[Open-education] OER Digest: January 10th, 2019

Thu Jan 10 21:05:14 UTC 2019

>From Kaitlyn Vitez and Cailyn Nagle, U.S. PIRG | Volume 72 | January 10th,
2019

With updates from Nicole Allen

THE OER DIGEST

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

HAPPY NEW YEAR: Happy Public Domain Day! For the first time in twenty
years, U.S copyright expired on hundreds of published works from 1923,
which can now be freely adapted. Books by Aldous Huxley, Kahlil Gibran, and
Robert Frost are now available without restriction online, as well as over
a thousand  works such as of movies and songs. You can check out a partial
list of released works and the history of copyright fights here
<https://law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/>.

FACULTY ATTITUDES ON OER:The Babson Survey Research Group released their
latest report yesterday, "Freeing the Textbook: Educational Resources in
U.S. Higher Education, 2018,"
<https://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/oer.html> a survey of 4,100 faculty,
20% of whom were department chairs. Quotes from faculty
<https://www.chronicle.com/article/Professors-Worry-About-the/245435?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=dcb9119454b24fabbf290730fb99d347&elq=015d97d06feb445fac6a1c84218355ba&elqaid=21917&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=10696>
underline dissatisfaction with traditional textbook publishers and the ways
in which faculty are already working towards textbook affordability beyond
adopting OER. The survey found that nearly half of faculty were aware of
OER, nearinga key threshold in the movement to increase the use of open
textbooks. Other key findings include:

   -

   13% of faculty used an OER as required materials in class,up from 6%
   last year.
   -

   More faculty preferred digital (40%) over paper (25%) materials.
   -

   61% of faculty and 73% of department chairs believe that the cost of
   course materials is a serious problem for their students.
   -

   Faculty are already making changes to existing course materials in line
   with the 5Rs that make the continued growth in OER adoption likely, such as
   replacing content with their own (45%), presenting material in a different
   order (70%) or revising material (20%).

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: Following up on the announcement at OpenEd18 that
the OER movement had saved $1 billion worldwide
<https://sparcopen.org/news/2018/1-billion-in-savings-through-open-educational-resources/>,
the project team released the results of a new study used to estimate
student savings. Based on data gathered from a nationally-representative
sample of 120 U.S. colleges and universities, the study found that OER
saves students $116.94 on average per course when adopted in place of
traditional materials. Read more from SPARC
<https://sparcopen.org/news/2018/estimating-oer-student-savings/> and David
Wiley
<https://analytics.lumenlearning.com/oer-savings-draft/oer-savings-reboot-the-sequel.html>,
and the study will be submitted for publication later this year.

BIG SAVINGS IN THE BIG APPLE: The CUNY System recently released their
first year-end
report
<http://www2.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/page-assets/libraries/open-educational-resources/CUNY_OER_Report_-_Web.pdf>after
receiving $4 million in state funding for OER programming for the 25
schools across the five boroughs. The state’s initial investment has
yielded $9.5 million in savings for 76,000 students, and laid the
groundwork for zero-textbook-cost degrees, city- and state-wide
collaboration, and the creation of ancillary materials beyond textbooks. Campus
Technology
<https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/01/09/oer-based-criminal-justice-associate-program-redesigned-for-zero-textbook-costs.aspx?admgarea=news>
also profiled the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s ZTC associate
degree in criminal justice, which transitioned 20 courses to OER to save
students a projected $2,500 in textbooks costs each while in the program.

NEW AUTHOR: Hello, I’m Cailyn Nagle and I’m excited to be joining the
Digest’s team as the director of U.S. PIRG
<https://uspirg.org/feature/usp/make-higher-education-affordable>’s
Affordable Textbooks Campaign. For the past three years I’ve worked on
college campuses in Southern California to organize students around college
and textbook affordability. I’m looking forward to working with y’all to
recruit and train students to work on OER initiatives. You can find me
@CailynNagle <https://twitter.com/CailynNagle>.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

REGISTER: In advance of Open Ed Week in March, the Open Ed Consortium is
asking open advocates to list events taking place across the globe. Submit
events happening at your campus here <https://www.openeducationweek.org/>.

REGISTER: The California Community College and Cal State University systems
are hosting a joint OER summit, “Beyond Textbook Affordability: Equity and
Achievement Across California,” on February 6th in Los Angeles. Register
here <http://rex.cdl.edu/rex/?mc_cid=c7>.

REGISTER: The Indiana Department of Education is hosting its third annual
#GoOpen Summit In Greenwood on January 24th. Register here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfALL6joHkLQ4WSe1w5DCp_AXltzAXVgoJa5YbpBEjyADrxVQ/viewform>
.

OPPORTUNITY: The Canadian Association of Research Libraries is looking for
a one-year Visiting Program Officer in OER and members for an OER Working
Group. Applications are open to those in Canadian academic libraries. Apply
here <http://www.carl-abrc.ca/news/call-oer-opportunities/> by January 18.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: The Cascadia Open Education Summit has made a call for
proposals
<https://bccampus.ca/events/cascadia-open-education-summit-2019/cascadia-open-education-summit-call-for-proposals/>.
The summit takes place April 17-18, 2019 in Vancouver, and proposals are
due January 25, 2019.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM KANSAS: “Once in office, Ries discovered two resources: Open
Educational Resources through KU libraries, a service that includes a
curated list of more than 500 cheap or free textbooks through the Open
Textbook Library; and Openstax, a nonprofit grant-funded initiative that
re-creates textbooks for high-enrollment classes. And he found like-minded
people on campus — librarians, faculty and representatives from KU
Bookstore — who were all working toward the same goal of reducing textbook
costs.”  Read more >
<http://www2.ljworld.com/news/ku/2018/dec/24/352-for-a-textbook-rising-costs-leave-some-students-bookless-ku-student-leader-wants-to-change-that/>

FROM NORTH DAKOTA: “The North Dakota Student Association has identified
grants, funding for a free online textbook program and overall system
support as its three legislative priorities for the 2019-21 biennium, NDSA
President Jared Melville said.” Read more >
<https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/news/education/4552747-north-dakota-student-association-lays-out-legislative-priorities>

FROM NEW JERSEY: Rowan University’s textbook pilot program begins this
spring through the Textbook Alternative Program which has granted five
professors “grants of $2,000 each to adapt lessons for classes from free
materials online.” From the five courses expecting to switch to open
materials, students are expected to save around $116,000 in 2019. Read more>
<https://today.rowan.edu/home/news/2019/01/03/textbook-alternative-program-save-students-nearly-120k-first-year>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Dave Dillon, a counselor at Grossmont College in San Diego, has released a
series of three open textbooks for use in College Success classes that are
a common course for first year students: Blueprint for Success in College
and Career <https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/>, Blueprint for
Success: Indispensable Study Skills and Time Management Strategies
<https://press.rebus.community/blueprint1/>, and Blueprint for Success in
Career Decision Making <https://press.rebus.community/blueprint3/>. He has
also released a blog
<https://onlinenetworkofeducators.org/2018/12/03/authorship-in-the-age-of-oer/>on
how the OER have affected retention and been adopted across the California
Community College System.

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

Not By The Book: Some Massasoit Community College Professors Opt For Free
Digital Texts l South Coast Today

https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20181228/not-by-book-some-massasoit-community-college-professors-opt-for-free-digital-texts

Interesting to Consider >>

What’s Next for LibreTexts? l Open Education Rising

https://openeducationrising.blubrry.net/

Supporting States and Districts that Choose to #GoOpen l New America

https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/supporting-states-and-districts-choose-goopen/

Lumen Learning Raises More Cash, Aims to Replace Traditional Textbooks with
Digital Open Educational Resources l GeekWire
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/edtech-startup-lumen-learning-raises-cash-aims-replace-textbooks-digital-open-educational-resources/

Slow Burn for OER Adoption, Awareness l Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/01/09/oer-adoptions-awareness-continue-grow-many-faculty-members-still

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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