[Open-education] OER Digest - November 17th, 2016

Fri Nov 18 02:45:46 UTC 2016

>From Brady Yano (SPARC) | Volume 19 | November 17th, 2016

THE OER DIGEST

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

THAT’S A WRAP - OPENCON 2016: OpenCon 2016 took place November 12-14 in
Washington, DC, bringing together more than 200 early career and student
leaders from 60 countries to learn, connect and catalyze action on Open
Access, Open Education and Open Data. The event’s online presence included
a free live webcast, more than 27,000 tweets, and 63 million impressions on
the hashtag #OpenCon <https://twitter.com/hashtag/OpenCon?src=hash>.
Highlights from the event include a keynote from Brewster Kahle, Founder
and Digital Librarian of Internet Archive, a panel on Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion in the Open Community, and an advocacy day where participants met
policymakers across Washington, DC. The in-person participants were
selected from more than 10,000 applicants. Conference recordings are
available here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooSJUlkmcpE>.

STUDENT SAVINGS AT SCC: Scottsdale Community College (SCC) has become
Arizona’s first college to launch a textbook-free degree program
<https://news.scottsdalecc.edu/post/2016/11/scc-offer-first-textbook-free-degree-path>,
offering students enrolled in a hybrid Associate of Art degree a cheaper
way to learn. Modelled after the Z-Degree Program at Tidewater Community
College, the SCC’s program is leveraging the increasing accessibility of
high-quality OER. With SCC being a part of the “Maricopa Millions OER
Project
<https://www.maricopa.edu/welcome-to-the-maricopa-millions-oer-project>”
launched in 2013, this degree program will significantly increase the
nearly $6 million in savings that the project has accrued.

USG LEADING BY EXAMPLE: OpenStax recently named University System of
Georgia (USG) the top system nationwide at saving students money through
adoption of OpenStax free digital college textbooks in the 2015-16 academic
school year. USG institutions helped nearly 36,000 students save $3.5
million. That same year, UGA helped save students over $986,500 through the
use of OER. Read more>>
<http://columns.uga.edu/news/article/usg-leads-nation-in-providing-access-to-free-online-textbooks/>

BARNES & NOBLE LAUNCH: Barnes & Noble recently launched the Barnes & Noble
Education (BNED) Courseware <http://www.bnedcourseware.com/>, a service
aimed at providing faculty with an easier way to use OER. Leveraging their
presence on hundreds of US college campuses, BNED provides students and
faculty with everything they need on day one. Currently providing service
for 10 general education courses, OER are being used in the form of
OpenStax materials, videos and slides. Previous volumes of the Digest have
noted efforts by other sectors of the textbook industry, including
publishers and online booksellers, to enter the OER space.

TENNESSEE GOES OPEN: Last week the Tennessee Commissioner of Education
Candice McQueen announced the launch of the state’s commitment to the U.S.
Department of Education’s #GoOpen initiative. Tennessee is the 19th state
to commit to the initiative and has two Ambassador Districts, Tullahoma
City Schools and Bristol City Schools. Read more>>
<https://tn.gov/education/news/46689>

PRESIDENT-ELECT: Last week the United States elected Donald J. Trump as
their next President. He is set to take office on January 20th. You can
find information about the President-elect’s plans for education here
<https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/education.html>.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

JOB: The Hewlett Foundation is looking for a Program Director in the
foundation’s Education Program.
http://www.hewlett.org/career/program-director-education-program/

JOB: The Indiana University Libraries is looking for a Scholarly
Communications Librarian. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling
basis.

https://jobs.diglib.org/job/scholarly-communication-librarian/

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

A brief snapshot of those making change on the ground level, and those most
impacted

FROM CONNECTICUT: “Bringing open educational resources [to UConn] has been
something that various organizations have wanted to do to fix what is a
broken market,” UConnPIRG’s treasurer and senior finance major Saman Azimi
said. “Hopefully in the next couple of months we can come to some really
tangible policy recommendations to make open educational resources a
reality for students across Connecticut,” Azimi said. Read more>>
<http://dailycampus.com/stories/2016/11/9/uconnpirg-works-to-make-open-access-textbooks-available-on-campus>

FROM KANSAS:  A sample of 76 students at the University echoed the results
when Josh Bolick, a scholarly communication librarian, asked students at
Anschutz Library last fall to fill out cards about the cost and use of
textbooks. Among the comments: “I don’t buy any of my required texts
anymore. It’s too expensive.” “I’ve spent around $500 just this semester on
textbooks, some that I rarely use.” Read more>>

<http://www.kansan.com/news/how-some-ku-professors-are-saving-students-money-on-textbooks/article_cbf0a170-ab66-11e6-aa54-6b73b2d3b1d3.html>

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Nicole Allen ‏@txtbks  Nov 14

Kicking off #OpenCon <https://twitter.com/hashtag/OpenCon?src=hash> 2016!
200+ from 60 countries in the room, thousands more online working to
catalyze action in #OA <https://twitter.com/hashtag/OA?src=hash> #OER
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/OER?src=hash> #OpenData
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/opendata?src=hash>
https://twitter.com/txtbks/status/797452929682771968

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads on Education and Open

Textbook Prices Reduce Course Accessibility | The Oberlin Review

http://oberlinreview.org/11578/opinions/textbook-prices-reduce-course-accessibility/

Not Too Big to Fail: Big Data in Higher Education | New America Weekly

http://www.newamerica.org/weekly/edition-141/not-too-big-fail-big-data-higher-education/

Converging Advances in Online Learning: OTT, OER and OEI | Psychology Today

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-media-psychology-effect/201611/converging-advances-in-online-learning-ott-oer-and-oei

3 Ways to Prove ROI in Open Educational Resources | EdTech

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2016/11/3-ways-prove-roi-open-educational-resources

Online Textbook Program Saves Criminal Justice Majors Thousands of Dollars
| BMCC News

http://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/news/news.jsp?id=13342

Valencia Finds Innovative Ways to Cut Textbook Costs; Down 38% in 5 Years |
Valencia News

http://news.valenciacollege.edu/about-valencia/valencia-finds-innovative-ways-to-cut-textbook-costs-down-38-in-5-years/

Have suggestions for the next edition?

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<https://twitter.com/oerdigest>.

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