[Open-education] [The OER Digest] 50 Million Free Articles, A New Pearson Partnership, and Conference Deadlines

[Ethan Senack]

 From Ethan Senack, Student PIRGs | Volume 10 | March 31st, 2016


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

****50 MILLION: **the number of scholarly research articles posted 
online by a 27-year-old graduate student from Kazakhstan. Drawing 
comparisons to the music-sharing site Napster, Alexandra Elbakyan 
published a searchable database of journal articles that "shatters the 
$10 billion-per-year paywall of academic publishers." Modern-day hero, 
or thief? You decide. Here's a few reads to help you make up your mind:

  *  From the Washington Post
    <https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/this-student-put-50-million-stolen-research-articles-online-and-theyre-free/2016/03/30/7714ffb4-eaf7-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html?tid=sm_tw>
  *  From the Dean of Libraries at Duke University
    <https://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2016/03/03/some-radical-thoughts-about-scihub/>
  *  From LabNews in the UK
    <http://www.labnews.co.uk/comment/piracy-journals-wrong-07-03-2016/>

**
PEARSON PARTNERSHIP:** Cincinnati State Technical and Community College 
recently announced a partnership with Pearson Education to take over a 
big chunk of the school's marketing, recruiting, and student services. 
The school says that they're caught between a rock and a hard place - a 
12% decrease in enrollment and a statewide mandated tuition freeze, so 
they're looking for innovative solutions. It's a ten year deal, with 
Pearson earning $500,000 from the school's marketing budget each year 
and up to 20% of tuition revenue from new students. It's a one-of-a-kind 
agreement, and while stakeholders on campus say they are cautiously 
optimistic, many others are just plain concerned. Read more> 
<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/17/pearson-jumps-community-college-student-recruiting-new-cincinnati-state-partnership>

**REPORTING BACK: **Creative Commons just wrapped up their second 
Institute for Open Leadership in South Africa.*The Institute "is a 
training and peer-to-peer learning opportunity that brings together 
up-and-coming leaders to develop and implement an open licensing policy 
in their institution, province or nation." This years' fellows were a 
diverse group from around the world, including two from here in North 
America. Check out CC's report back 
<https://blog.creativecommons.org/2016/03/28/reporting-back-institute-open-leadership-2/> 
on the Institute and their next steps.

*GETTING BIG WITH DIGITAL:***A stu 
<https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/03/31/survey-shows-schools-hitting-digital-hard.aspx>*dy 
<https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/03/31/survey-shows-schools-hitting-digital-hard.aspx> 
from the Center for Digital Education and the National School Boards 
Association marks an increase in the number of districts that have 
digital content and curriculum strategies on the books - up from 49% 
last year to 62% this year. Another 33% of districts have plans under 
development. Even more relevant: *"*More than half of those existing 
strategies incorporate the use of open educational resources."

*CONFESSIONS OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEAN:* A very straightforward case 
for OER. 
<https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/tale-o%E2%80%99-tape>


*** Think your colleagues or friends might like the Digest? Send them 
this link: http://bit.ly/get-the-oer-digest*****
*

It's Thursday, March 31st*. There will be no discussion about brackets 
or March Madness. It's been a rough few weeks. On another front, there 
are an estimated 1.5 million tourists on their way to DC for the Cherry 
Blossom Festival, so....there's that. Don't forget to send tips, 
updates, opportunities, and feedback to esenack at pirg.org or @HigherEdPIRG.


*OPEN CONNECTIONS*
Conference, job, and other OER-related opportunities


*CALL FOR PROPOSALS - OPEN ED:* The 13th annual Open Education 
conference will be in Richmond, VA this November 2nd-4th. Workshop 
proposals are due April 15th. See the call> 
<http://openedconference.org/2016/?utm_source=OpenEd+Master+Attendee+List&utm_campaign=fae22b9d14-OpenEd15_First_Announcement&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_763fdb3d7b-fae22b9d14-120674337>

*REGISTRATION DEADLINE - OPEN EDUCATION GLOBAL: *The last day to 
register for the conference is /_tomorrow, April 1st._/**Sign up here> 
<http://conference.oeconsortium.org/2016/registration/>_**_

*REGISTRATION DEADLINE - OPEN APEREO:* The last day to _/early/_ 
register for Apereo Foundation's "Open for Education" conference is 
April 22nd. Sign up here> <http://conference.apereo.org/registration>
<https://blog.creativecommons.org/2016/03/08/new-job-opportunities-at-creative-commons/>

Have an opportunity you want featured? Email it to esenack at pirg.org.


*STORIES FROM THE FIELD*:
A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those 
most impacted

*VIDEO BREAK:* Open Washington recently released a new set of videos 
about open education. Here's what they're hoping to answer: "Everyone 
talks about OER Policy, but what does it mean? What do OER policies look 
like in practice? How do they impact OER initiatives? How does our 
government and our world perceive Open policy? Is policy always 
necessary in OER implementation?" Check out the videos for yourself> 
<http://www.openwa.org/about-policy-video/>


*SYLLABUS:*
Interesting Reads on Education and Open

*McGraw-Hill Education Latest to Adopt Knovation* | Ed Week
https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/mcgraw-hill-education-adopts-knovation-open-ed-curated-content/

*School Reading Unbound* | Slate
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/03/open_ebooks_initiative_brings_e_books_to_lower_income_students.html

*Flat World CEO: Content, not tech, should be focus of CBE *| Education Dive
http://www.educationdive.com/news/flat-world-ceo-content-not-tech-should-be-focus-of-cbe/416436/

*SCC to study textbook costs* | Mantako Free Press
http://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/local_news/scc-to-study-textbook-costs-online-alternatives/article_cc344db2-f20c-11e5-a89e-8bc1e295582d.html


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