[Open-education] OER Digest - February 22nd, 2018

[OER Digest]

>From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 51 | February 22nd, 2018

With updates from Nicole Allen

THE OER DIGEST

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

FROM THE DEPARTMENT: The Department of Education’s open licensing
requirement for educational resources produced through competitive grants
is now in full swing. Language is now being included in new grant programs
specifying the requirement for prospective grantees. Check it out
<https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/02/05/2018-02246/applications-for-new-awards-native-american-career-and-technical-education-program#p-255>
in the recent call for applications to the Native American Career and
Technical Education Program.

IN THE STATES: A bill
<http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB454> in Virginia
directing public higher education institutions to adopt guidelines for OER
has passed the House and is up for a hearing this afternoon in the Senate.
Advocates are pushing to remove language that would call for guidelines on
“low-cost commercially published materials.” A bill
<https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/(X(1)S(lfyjojf24awyiodsurwyqejl))/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=2328&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1>
in Hawaii that originally drew concern has been amended to create a
statewide task force and grant fund for open education, following the
recommendations of stakeholders and advocates across the state. Legislators
in New Jersey, California, Ohio, and Iowa also introduced bills that could
impact OER.

NEW MICROSOFT PARTNERSHIP: Microsoft announced
<https://www.schoolbuyersonline.com/doc/edgate-supports-microsoft-education-with-thousands-educational-standards-and-oer-0001>
a partnership with EdGate to supply “links and metadata for carefully
curated and vetted OER that have been aligned to national and international
K-12 educational standards” through their Educational Resources platform in
Office 365. They aim to narrow results so teachers can find resources that
are specifically applicable to their own state or regional curricular
standards.

ON MACMILLAN: Textbook publishing giant Macmillan announced
<http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/02/prweb15194532.htm> what they call a
new OER-based service last week. The announcement triggered much discussion
among OER community members, particularly around how the word 'open' is
used by industry members when they are charging a fee for the wraparound
service. Macmillan has since said that they plan to make any OER used in
their courses publicly available on their partner Intellus’ website. Stay
tuned for more information as Macmillan launches the courses throughout the
spring.

STUDENTS OUT FRONT: Students are increasingly joining the vanguard of
on-campus efforts to move away from expensive course materials and support
OER. At West Virginia University
<http://www.wboy.com/news/education/wvu-partners-with-state-legislature-to-introduce-legislation-focused-on-open-textbooks/963771517>,
students have recruited legislators to introduce an OER-focused bill. At
Tufts
<https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2018/02/09/textbook-exchange-sells-100000-worth-of-books-this-semester/>,
students created a textbook exchange to help facilitate the used book
market on campus. Students from East Tennessee State University
<http://easttennessean.com/2018/02/18/etsu-becomes-new-member-of-open-textbook-network-grants-students-access-to-free-textbooks/>
encouraged their institution to join the Open Textbook Network. At Grand
Valley State University
<http://www.lanthorn.com/article/2018/02/news-student-senate-working-on-textbook-grant>,
students are collaborating with faculty to advocate for campus OER grants.

NEW STAFF: Creative Commons HQ welcomes
<https://creativecommons.org/2018/02/12/new-staff-members/> Jennryn Wetzler
as Assistant Director of Open Education. She’s worked on open education for
years through the U.S. Department of State.

OPEN ED WEEK: We’re less than two weeks away from the start of Open
Education Week 2018. This year, it “is a celebration of the Global Open
Education Movement. Its purpose is to raise awareness about the movement
and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide.” See the call for
participation, and more ideas for hosting events here.
<https://www.openeducationweek.org/page/call-for-participation>


OPEN CONFERENCES

Upcoming Events, Proposal and Registration Deadlines, Report-Backs

SUBMIT PROPOSAL: PressED is a twitter conference (#pressedconf18
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/15XZUTvLi7VAf-kBAGuHngYuuUa4KM-ixQ3jnGGgfHqE/edit#pressedconf18>)
looking into how WordPress is used in teaching, pedagogy and research.
Submit a proposal by March 2nd here: http://pressedconf.org/


STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

IN K-12, FROM NORTH CAROLINA: “One of the biggest values of using the two
comprehensive sets of open educational resources, says Kingsley, was that
it enabled the district to free up dollars that would have been spent on
textbooks for professional learning. The district has invested more than
$1.5 million in professional learning this year tied to the new curriculum
materials.” Read More >
<http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_forwards_pd_watch/2018/02/how_systems_can_support_high-quality_curricula.html>

IN H.E., FROM CALIFORNIA: “It takes 19 hours working a minimum wage job to
pay for a $200 book, according to data collected by Hancock, and Scarffe
said the college serves a very high percentage of low-income and first
generation college students. In a survey of 609 students conducted by
Hancock’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness in 2017, 65 percent of
students said they had dropped a class due to the price of a required
textbook. Sixty-one percent of students surveyed said they spent at least
$200 on textbooks each semester, and 45 percent said they had avoided
registering for courses with costly required textbooks.” Read More >
<http://www.santamariasun.com/school-scene/17130/hancock-takes-steps-to-save-students-big-money-on-textbooks/>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

BCcampus Open Education’s Lauri M. Aesoph released a Self-Publishing Guide
for producing open textbooks. The 188-page guide covers everything from
early planning to post-publication actions, and is available under CC-BY.
See more about the guide and BCcampus’ other helpful docs here
<https://bccampus.ca/2018/02/20/introducing-the-bccampus-open-education-self-publishing-guide/>,
or go straight to the PDF
<http://solr.bccampus.ca:8001/bcc/file/1d31f3b7-dd9f-4f47-97eb-430afb45ead6/1/Self-Publishing-Guide-1518744486.pdf>
.


WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

Where OER can (and can’t) close the opportunity gap | OpenStax

https://openstax.org/blog/where-oer-can-and-cant-close-opportunity-gap

Interesting to Consider >>

Services Go Up, Stuff Goes Down (Except Textbooks) | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/services-go-stuff-goes-down-except-textbooks

5 Insights to Help Prepare Students for the Future of Work | EdWeek Market
Brief

https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/5-insights-help-prepare-students-future-work-economist-google/

What We Mean When We Say "Ecosystem Coordinator" | The Learning Accelerator

https://learningaccelerator.org/blog/what-we-mean-when-we-say-ecosystem-coordinator

Stories of Sustainability | American Libraries

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/stories-of-sustainability/

Pearson hit again as weak U.S. demand weighs on education group | Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pearson-outlook/pearson-hit-again-as-weak-u-s-demand-weighs-on-education-group-idUSKBN1F60ZZ


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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