[Open-education] OER DIGEST- October 26th, 2017

[OER Digest]

>From Kaitlyn Vitez (USPIRG) | Volume 43 | October 26th, 2017

With updates from Brady Yano, Ethan Senack, and Katie Steen


THE OER DIGEST

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

HAPPY OPEN ACCESS WEEK: In celebration of International Open Access Week,
Stephen Hawking announced that his 1966 Doctoral Thesis on Properties of
Expanding Universes would be made publicly available for the first time.
Demand to view his work was so high it crashed the Cambridge University’s
repository
<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/23/stephen-hawkings-expanding-universes-thesis-breaks-the-internet?CMP=twt_a-science_b-gdnscience>!
Be sure to check out local events near you, and follow the conversation at
#OAWeek <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OAWeek&src=tyah&lang=en>.

CENGAGE SIGNALS CHANGE: Earlier this month, publishing giant Cengage
launched OpenNow,
<https://news.cengage.com/corporate/cengage-launches-opennow-a-suite-of-technology-enhanced-oer-products-for-general-education-courses/>
a new product line targeting general education courses. Cengage has
indicated that they plan to license the  narrative and assessment content
in OpenNow under a CC-BY open license. OpenNow includes content from
OpenStax and other sources, new content created by Cengage, and content
previously under a Cengage copyright. Cengage advertises the starting cost
per course as $25.

CALL TO ACTION: Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo published a letter
<http://bryantarchway.com/rhode-island-initiative-cutting-the-costs-of-college-textbooks/>
last week that highlighted the state’s open textbook initiatives. The
governor’s letter calls for students, faculty, and staff to do more at
Bryant University and other schools to do more to promote OER.

KEY QUOTE: “One year into the initiative, we can report over $870,000 in
savings for over 6,000 Rhode Island students. And that number is growing.”

TWO NEW TOOLS: Creative Commons USA, the Rebus Community, and the Open
Textbook Network created an Adaptable Open Educational Resources Publishing
Agreement
<http://research.cehd.umn.edu/otn/adaptable-open-educational-resources-publishing-agreement/?utm_source=Rebus+Community+Newsletter&utm_campaign=66591c20ec-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c42869f96a-66591c20ec-86111477>,
designed to be a starting point for higher education institutions looking
to contract with their faculty to create OER. Earlier this week SPARC in
conjunction with a team of librarians released a new resource entitled OER
Mythbusting <https://sparcopen.org/our-work/oer-mythbusting/>, aimed at
busting seven of the most common North American higher education OER myths.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: On behalf of the entire OER Digest team, happy birthday to
our friends at BCcampus who earlier this week celebrated the 5th birthday
of the BC Open Textbook Project!



OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

FEEDBACK: Have feedback after attending #OpenEd17
<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OpenEd17&src=tyah&lang=en>? Submit your
suggestions here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScWxEuJXzDEN-xfPpgCGyetySXrO9Oz2ZTSZgExEtrsjmdZyw/viewform>
.

REPORT BACKS: Read (or listen to) some hot takes on #OpenEd17
<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OpenEd17&src=tyah&lang=en>: Kelsey Merkley
<http://uncommonwomen.org/uncommon-opened17>, Daniel Williamson
<https://twitter.com/OpenStax/status/919949753353322497>, Amanda Coolidge
<https://bccampus.ca/2017/10/18/reflections-on-open-ed-2017-amanda-coolidge/>,
Bonni Stachowiak
<http://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/opened17-recap-teaching-lessons/>, Karen
Cangialosi
<https://karencang.net/uncategorized/towards-a-practice-of-open-as-commoning/>,
David Wiley <https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/5167>, Lauri Aesoph
<https://bccampus.ca/2017/10/18/opened17-diving-deeper-into-open/>, and Scott
Robison
<http://scottrobison.net/openeducation/a-not-so-direct-opened17-reflection-openwrapping/>.
Send us your own additions at oerdigest at gmail.com.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: OE Global 2018 has extended their call for proposals
until October 30th!
https://conference.oeconsortium.org/2018/call-for-proposals/

REGISTER: Michigan is hosting a #GoOpen Summit at three sites across the
state on December 5th.The program’s breakout sessions are designed for K-12
district administrators.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/GoOpen_Summit_Flyer_600903_7.pdf

REGISTER: OpenCon Live will be taking place November 11-13th. Tune in for a
few hours, or a few days, from wherever you are to become an expert in
different areas of Open, build your network, and help accelerate progress!
http://www.opencon2017.org/opencon_2017_live

REGISTER: The 2017 Textbook Affordability Conference will be held on the
campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology, November 10th-12th.
https://tac.nacs.org/


STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM MISSOURI: “At first we were seeing some resistance [from instructors
to OER],” scholarly communications librarian Josh Bolick. “But I think they
are beginning to see that this is a reality moving forward and it can not
be ignored… More lower-income bracket students are going to college today
than ever before, so you see universities around the country starting to
pay more attention to cost issues.” Read more>>
<http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article180055231.html>

FROM CONNECTICUT: The Daily Campus editorial board highlights the work of
student activists in promoting OER at UConn, and calls on the school to
provide more resources to make the switch to OER in introductory courses: “As
long as the textbooks are of the same quality, there is no justifiable
reason for professors not to switch to open source resources. Students are
already weighed down by the cost of tuition and room and board, as well as
other university fees and expenses. If the university can save students
several thousand dollars by merely switching textbooks, it should do so.” Read
more >>>
<http://dailycampus.com/stories/2017/10/20/editorial-oer-are-a-service-to-students>


HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

The Rebus community released their first book, Financial Strategy for
Public Managers
<https://about.rebus.community/2017/10/financial-strategy-for-public-managers-now-available/?utm_source=Rebus+Community+Newsletter&utm_campaign=66591c20ec-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c42869f96a-66591c20ec-86111477>,
by Sharon Kioko and Justin Marlowe. It was peer-reviewed by a team of eight
experts, and holds the top ranking on Amazon for Government Accounting
books. It covers everything from the basics of accounting to the politics
and process of budget preparation.


WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

EdTech Hero: Barbara Soots paves the way for OER adoption in Washington |
EdScoop

http://edscoop.com/edtech-hero-barbara-soots-washington

Interesting to Consider >>

A Horizontal Move in the Right Direction | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/10/26/benefits-horizontal-approach-open-educational-resources-essay

Imagining the “open” university: sharing scholarship to improve research
and education | PLOS Biology

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002614

Openness and the Decline of the Textbook Author | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/10/24/openly-licensed-educational-content-and-decline-author-essay

Why am I spending three hundred dollars on textbooks? | The Student Life

http://tsl.news/opinions/6992/

Textbook Capitalism | The Stanford Daily

https://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/10/20/textbook-capitalism/

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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