[Open-education] OER Digest - May 18th, 2017

Thu May 18 16:06:25 UTC 2017

>From Brady Yano (SPARC) | Volume 31 | May 18th, 2017

With help from Apurva Ashok

THE OER DIGEST

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

#GOOPEN BLOG POST: The U.S. Department of Education published a blog post
<https://medium.com/@OfficeofEdTech/goopen-more-than-a-hashtag-293357a550f1>
highlighting the momentum behind the #GoOpen movement, and its interest in
collaborating with civil society organizations moving forward.

“Openly licensed educational resources can be powerful tools for
transforming learning and providing educational opportunities for all
students. When implemented strategically, these resources can help states,
districts, schools, and students and their families reinvent approaches to
learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility
gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.”

#GoOpen is more than just a hashtag and we look forward to seeing its
successes continue with support from the community.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OTN: The Open Textbook Network
<http://research.cehd.umn.edu/otn/> recently celebrated its 5th birthday!
There’s a lot to celebrate at the OTN, including the Open Textbook Library
being visited an average of 65,000 times per month and the library
celebrating its 1,000th textbook review. On behalf of the OER Digest team,
happy birthday OTN!

MORE SAVINGS AT OU: The University of Oklahoma Libraries just announced
<https://vision.libraries.ou.edu/content/2017-alternative-textbook-grant-recipients>
their fourth year of the Alternative Textbook grant. This year 18 full-time
faculty members have received grants to adopt an OER for their course.
Students at OU are projected to save an additional $116,000 in a single
semester!

COLORADO OER COUNCIL: Colorado has passed S.B. 258, a bill which is set to
create an OER Council the in the Department of Higher Education. The
Department will evaluate the existing use of OER by public institutions of
higher education and consider the options for and obstacles to increasing
the use of OER.

PEER REVIEW: The Rebus Community recently formed a working group to assess
and develop clear, transparent and effective standards for peer review in
Open Textbooks. Following the group’s first call, Rebus is now looking for
collaborators
<https://about.rebus.community/2017/05/peer-review-working-group-next-steps/>
to join one of five groups that will explore different topic areas
including different types of review over the life of a textbook, how to
communicate the types of review a textbook has undergone and develop inga
system to recognize the contributions of reviewers.

ECAMPUS ONTARIO LAUNCH: eCampus Ontario will be launching
<http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ecampusontario-ryerson-university-to-create-open-publishing-infrastructure-for-ontario-post-secondary-educators-learners-622521614.html>
their Open Textbook Library in June! Working in partnership with BCcampus,
the new library will offer Ontario post-secondary students access to a
repository of over 180 OER.

OPENCON 2017: The annual student and early career professional conference,
OpenCon
<http://www.opencon2017.org/opencon_2017_to_be_held_in_berlin_germany_on_november_11_13>
will be taking place November 11-13 in Berlin, Germany. Applications open
June 27th!

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENT: Education Week will be hosting a webinar today at 1pm EDT entitled
Powering Student Engagement With a Successful OER Strategy. Click here
<https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=reg20.jsp&partnerref=TOC&eventid=1410791&sessionid=1&key=DF1F595D8E9EBB6CC387E572537750DE&regTag=&sourcepage=register&utm_source=press-release&utm_medium=public-relations>
to register.

EVENT: Future Ready will be hosting a webinar on May 24th at 2pm EDT
exploring the topic of knowing if OER materials are of high quality.
Registration is required. http://all4ed.org/webinar-event/may-24-2017/

EVENT: The UMass Amherst Libraries will host the Northeast Regional OER
Summit June 13-14. Registration is required.
https://www.library.umass.edu/services/teaching-and-learning/oer/northeast-oer-summit

EVENT: Saylor Academy will be hosting their Higher Education Summit June
21-22 in Washington D.C. https://summit.saylor.org/

JOB: The San Diego Community College District is looking for an Assistant
Professor, Collection Development / Open Educational Resource Librarian.
See the job description here.
<https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000368014-01#sthash.d1qM85Nl.dpuf>

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM PENNSYLVANIA: "Professor Serrano is helping to transform education at
Penn State," said Jennifer Sparrow, senior director of TLT. "By providing
her students with the OER textbook, she is not only advancing
affordability, she is ensuring that all students have access to the course
materials the first day of classes. We know that many students will wait to
purchase their textbooks until later in the semester. Research has shown
that when students have access on day one of their courses, their success
in those courses rises dramatically." Read more>>
<http://news.psu.edu/story/466004/2017/05/02/academics/lehigh-valley-instructor-saves-her-students-over-8000-authors-free>

FROM UTAH: Ph.D. student Tarah Ikahihifo has been working with BYU’s Open
Education Group for a year. Ultimately, she hopes, “OER could revolutionize
higher education and provide better opportunities for people who might
otherwise drop out. If you can alleviate one source of stress or tension,
maybe that’s the relief they need to be motivated to keep going.” Read
more>>
<https://news.byu.edu/news/open-textbooks-byu-researchers-show-free-resources-can-provide-equivalent-education-and-save>

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Sharon Leu‏ @thesharonleu <https://twitter.com/thesharonleu>

The greatest impact of #GoOpen <https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoOpen?src=hash>
will come from long-term and transformative impact on systems.
@OfficeofEdTech <https://twitter.com/OfficeofEdTech>

SYLLABUS

Interesting Reads on Education and Open

5 Ways OER Empower Teachers To Choose Their Own Classroom Adventure |
Getting Smart

http://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/05/5-ways-oer-empowers-teachers-to-choose-their-own-classroom-adventure/

Fiddler: The Cost of Textbooks Is a Huge Obstacle for Poor Students. Here’s
a Solution | The 74

https://www.the74million.org/article/fiddler-the-cost-of-textbooks-are-a-huge-obstacle-for-poor-students-heres-a-solution

Open Season On Learning | Albany Democrat-Herald

http://democratherald.com/news/local/education/open-season-on-learning/article_68026c4a-5a5e-5f2b-9916-b9d64524efa6.html

Say Goodbye to School Textbooks. Wake County Moving To Free Online
Materials | The News&Observer

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article148374489.html#storylink=cpy

Strengthening Democracy Through Open Education | University World News

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170502124125567

Under Trump, Ed-Tech Leadership Is Big Question Mark | Education Week

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/05/10/under-trump-ed-tech-leadership-is-big-question.html

Have suggestions for the next edition?

Let us know at oerdigest at gmail.com, or tweet us @OERdigest
<https://twitter.com/oerdigest>.

You can subscribe to the OER Digest here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsVwP-hgmvxYey_D1QbsKGAitjHhobvW6cX1vHGxSVWuq_sA/viewform>
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