annual Arizona Regional OER Conference virtually on February 27 & 28 and are are inviting proposals to facilitate breakout sessions focused on projects, initiatives, showcases or insights involving Open Education

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: DOERS, SPARC, and the regional interstate higher education compacts (MHEC, NEBHE, SREB and WICHE) organized an open webinar series to discuss how to progress national coordination on open education. They are inviting the community to contribute their thoughts to an open Padlet and to sign-up for updates.

APPLY NOW: The Open Education Conference is seeking candidates for the annual Board of Directors election. The board is responsible for overseeing the conference planning, program, and administration in accordance with the Strategic Vision. The deadline to self-nominate is Sunday, November 3rd at 11:59pm PT.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Kansas State University Libraries is accepting applications and nominations for the Center for Scholarly publishing department head. This is a full-time position that will lead research support services and scholarly communication for the Libraries, and will collaborate with stakeholders to assess, shape and build upon the existing portfolio of work.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) is looking for a part-time digital librarian to support a higher education service partner’s management of their OER library. The position is a 9-month contract, 20 hours a week, and is fully remote.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: The CUNY School of Professional Studies seeks a part-time OER Assistant to support the development of Zero- and Low-Textbook Cost online courses and other New York State OER Initiative projects. The position is renewable by semester and is currently fully remote.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Minnesota State University, Mankato seeks an OER Librarian to lead the planning, implementation, and coordination of support for open education and textbook affordability initiatives and advocacy. This position is a probationary, tenure-track faculty position assigned to the rank of Assistant Professor and is intended to begin on August 18, 2025.

SURVEY: A new survey from UC Davis seeks to better understand how instructors in higher-education are using OER in their classes and/or what is limiting/encouraging the use of these materials in different educational contexts. The survey is anonymous, and your responses will provide useful information to come up with strategic proposals to encourage the creation and adoption of OER at US higher-education institutions.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted

FROM MICHIGAN: Washtenaw Community College’s OER program saved students over $2.3M during the 2023-2024 academic year. The savings reached 8,800 students from 18 educational departments. Molly Ledermann, WCC faculty librarian and the go-to source for faculty to create OER for their courses, states that there will be faculty members working on four to five more OER courses to be added to the 2025-2026 school year schedule. “Saving students’ money without sacrificing the quality of the textbook, knowing that my students are able to afford groceries or sign up for another class or just be able to live a fuller life by me choosing a textbook that’s free to them is definitely the major motivator,” she said. Read More >>

FROM ILLINOIS: Eastern Illinois University is converting some course materials into resources available to the general public, thanks to a grant. The OER@EIU initiative has been given an award to convert some course materials into OER. The Illinois State Library awarded the funding. With the grant, 16 courses across Eastern Illinois University skip commercial textbooks and other learning materials to custom fit open materials to the course objectives. “We are thrilled to have received this grant, which will have a direct and positive impact on our students,” Dr. Michael Gillespie, the director of EIU’s Faculty Development and Innovation Center (FDIC), said. “By adopting OER, we can enhance innovation and accessibility in the classroom, connecting our learners with high-quality, openly available materials that can be tailored to the unique instructional needs of our faculty or their specific curriculum.” Read More >>

FROM MASSACHUSETTS: Northern Essex Community College is partnering with Framingham State University to develop free course materials and textbooks. Framingham State is the lead recipient of a new, $1.98 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop open textbooks for high-enrolling general education courses across the community college, state university and UMass systems in Massachusetts. The latest initiative is called the Career and AI Readiness while Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens, or CA-ROTEL, project. “This grant empowers faculty to create and customize learning materials that truly resonate with their students’ needs. By developing OER that incorporates AI and career readiness components, professors can adapt their teaching materials, collaborate across institutions and ensure their curriculum stays current with rapidly evolving workplace demands,” says Sue Tashjian, Northern Essex’s coordinator of instructional technology and leader of its AI Task Force. Read More >>

HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight interesting, new, openly-licensed resources

From the College of Western Idaho comes Huma 207: Exploring the Arts and Culture of the World, a new OER that can be used as a one-semester Humanities course at a community college or 4-year university. It emphasizes the breadth of traditional arts and humanities and covers geographic areas of the globe (and therefore Western and non-Western cultures).

The University of North Dakota released digital editions of a series of textbooks about the culture and history of the Native American nations that share geography with the state. These include the nations of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Sahnish/Arikara), the Standing Rock Oyate, the Mni Wakan Oyate, and the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa. Each book was written by scholars and elders from each nation in consultation with the North Dakota Tribal College System.

WEIGH IN

Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider

Two Campaigns to Reduce Textbook Costs Are Often at Odds. Can They Co-Exist? | The Chronicle of Higher Education
Why Are Students Paying Fees to Access Homework Assignments? | KQED
The Cost of Learning: Are Textbooks Worth It? | Marist Circle
How “course marking” can bring OER to the mainstream | University Business
Higher ed’s responsibility to use OER | Community College Daily

Have suggestions for the next edition? Let us know at oerdigest@gmail.com, or tweet us @OERdigest.