[Open-education] OER Digest - November 22, 2017

Wed Nov 22 17:29:05 UTC 2017

>From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 45 | November 22, 2017

With updates from Brady Yano

THE OER DIGEST

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

SIGNING OFF (from Digest co-author Brady Yano): I’m sad to share that this
will be the last OER Digest I contribute to in my capacity at SPARC. Thank
you to our readers for engaging with our bi-weekly content and thank you to
Ethan Senack for bringing myself and SPARC onto this fantastic project!
While I leave my role at SPARC at the end of the month, you can still find
me on Twitter @bradyyano <https://twitter.com/bradyyano>. Bye for now!

IN THE STATES: California passed a bill
<https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/ask-administrator-labeling-oer-sections>
last year requiring most state institutions to mark courses using OER or
no-cost materials on their course schedule. That legislation is set to
become operative in just a few weeks on January 1st. In Washington, a bill
to create grants
<https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2017/04/new-washington-state-bill-seeks-increase-oer-use-and-development?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral>
at six different state universities is still on hold, though proponents are
hopeful.

ON CAMPUS: Institutions - and increasingly, their student governments - are
stepping up on open education. SUNY Oswego made news
<https://www.oswego.edu/news/story/grants-encourage-faculty-use-open-source-course-materials>
around their Shakespearean Acting OER, Lansing Community College’s OER
Project Manager Regina Gong was featured
<http://www.fox47news.com/entertainment/shows/the-morning-blend/lansing-community-college-111617>
on their Fox affiliate, and student governments advocating for OER made
news at the University of Tennessee, University of Missouri, and University
of Illinois. In Canada, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance released
a policy paper <http://www.ousa.ca/newsroom_oer_policy_paper> on their
vision for OER in province.

ON THE RANGE: The Wyoming Department of Education announced this week
<http://edscoop.com/tv-radio/wyoming-is-building-a-statewide-k-20-learning-management-system>
that they’re developing a statewide, K-20 Learning Management System in
hopes of encouraging more educators to incorporate OER into their classes.
Officials say they hope the change will spur greater personalization and
reduce costs.

PUBLISHER PRESENCE: The increasing interest of textbook publishers like
Cengage in OER has made headlines this week, following the announcement of
their new OER-based learning platform. While many questions remain
unanswered, their team is working to sell the higher education community on
the idea. More discussion of the changes on the Community College Daily
<http://www.ccdaily.com/2017/11/shaping-the-future-of-oer/> and on Xconomy
<https://www.xconomy.com/boston/2017/11/20/cengage-defends-value-of-digital-course-materials-amid-print-decline/>
.

OPENSTAX IN ACTION: The open textbook publisher and the math technology
company Carnegie Learning have announced a partnership
<http://news.sys-con.com/node/4198120> to combine their open books and
materials with Carnegie’s deep AI-based learning software to improve
student access to and performance in developmental math. Also from
OpenStax, their open textbooks are now available
<http://whattheythink.com/news/87731-openstax-textbooks-now-available-through-bookstore-digital-access-programs/>
through VitalSource and RedShelf, two major digital textbook providers for
college campuses.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING: To all the folks celebrating tomorrow!

OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: BCcampus’ Festival of Learning is set to return next
spring! The deadline to submit a proposal is December 11th.
https://bccampus.ca/festival-of-learning-2018/call-for-proposals/

CALL FOR PROPOSALS EXTENDED: Missed out on submitting to #OER18 in Bristol?
Fret not, the deadline has been extended to November 26th.
https://oer18.oerconf.org/call-for-proposals/.

REPORTING BACK: Last week nearly 200 early career open advocates from
around the world convened in Berlin, Germany as participants of the 4th
annual OpenCon <http://www.opencon2017.org/>. This year’s program featured
four plenary sessions ranging in topics from next generation open
initiatives to a highly regarded panel on diversity, equity and inclusion,
as well as for the first time seven regional workshops
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2TMunXmv3M> and a full day do-a-thon! To
catch up on what you missed, check out #OpenCon
<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OpenCon&src=typd&lang=en>, outputs from
the conference on GitHub <https://github.com/sparcopen/doathon/issues>, and
recordings from the event here <https://www.youtube.com/user/R2RCvideo>.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those
impacted

FROM ILLINOIS: “Jose Loazda, freshman in FAA, notes that many books are
published by the University, and that professors expect a quick turnaround
to purchase books right away. “I have to make a pros and cons list for each
book like, ‘Do I really need it?’” Lozada said. “A lot of classes’
curriculums follow the books, so if you don’t have it, then you cannot
follow along.” Ashley Garcia, junior in Education, said she sometimes just
asks classmates to borrow their textbooks, or sometimes she will split it
with someone.” Read more >
<https://dailyillini.com/news/2017/11/14/students-seek-cheaper-alternative-versions-textbooks/>

FROM TEXAS: “Through our membership...Texas Tech instructors can easily
find affordable, quality textbook solutions that have not only been
reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess
their quality,” Gerlich said, “but also are funded, published and licensed
to be freely used, adapted and distributed.” Read more >
<http://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/texas-tech-university-libraries-encourage-open-access-materials/855651001>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Each edition, we’ll highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource

Authors working in partnership with the Rebus Community have just released
a new open textbook, Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship
<https://press.rebus.community/media-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/front-matter/front-matter/>.
The book, in their description: “is the first edition of a modular open
textbook designed for entrepreneurial journalism, media innovation, and
related courses.” The book will be available for print-on-demand in
December and you can read more about it here
<https://press.rebus.community/media-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/?utm_source=Rebus%20Community%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=41f4b9d3d2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c42869f96a-41f4b9d3d2-73374989>
.

The Center for OER and Language Learning is out with an openly-licensed
student workbook called Recorridos
<https://espanolabierto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Recorridos_Don-Quijote-Student-text-2017.pdf>
to improve understanding of don Quixote in upper-level spanish courses.
More information here <http://espanolabierto.org/recorridos/>.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

If a textbook falls in the forest… | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/if-textbook-falls-forest

Interesting to Consider >>

The Era of the Textbook is over | EdWeek

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2017/11/the_era_of_the_textbook_is_over.html

A PlayBook to Go Open: 5 Steps to Adopting OER | EdSurge

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-11-19-a-playbook-to-go-open-5-steps-to-adopting-oer

OER: Bigger than Affordability | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2017/11/01/oer-catalyst-national-conversation-about-public-higher-education

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>.
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