[Open-education] The OER Digest - October 15, 2015

Fri Oct 16 00:03:39 UTC 2015

By Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 2 | October 15, 2015
/With help from Nicole Finkbeiner, Nicole Allen, and others/

*THE OER DIGEST**
* Your tip sheet for U.S. OER updates, opportunities, and reminders

__ **
*DURBIN BILL A HIT:* Late last week, Senators Durbin (D-IL), Franken 
(D-MN) and King (I-ME) 
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2176?q=%7B%22search%22%3A[%22%5C%22s2176%5C%22%22]%7D&resultIndex=1>, 
along with Congressmen Hinojosa (D-TX) and Polis (D-CO) 
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3721?q=%7B%22search%22%3A[%22%5C%22hr3721%5C%22%22]%7D&resultIndex=1> 
introduced federal legislation to support OER adoption and development 
on college campuses. The Affordable College Textbook Act establishes a 
federal grant program to incentivize adoption. To discuss the bill, 
Senators Durbin and Franken joined advocates on a press call for campus 
journalists and national reporters. The press call generated almost 50 
media hits that discuss the bill, define OER, and educate the public.

  * READ MORE: In outlets as large as NBC
    <http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/freshman-year/new-bill-congress-would-help-make-college-textbooks-free-online-n443931>
    and USA Today
    <http://college.usatoday.com/2015/10/14/bill-introduced-to-help-combat-textbook-robbery/>,
    and as local as the UC San Diego Guardian
    <http://ucsdguardian.org/2015/10/12/congressmen-propose-bill-to-subsidize-college-textbooks/>
    and the UNC Daily Tar Heel
    <http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2015/10/online-textbook-call>
  * CHECK OUT: Senator Durbin's tweets
    <https://twitter.com/@senatordurbin> about the bill

*
CALIFORNIA STEPS UP:* Earlier this week, California Governor Jerry Brown 
signed the College Textbook Affordability Act 
<http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB798> 
into law. Under the law, championed by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, 
Academic Senates in the state that pass OER supportive resolutions 
become eligible for grants up to $50,000 to provide training, 
incentives, and other resources to help their faculty adopt OER. 
However, the bill requires that any money spent by the state must be 
first matched with private funds, the same condition that advocates feel 
hindered the implementation of California's 2012 OER bill.

**DUNCAN STEPS DOWN:** Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan 
recently announced that he is stepping down after nearly 7 years in 
office. Duncan is the longest serving member of President Obama's 
cabinet, and presided over a large expansion of the Department's 
responsibilities. In his place, the President has tapped John King Jr. 
(formerly the NY Education Commissioner and a Senior Advisor in the 
Department) to assume the reins. King has been briefed on OER, and 
members of the community are hopeful that he will continue to support 
the progress being made at the Department. You can read more about him 
in his Department biography 
<http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ods/king-bio.html>. *

NEW RESEARCH: *Researchers at Brigham Young University just published "A 
Multi-Institutional Study of the Impact of Open Textbook Adoption on the 
Learning Outcomes of Post-Secondary Students," in the Journal of 
Computing in Higher Education. The study compares data from more than 
15,000 students, and in the words of SPARC's Nicole Allen, identifies "a 
striking trend that students assigned free, open textbooks /do as well 
or better/ than their peers in terms of grades, course completion, and 
other measures of academic success."

  * READ MORE: Nicole's overview on HuffPost here
    <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicole-allen/college-textbooks-do-you_b_8261086.html>,
    or check out the report itself here
    <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12528-015-9101-x>.

*
#OAWEEK!* In related worlds, next week (Oct 19th - 25th) is 
International Open Access Week. Academics and researchers around the 
world will be hosting workshops, discussions, and presentations to 
educate their peers about the benefits of Open Access research. Read 
more about it on the event website. <http://www.openaccessweek.org/>*

NEW, FROM OPENSTAX: *OpenStax College, an open textbook publisher based 
at Rice University in Texas, just released four new titles, all of which 
are available on their website 
<https://www.openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/>. The subjects are 
Pre-Algebra, Physics, Macro- and Micro- Economics.

*It's Thursday, October 15th*. Ethan Senack here, realizing that 
somehow, half of October is already behind us. I've Googled "What time 
is it in Seoul" a dozen times this week because many folks in the Open 
movement are there for the Creative Commons Global Summit (#ccsummit15). 
Don't forget to send tips, updates, opportunities, and feedback to 
@HigherEdPIRG or esenack at pirg.org with the subject "OER DIGEST".

_STORIES FROM THE FIELD:_
/A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those 
most impacted /
_
_*UCONN GALORE:* The University of Connecticut is driving OER hard this 
year. The UConn Libraries recently posted this 
<http://blogs.lib.uconn.edu/news/changing-the-game-in-uconns-open-textbook-initiative/#.ViAO7qQeV_a> 
blog about their new Open Textbook Initiative, citing "overwhelming 
faculty support" and saying that "students truly make the difference in 
moving [these] critical initiatives forward." Additionally, UConn 
Professor Edward Neth is partnering with OpenStax to adapt their 
chemistry book, saying about his decision to go open: “The (open-source) 
textbook is as good as anything else out there and that was the tipping 
point." _Read the Article>_ 
<http://dailycampus.com/stories/2015/10/9/professor-open-source-textbooks-will-save-students-money>

*CENTRAL VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE:* As one of 16 of colleges in Virginia 
piloting the "Textbook-Free Degree" program (inspired by the Z-Degree at 
Tidewater Community College), CVCC is diving into the training and 
necessary preparation for their faculty to make the switch to OER. 
They're planning to launch associate degrees in General Studies and 
Business Administration that can be obtained using entirely open 
educational resources. While the transition is a significant investment, 
reactions are positive. “Will we be working? Oh yeah we will, but we are 
excited,” CVCC Vice President Muriel Mickles said. _Read the Article>_ 
<http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/cvcc-develops-associates-degrees-that-don-t-require-buying-textbooks/article_a2147713-6ada-5617-bdf2-8c973a66efae.html>

_
_/Have a story you'd like featured? Email it to esenack at pirg.org./

*READING SYLLABUS*

*How 'open textbooks' could ease college sticker shock *
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/1014/How-open-textbooks-could-ease-college-sticker-shock

*Partial Credit: The 2015 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology *
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/partial-credit-2015-survey-faculty-attitudes-technology

*An open letter from UNC Student Stores employees *
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/chapel-hill-news/chn-opinion/article37847853.html

*Durbin Pushes Bill to Lower College Textbook Costs*
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-durbin-textbook-costs-1008-biz-20151008-story.html
//
*CGCC librarian receives excellence award for OER work
*http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2015/oct/02/cgcc-librarian-receives-excellence-award/*

*

-- 
Ethan Senack
Higher Education Advocate
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
www.uspirg.org
@HigherEdPIRG
(202) 546-9707 x321

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