From Aishah Abdullah  | Volume 136 | Date September 2, 2021

 

THE OER DIGEST

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

CALIFORNIA’S OER INVESTMENT: After California passed its $115 million investment in developing Zero Textbook Cost degree pathways, some California colleges are making news for their goals to substantially shift away from traditional textbooks and adopt more OER. College of the Canyons aims to have at least one-third of their courses use OER within the next two years. James Glapa-Grossklag, a dean at the college, estimated that by offering the choice of OER in some courses, the community college saves students about $5 million in textbook costs per year. Compton Community College has made an even bolder goal and shared that by 2035 they plan for 100% of their courses to use OER. This would eliminate student spending on textbooks.

TENURE & PROMOTION RESOURCE: A working group from the Iowa Open Education Action Team (Iowa OER) has developed a new resource titled “Open Education in Promotion, Tenure, and Faculty Development.” This resource assists faculty and staff to advocate for themselves and others when it comes to the inclusion of open educational practices (OEP) in promotion, tenure, and faculty evaluation practices at their institutions. The resource builds upon the OER in Tenure & Promotion Matrix published by DOERS3.

DRAFT STRATEGIC VISION: Earlier this year, the Open Education Conference launched a strategic planning process to chart a vision for its future as a sustainable, community-owned event. The first major output of this process is the draft Strategic Vision. All members of the broader open education community and the general public are invited to share input on the draft Strategic Vision between now and September 3rd. You can comment on the draft through google docs, on the webpage using Hypothes.is, or email comments@openeducationconference.org.

 

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

REGISTER NOW: Register for the webinar “Let’s Get Creative about Licensing” where you can learn the fundamentals of what you need to know when choosing a license. The webinar is taking place on September 9th. Learn more and register here. 

REGISTER NOW: Register for the virtual Open Education Policy Forum conference. It is a space created to bring together stakeholders to exchange good practices and discuss challenges. The conference is taking place September 15-16. Learn more and register here. 

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Salt Lake Neighborhood School is hiring a part-time Open Instructional Assets & IR Specialist. Learn more and apply here. 

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Kansas State University is hiring a Scholarly Communication/Open Educational Resources Librarian. Learn more and apply here. 

 

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM WISCONSIN: Chippewa Valley Technical College has saved students over $1 million in textbook costs during the 2020-21 school year. These savings come from their new affordable learning program, which has resulted in many instructors switching their courses from traditional textbooks to OER. Over 4000 students had at least one course with no textbook cost resulting in an average student saving approximately $246. The director of library services shares how, “We know that parts of Eau Claire and Chippewa counties are experiencing disproportionately higher poverty rates than the rest of Wisconsin. Using OER instead of high-cost textbooks has been a big win for our students who are often hit hardest. Read More >>

FROM ARKANSAS: The University of Arkansas created five video open educational resources focused on creating cultural competency. The aim of these resources was to encourage a more culturally aware and competent campus. The resource includes the voices of former students and student leaders from across the campus. They share their insights into cultural competency and the need for cultural acceptance in their communities. These resources were made with a grant from the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center. Read More >>

FROM TEXAS: The Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas has released the second case study in its new series Best Practices in Texas Digital Higher Education. Creating and Adopting Open Educational Resources at Colleges and Universities Across the State highlights exemplary practitioners of Open Education in Texas, including at the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Houston College of Medicine, Houston Community College, Alvin Community College, and Midland College. Based on interviews with creators of the resources, the case study delves into more detail on projects on which these innovators presented at Open Texas 2021. 

 

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

The Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech has released, Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance, 3rd edition by James F. Marchman III. This resource provides coverage of basic, subsonic, aircraft performance preceded by an introduction to the basics of aerodynamics that will provide a background sufficient to the understanding of the subjects to be studied in aircraft performance.

 

WEIGH IN

Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider

Great to Share >> 

We Need to Help Students Overcome their Textbook Troubles | THE Campus

Interesting to Consider >> 

Researchers Assess Whether Open Educational Resources Improved Biology Instruction | UMaine News

Open Educational Resources: The Story of Change and Evolving Perceptions | Open Research Community

 

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.