[Open-education] OER Digest - September 6, 2018

Fri Sep 7 01:26:46 UTC 2018

>From Mo Nyamweya, SPARC | Volume 65 | September 6th, 2018

With updates from Nicole Allen, Dave Dillon, Nicole Finkbeiner, and Kaitlyn
Vitez

THE OER DIGEST

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

FEDERAL POLICY UPDATE: Applications for the U.S. Department of Education’s Open
Textbook Pilot <https://www2.ed.gov/programs/otp/index.html> grant program
were due last week, and the 1-3 successful proposals are expected to be
announced by the end of the month. Meanwhile, things are heating up on
Capitol Hill as Congress enters final negotiations on the Fiscal Year 2019
education budget. Members of the OER community have been writing, calling,
and tweeting <https://twitter.com/search?q=opentextbooksfy19&src=typd>
elected officials to advocate renewal of the $5 million Open Textbook
Pilot. Congressional champions circulated a letter
<http://sparcopen.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/20180905-FY19-Open-Textbooks-Pilot-Renewal-Congress.pdf>
recommending language that would also strengthen open licensing
requirements, increase the number of potential awards, and lengthen the
application window for future grants. Letters of support were also sent by
SPARC <https://sparcopen.org/our-work/open-textbooks-fy19/> and by student
leaders organized by USPIRG
<https://uspirg.org/news/usp/60-student-leaders-call-congress-renew-open-textbook-pilot>.
News on the outcome of these efforts could come as early as next week.

ZED CRED: Kwantlen Polytechnic University has introduced
<https://www.vancourier.com/kpu-creates-second-program-with-no-textbook-costs-1.23418423>
their second degree with zero textbook costs. Now, along with a certificate
in arts, KPU has added their adult graduation diploma to the “Zed Cred”
program. KPU’s adult education graduation program enables students to
complete their grade 12 equivalency credits using open resources,
eliminating a costly financial barrier for adult learners. BCcampus gave
KPU a $35,000 grant to help run the program.

NEW OER SEARCH TOOL: SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library has developed and
launched a new search tool called OASIS <https://oasis.geneseo.edu/>
(Openly Available Sources Integrated Search), which can access 52 different
OER sources that contain more than 150,000 items. OASIS offers users the
ability to search a range of materials, including textbooks, courses and
corresponding materials, interactive simulations, public domain books,
audiobooks, modules, open access books, videos and podcasts on a variety of
topics. Users can also limit searches by license or by faculty review.

OER PLAYBOOK: Lumen Learning has released their *OER Champion Playbook*,
which provides tips, how-tos, examples and tools intended to help OER
leaders and advocates build effective OER initiatives. You can sign up here
<https://info.lumenlearning.com/enter-playbook> or access the Playbook
directly here <https://lumenlearning.com/champion-playbook/>.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

FELLOWSHIP: U.S. PIRG is seeking a higher education fellow to organize
student governments in support of OER, among other higher education issues.
Interested applicants (or current seniors who will graduate soon) can apply
here <https://jobs.uspirg.org/fellowship.html>.

REMINDER: SPARC is seeking help from the OER community to document the
cumulative student savings through OER to present at the OpenEd Conference.
The deadline to contribute data from your campus or project is September
26, and you can sign up through this form
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NvoFuAunHmJtjmGdKPbcFpAdB1opNoL81b5WgZZ2PyA/edit>
.

DUE SOON: 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>.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM LOUISIANA: With more professors switching from traditional textbooks
to OER over the last year, students across the Louisiana Community and
Technical College System saved $2.7 million. "It's going to make teaching a
little more efficient. Students can get it immediately. Now there's no
waiting. You get the resource the second you click on the link." Read more
>>>
<https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/not-using-printed-textbooks-saved-louisiana-community-college-students-27-million/289-588342972>

#TEXTBOOKBROKE: Ontario post-secondary institutions have announced their
own #textbookbroke campaign, hoping to highlight the devastating costs of
textbooks. Students will use social media to encourage institutions,
faculty, and governments to fund, adopt, or adapt OER. “eCampus Ontario has
created an entire library of free options... We are asking instructors and
institutions to use the library and remove the burden of textbooks from the
backs of students, figuratively and literally.” Read more >>>
<https://www.collegestudentalliance.ca/2018-news>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Georgia Southwestern State University has released a set of ancillary
materials for Experimental Psychology
<https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/psychology-ancillary/9/>, created by Judy
Orton Grissett. The materials include slide presentations, test banks, and
online resources and they are intended to be used for psychology research
methods courses.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

What students should know about OER and why professors should use them |
The Lantern

https://www.thelantern.com/2018/08/letter-to-the-editor-what-students-should-know-about-oer-and-why-professors-should-use-them/

How to find, curate and assess OER | eSchool News

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2018/09/06/how-to-find-curate-and-assess-oer/?all

Interesting to Consider >>

4 Questions authors are asking about open textbooks | Text & Academic
Authors Association

https://blog.taaonline.net/2018/08/4-questions-authors-are-asking-about-open-textbooks/

OpenStax partner schools expected to save students $17.4M on textbooks |
Rice University

http://news.rice.edu/2018/08/22/openstax-partner-schools-expected-to-save-students-17-4m-on-textbooks/

Outrage over university’s $999 online textbook | Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/08/28/universitys-999-online-textbook-creates-confusion-and-outrage

6 trends shaping the near and far future of higher ed | eCampus News

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2018/08/28/6-trends-shaping-the-near-and-far-future-of-higher-ed

The questionable ethics of the textbook market | The Crow’s Nest

http://crowsneststpete.com/2018/08/27/the-questionable-ethics-of-the-textbook-market/

- - -

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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