[Open-education] OER Digest: August 23rd, 2018

Thu Aug 23 19:52:01 UTC 2018

>From Kaitlyn Vitez, U.S. PIRG | Volume 64 | August 23rd, 2018
With updates from Tim Holt, Mo Nyamwena, and Camille Thomas

THE OER DIGEST

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

LAST CALL: The call for proposals
<https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/07/30/2018-16264/applications-for-new-awards-fund-for-the-improvement-of-postsecondary-education-open-textbooks-pilot>
for the US Department of Education’s $5 million OER grant program closes
next week on August 29th. Last week, officials held a Q&A session for
interested applicants with technical questions; you can watch a recording
here <https://www2.ed.gov/programs/otp/applicant.html>.

STATE UPDATES: California bills supporting open are moving forward: AB2385
<https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2385&search_keywords=textbooks>was
sent to the governor’s desk; it urges textbook publishers to inform
students and faculty about information such as the substantive differences
in editions to help cut costs. SB947
<https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB947&search_keywords=%22electronic+resources%22>,
which would require the state Department of Education to develop digital
literacy best practices for school districts, passed through the Assembly.

LEARNING REGISTRY: The Department of Education announced
<https://medium.com/@OfficeofEdTech/department-makes-learning-registry-code-base-available-and-invites-public-to-innovate-federal-5e3555b2e98f>
that it would end support for the Learning Registry, a public index of
metadata about learning resources.The project was launched in 2011, and
played a role in the #GoOpen campaign. The Department will post the code
base, documentation, and archived metadata on GitHub
<https://github.com/LearningRegistry/>after closing submissions for new
data on September 1st. Federal support ends September 24th.

NOW TRENDING: Educause released its 2018 Horizon Report
<https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2018/8/2018horizonreport.pdf>,
listing OER as one of the key trends accelerating technology adoption in
higher education for the next three to five years. “Perhaps the most
powerful potential outcome of OER is the opportunity for institutions to
develop a broader set of investments in course development and
infrastructure”.REPORT SAVINGS: At OpenEd 2013 OER leaders Nicole Allen and
David Wiley issued a challenge to the OER community to reach $1 billion in
student savings by 2018. SPARC announced an effort to collect information
on whether the community reached this goal. Click here
<https://sparcopen.org/news/2018/can-oer-save-students-1-billion/> to learn
more and sign up to help.LOWER PRICES?: The National Association of College
Bookstores (NACS) has released the findings from its annual survey of
textbook costs
<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/16/students-are-spending-less-ever-course-materials>.
The survey concluded that annual spending on course materials has dropped
to a low of $484, spurred by “increased use of free and lower-cost digital
and rental materials.” Advocates point to the 32% of students who use OER
and other free materials as driving the downward trend. Others
<https://bryanalexander.org/research-topics/students-are-driving-textbook-prices-down-and-oer-forward/>
question the finding that only 17% of students download texts for free,
speculating that unreported illegal downloads may be nearly twice that
number.ANOTHER MILESTONE: After OpenStax declared last month that its books
were in use at half of American colleges and universities, Lumen Learning
announced
<https://lumenlearning.com/announcements/2018-08-21/?utm_campaign=Back%20to%20School%202018&utm_content=76069166&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter>
that in June, more than 100,000 students were using its products per term.
The company has doubled enrollment in its courses each term since it
launched in 2012.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

LEADOERS: SPARC announced the 2018-2019 cohort of fellows
<https://sparcopen.org/our-work/open-education-leadership-program/2018-2019/>
in their Open Education Leadership Program. These 24 academic librarians
will complete a yearlong program to strengthen OER leadership skills.CALL
FOR PROPOSALS: MERLOT and the Online Learning Consortium are seeking
proposals for the OLC Innovate conference on April 3rd-5th, 2019. This
year’s theme is “Moving Mountains in Digital, Blended, and Online
Learning.” Proposals are due by September 12th. Submit here:
https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/attend-2019/innovate/cfp/LAST CALL:
Early bird registration for the OpenEd conference in Niagara Falls ends on
August 31st. Register here: https://openedconference.org/2018/

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

WRITING FROM CALIFORNIA: "The average amount that students spend on
textbooks throughout their entire undergraduate experience at [CSU Channel
Islands] is $6,206.67," says openCI Ambassador Program faculty coordinator
Jacob Jenkins. For students who must work their way through college, not
having to pay for textbooks can be a game-changer. Jacobs explains that
many of CSUCI's students are first-generation and Pell Grant recipients who
hold down a job while going to school. Read more >>>
<https://www2.calstate.edu/csu-system/news/Pages/Affordable-Learning-Solutions-Z-majors.aspx>

PODCASTING FROM NEW YORK: Theater professor Mya Brown talks about finding
and developing OER with her students at SUNY Oswego on “OER Stories” with
Felice Banner. “There’s this misconception that if [the textbook] is not
from some big [publishing] house, that it has less value… but the wealth of
knowledge from people that are currently working in the industry, to me,
was just invaluable.” Listen here >>>
<https://soundcloud.com/suny-oer-services/oer-stories-with-mya-brown>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Washington State University has published Essentials of Abnormal Psychology
<https://opentext.wsu.edu/abnormalpsychology/>, written by Alexis Bridley
and Lee W. Daffin Jr. and edited by Carrie Cuttler. The book covers five
key categories of psychological disorders and lays out different models of
abnormal psychology, plus an overview of clinical assessment, diagnosis,
and treatment.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

Local schools tackle aging textbook problem, shortages by going online l
FOX25 OK City

https://okcfox.com/news/back-to-school/local-schools-tackle-aging-textbook-problem-shortages-by-going-online

Interesting to Consider >>

Why a professor buys his books from the bookstore | Chuck Pearson
https://chuckpearson.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/why-a-professor-buys-his-books-from-the-bookstore/

New semester, same burden | U.S. PIRG
https://medium.com/u-s-pirg/new-semester-same-old-tricks-8ea46b54f456

The campus push for open educational resources continues into 2018 | The
Arbiter
http://arbiteronline.com/the-campus-push-for-open-educational-resources-continues-into-2018

Op-Ed: Dual Credit Programs – It Could be Better | El Paso Herald-Post

https://elpasoheraldpost.com/op-ed-dual-credit-programs-it-could-be-better/

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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