[Open-education] OER Digest - February 7th, 2019

Fri Feb 8 03:17:00 UTC 2019

>From Ethan Senack, Creative Commons USA | Volume 74 | February 7th, 2019

THE OER DIGEST

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

POLICY UPDATES: With the new legislative year underway, a host of OER bills
have been introduced at the state level. Bills to create course
designations for low-cost/no-cost materials passed
<https://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2019/hb2380/> the House in Virginia,
and were introduced in Washington (4-year schools
<https://legiscan.com/WA/bill/HB1701/2019> and 2-year schools
<https://legiscan.com/WA/bill/HB1702/2019>). Legislators in Minnesota
introduced a bill
<https://trackbill.com/bill/minnesota-senate-file-699-z-degree-program-at-the-minnesota-state-colleges-and-universities-mnscu-establishment-and-appropriation-open-educational-resources-review-by-instructors-requirement/1661297/>
requiring each college to offer an “Z-degree”. New York introduced a pair
of bills creating
<https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A2961&term=&Memo=Y> a NY OER
Council, and requiring
<https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/a2893> Boards of Trustees
to report back about use of OER on their campuses. Hawaii and Massachusetts
have proposed bills to study the feasibility
<https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=915>
of a statewide OER initiative and greater investment
<https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/HD2603> in digital, low cost
materials, respectively.

SUING OVER INCLUSIVE ACCESS: A used textbook store is suing
<https://www.postandcourier.com/news/textbook-scam-alleged-in-federal-lawsuit-against-sc-s-biggest/article_d266c94a-262e-11e9-a6dd-ab6ac37fa3d1.html>
Trident Technical College in South Carolina over their “inclusive access”
policy. The school has contracted with Pearson for access to their
catalogue, paid for by an automatic fee on students tuition bill. While the
specifics or the legal challenge aren’t clear yet, the store calls into
question two particular aspects of the deal - that the college guaranteed
Pearson a certain number of enrollments in the program (falling short of
which, Pearson would be allowed to revert all materials to their full
cost), and that the deal did not legitimately offer students a way to
“opt-out” of the program, as required by federal regulation, because access
codes are  essentially required to participate in class. More to come as
this progresses.

OPEN UP 2.0: Open Up Resources released
<https://openupresources.org/open-up-resources-announces-second-edition-open-up-resources-6-8-math-full-spanish-version/?utm_content=83844781&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-240224538>
the second version of their lauded Math 6-8 curriculum this week, which
includes updates and a full Spanish version. Per their CEO, “The second
edition of Open Up Resources 6–8 Math is a massive step forward for
education equity, and a perfect example of how we’re committed to helping
all students and districts succeed.”

ON THE RISE:  A new report
<https://www.simbainformation.com/Open-Educational-Resources-Schools-12119983/>
from Simba Information, a high-profile industry research group, finds thats
use of OER in K-12 education has increased. While the report itself is not
public, this is their key takeway: "Despite the challenges with using
OER—like identifying and sustaining quality resources amid a plethora of
available material—schools' good experiences with OER likely will lead them
to continue down that path, while positive feedback shared will encourage
other educators to give OER a try.”

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

EVENTS: We’re just one month out from Open Education Week (March 4-8th).
Submit your events to the official site here
<https://www.openeducationweek.org/> AND send them to us to share in the
Digest!

REGISTER:  NC Live is hosting their annual conference, themed “The Future
is Open” on May 13th in Greensboro. Proposals are due in two weeks, and you
can register here <https://www.nclive.org/annualconference>.

PROPOSALS: The call for proposals for OE Global 2019 in Milan, November
26-28th, opened this week. Session ideas can be submitted here.
<https://conference.oeconsortium.org/2019/cfp/>

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM NEW YORK: So, before taking their PUB 320 final, Kruger’s students got
to savor their achievement — with cake and an unveiling of their scholarly
work, “Models and Mechanisms of Public Health.” Every student in the class
received a bound copy of the textbook, which they wrote during the semester
and used as the reading material for the course. The book covered three
main topics: environmental health, health behavior theories and health
disparities.The textbook was created as an open educational resource,
meaning it’s free and accessible to anyone, anywhere. That’s what made the
project more special to sophomore Alexandra Kouptsova, who designed the
cover. Read More >
<http://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/stories/2019/02/kruger-students-textbook.html>

FROM TORONTO: With a provincial grant, Hinić-Frlog worked with staff from
the University of Toronto Mississauga Library and U of T’s Centre for
Teaching Support & Innovation to create a nine-chapter textbook that is
built around Hinić-Frlog’s biology course and includes review questions and
learning objectives as well, as links to external podcast and video
resources. “It fits exactly what I want to do in every lecture,”
Hinić-Frlog says. “This is a living document and can change as we are using
it. Before I post a lecture, I edit the book to integrate parts of the
chapters into my lectures, and parts of my lectures into the textbook.” Read
More >
<https://www.utoronto.ca/news/free-textbook-students-u-t-mississauga-gets-its-first-open-access-digital-resource>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Mixing it up this week, we want to highlight a set of new, high quality
simulations from PhET Simulations at CU Boulder. These animations, licensed
CC-BY, cover a variety of topics in physics, chemistry, and more. See one
of their latest - Energy Forms and Changes
<https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/energy-forms-and-changes>, or
follow them on Twitter <https://twitter.com/PhETsims> for more updates.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

Faculty save students $1.1 million on course materials | UAB News

https://www.uab.edu/news/campus/item/10154-faculty-save-students-1-1-million-on-course-materials

Interesting to Consider >>

'Inclusive Access' and the Comcast Problem | Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/inclusive-access-and-comcast-problem

Is it possible to decolonize the Commons? | Creative Commons

https://creativecommons.org/2019/01/30/jane-anderson/

OER as an Institutional Survival Strategy | Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/oer-institutional-survival-strategy

The rising cost of textbooks is making life more difficult for students |
The Triangle

https://www.thetriangle.org/opinion/the-rising-cost-of-textbooks-is-making-life-more-difficult-for-students/

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>.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/open-education/attachments/20190207/9be3ef3b/attachment-0001.html>