[Open-education] OER Digest - September 20, 2018

Thu Sep 20 20:15:51 UTC 2018

>From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 66 | September 20th, 2018

With updates from Nicole Allen

THE OER DIGEST

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

FEDERAL UPDATE: Last week, Congress unveiled its final Fiscal Year 2019
education budget, including proposed renewal
<https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-king-smith-secure-5-million-for-competitive-grants-supporting-open-textbooks-in-fy19-funding-bill->
of the $5 million Open Textbook Pilot grant program first funded earlier
this year. Along with renewed funding, Congress responded to concerns
voiced by the OER community by adding more explicit instructions for the
Department of Education this time around, including requiring a larger
number of awards, a longer application period, and clarifying open
licensing requirements. The bill currently awaits a vote in the House.
Meanwhile, the Department is expected to announce the first round
<https://www2.ed.gov/programs/otp/applicant.html> of awards by the end of
next week.

STATE UPDATE: A bill
<https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2385>
in California requiring textbook publishers to take better measures to
inform students of the cost of book, including to “post in a prominent
location on their Internet Web sites, among other things, a detailed
description of how the newest edition differs from the previous edition.”

NEW BUSINESS: OpenStax announced
<https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/09/18/openstax-adds-business-textbook-series.aspx>
the creation of a new series of six openly licensed business textbooks, the
first of which was released this week. The series will cover nearly all the
textbooks required for an Associate of Arts degree in Business.

FREQUENTLY ASKED: Open Oregon published a new FAQ tool
<http://faq.openoregon.org/>this week, a collaborative effort aimed at
supporting librarians and faculty exploring OER. The site not only includes
Q and A, but a ‘Who to Contact” page for all of their campuses in state,
“Words of Encouragement,” and more.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

CONFERENCE: The Michigan OER Summit is tomorrow, September 21st. See the
agenda here. <http://www.mioersummit.org/>

REGISTER: Early bird registration for the Illinois OER Summit on November
30th is now open! More information is available on their website.
<http://www.codlrc.org/OERSummit#registration>

REPORT BACK: The Canadian Association of Research Libraries organized a
full-day discussion towards enhancing Canadian library involvement in OER.
Read the report-out
<http://www.carl-abrc.ca/news/carl-brings-together-oer-librarian-leaders-to-identify-priorities-for-action/.>
.

OPPORTUNITY: SPARC is looking for mentors
<https://sparcopen.org/our-work/open-education-leadership-program/#mentor>
to join its Open Education Leadership Program. Applications are due by
November 1.

OPPORTUNITY: The Open Textbook Network has opened applications for their
inaugural OER Librarian Certificate program. Find out more here.
<http://research.cehd.umn.edu/otn/oer-cert/>

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM ILLINOIS: "Studies have shown that courses that use OER have lower
percentage of students in a class who get a D or an F, or who withdraw.
Also, one study suggests that the use of OER may positively impact
disadvantaged student populations at greater rates than the general
populations," she said. "This means that OER is not only saving students
money, but contributing to student success overall." Read more >
<https://www.dailyherald.com/submitted/20180914/clc-students-save-more-than-850000-using-free-textbooks-college-announces-illinois-community-college-oer-summit>

FROM PENNSYLVANIA: “In a perfect world, the sharing of knowledge would be
accessible to everyone. Students wouldn’t have to pay to do homework online
when they’re already paying tens of thousands of dollars to attend
university in the first place.” Read more >
<http://www.duqsm.com/access-codes-raise-textbook-prices-limit-accessibility/>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

VT Publishing and the University Libraries at Virginia Tech announced the
finalized publication of it’s CC BY-SA textbook Electromagnetics Volume 1
<https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/openvt/2018/09/12/announcing-electromagnetics-volume-1-by-ellingson/>,
by Steven W. Ellingson. The book, as described, “is intended to serve as a
primary textbook for a one-semester first course in undergraduate
engineering electromagnetics within the third year of a bachelor of science
degree program,” and comes with openly-licensed accompanying problem sets,
a solution manual, and LaTeX source files.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

An open-source solution for soaring college costs | the Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-open-source-solution-for-soaring-college-costs/2018/09/12/9330d670-b6ae-11e8-a2c5-3187f427e253_story.html?utm_term=.e435b0da3a0e

Interesting to Consider >>

Traditional Knowledge and the Commons | CC Blog

https://creativecommons.org/2018/09/18/traditional-knowledge-and-the-commons-the-open-movement-listening-and-learning/

Students fight back against sky-high textbook costs | Okanagan Life

https://okanaganlife.com/students-fight-back-sky-high-textbook-costs/

AMS Textbook Broke campaign urges university, professors to expand access
to affordable learning materials | The Ubyssey

https://www.ubyssey.ca/news/AMS-textbook-broke-campaign-urges-access-to-affordable-learning-materials/

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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