[Open-education] OER DIGEST - August 24th, 2017

Thu Aug 24 19:58:09 UTC 2017

>From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 38 | August 24th, 2017

With updates from Manuela Ekowo and Katie Steen

THE OER DIGEST

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

SEEKING FEEDBACK - A QUICK ASK FOR OUR READERS: The two-year anniversary of
the OER Digest is coming up this October, and we have a quick favor to ask.
We've put together a quick, 9-question survey
<http://bit.ly/oerdigestsurvey> about the Digest to help us understand
what's useful, and what we can improve. We're hoping to learn more about
what you - and all our readers - think, so we can make the Digest even
better moving forward. Would you be willing to fill it out?

   -

   ACTION ITEM: Take the Survey > <http://bit.ly/oerdigestsurvey>

BRIEFING CONGRESS: Achieving the Dream - the national, nonprofit
championing evidence-based institutional improvement and coordinating a
massive OER degree pathway program - is hosting a briefing
<http://achievingthedream.org/event/17043/open-education-resources-oer-congressional-briefing>
for Congressional staff next month on their OER degree initiative. The
briefing will include presidents of two community colleges that are running
OER degree programs.

SUMMER INSTITUTE: The Open Textbook Network
<https://research.cehd.umn.edu/otn/> welcomed 100 delegates to its annual
Summer Institute & Summit in Minneapolis. The institute focused on
supporting OTN members to advance their local initiatives, strengthening
relationships in this fast-growing community, and explore ways the OTN can
pool resources and expertise to address challenges in open education.

MOOC ON MOOCS : Two familiar faces to the open education community - David
Wiley and George Siemens - are teaming up to offer
<https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-08-23-george-siemens-and-david-wiley-join-forces-for-a-mooc-about-open-education>
a six-week MOOC around, well, MOOCs and open education. The duo hopes to
reach graduate students pursuing careers in education and teaching, so they
can confront misconceptions and build understanding of OER among the next
generation of educators.

#ASKCC: Creative Commons USA hosted a twitter chat
<https://twitter.com/search?vertical=default&q=%23askcc&src=typd> with more
than 100 participants - primarily educators and librarians - around the
country to answer questions about copyright and open licenses in real time.

FASTR: The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1701/text>) was
reintroduced in both the House and Senate with bipartisan cosponsors a few
weeks ago. The bill requires federal agencies with research budgets in
excess of $100M to have a public access policy for federally funded
research. The House version requires that research publications be made
accessible to the public within 6 months after publication in a journal,
and the Senate version requires they be made public within 12 months. SPARC
is tracking the bill <https://sparcopen.org/our-work/fastr/>.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENT: Rebus Community is holding office hours next week on August 30th,
discussing open textbook metadata. RSVP here:
https://about.rebus.community/2017/07/august-office-hours-metadata-for-open-textbooks/

EVENT: CCCOER is hosting a panel on open education degrees with
representatives from BCcampus, WikiEducation, and Lumen Learning on August
30th. See more here:
https://www.cccoer.org/2017/08/11/aug-30-open-education-degrees-panel-discussion/

OPPORTUNITY: Creative Commons Global is seeking stories about collaboration
in the commons. Submit one here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdqwV_8L-si9WB6eqWQr1z_l7u6X_pGgkNzl-xyiTc6tUBcJw/viewform

OPPORTUNITY: Contribute toward the Ljubljana OER Action Plan on Open
Educational Resources leading up to the 2nd World OER Congress co-organized
by UNESCO and the Government of Slovenia here:
http://www.oercongress.org/woerc-actionplan/

LAST CHANCE: Deadline tomorrow! There are a number of OER-focused panels up
for consideration at next year’s SXSWedu. Create an account and upvote your
choices here: https://auth.sxsw.com/users/sign_up.

SUBSCRIBE: If you haven’t already - subscribe to the OER Digest here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsVwP-hgmvxYey_D1QbsKGAitjHhobvW6cX1vHGxSVWuq_sA/viewform>
.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM MICHIGAN: “For an LCC student paying about $309 for a psychology class
where the textbook new costs $150, open educational resources represent
significant savings, Kelland said. Moving forward, LCC is working to
finalize its first Z degree in psychology – a degree obtainable with zero
textbook costs. It’s just the start, according to Kelland. “Five years from
now I’d expect lots of Z degree options.”” Read More >
<http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2017/08/15/lansing-community-college-cutting-costly-textbooks/551936001/>

FROM TEXAS: “The policy that I’m most passionate about is our open
educational resources initiative, that I anticipate having an immensely
positive impact on our campus and students. The Clegg-Merritt
administration has been working throughout the summer to alleviate some of
the financial strain students experience regarding textbook prices.” Read
More >
<http://star.txstate.edu/2017/08/15/qa-with-student-body-vice-president-jackie-merritt/>

FROM OKLAHOMA: “TCC encourages professors to use the OpenStax books to save
students money. "I am really happy to be doing this work. I feel like it's
philanthropy at work," said Jennifer Kneafsey, professor. The OpenStax
books are available now for mainly core classes, but as that selection
expands, TCC hopes more professors will adopt these low-cost textbooks. "We
hope to spread this year into more of the social sciences, history, the
federal government, but we hope to expand," Kneafsey said. Read More >
<http://www.newson6.com/story/36193178/tcc-expands-student-access-to-free-or-low-cost-textbooks>

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Office of Ed Tech‏ @OfficeofEdTech Aug 17  Click to ReTweet >>
<https://twitter.com/OfficeofEdTech/status/898328614306889728>

Want to learn more about Open Educational Resources? Start here!
http://tech.ed.gov/open/
 #OER #GoOpen #edtech

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads Relating to Education and Open

How New Technologies Can Help K-12 Schools Do More with Less | Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/08/18/how-new-technologies-can-help-k-12-schools-do-more-with-less/#73213e344ae4

Mohave Community College plans to bolster free online curriculum | Havasu
News

http://www.havasunews.com/news/mohave-community-college-plans-to-bolster-free-online-curriculum/article_9c21a952-8181-11e7-b938-2bfde77bc99a.html

Open education resources create engaging learning experience | The Suburban
Times

http://thesubtimes.com/2017/08/14/open-education-resources-create-engaging-learning-experience/

Textbooks’ decline tied to tech advances, increase in digital access | The
Herald Sun

http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/education/article165778757.html

If Higher Education Were A Public Good… | Forbes Opinion

https://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2017/08/18/if-higher-education-were-a-public-good/#52133daa3dc6

Have suggestions for the next edition? Let us know at oerdigest at gmail.com,
or tweet us @OERdigest <https://twitter.com/oerdigest>.

The OER Digest is a public newsletter distributed to a broad group of
stakeholders across the higher education community. You can join the open
Google Group or check out the distribution list here
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/oerdigest>.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/open-education/attachments/20170824/638a82db/attachment-0002.html>