[Open-education] OER Digest - March 21st, 2019

Fri Mar 22 00:35:22 UTC 2019

>From Ethan Senack | Volume 77 | March 21st, 2019

THE OER DIGEST

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

STATE UPDATES: The Governor of Virginia signed HB2380
<https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2380> into law,
requiring public institutions of higher education to clearly designate in
the course catalog which courses are using no- or low- cost materials. In West
Virginia, HB 2853
<http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hb2853%20intr.htm&yr=2019&sesstype=RS&i=2853>
(creating a program to encourage OER use in both higher ed and K-12) passed
the Senate and will be sent to their Governor. Legislators in Texas
introduced HB3650 <https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB3650/2019> and HB3652
<https://www.billtrack50.com/BillDetail/1097288>, which would encourage OER
use in dual credit programs and would establish a statewide OER repository,
respectively. In Hawaii, the state House has proposed asking the University
of Hawaii to conduct and OER feasibility study in HR72
<https://legiscan.com/HI/text/HR72/id/1951342>, and in Iowa, SF433
<https://legiscan.com/IA/bill/SF433/2019> requires universities to explore
open education.

NEW DATA: The annual survey of higher education presidents
<https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/03/13/college-presidents-support-use-oer-lower-students-costs-limits>
from Inside Higher Ed contains some interesting reflections on OER and
administrator perception of textbook costs. Some of the key takeaways:

   -

   87% of presidents agree that textbooks and course materials cost too much
   -

   85% support the use of open educational resources
   -

   Only 49% of presidents said they were well-prepared or very
   well-prepared to deal with digital learning matters.

GOING OPEN: A new study
<https://www.prweb.com/releases/university_of_delaware_study_finds_that_free_bookworms_curriculum_helped_students_outperform_state_average_in_three_years/prweb16167271.htm>
from the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the
 University of Delaware reflects on OER in K-12 education. The analysis,
which tracked underperforming students in a rural Delaware school district
over the course of 3 years, found that the students using an OER curriculum
on English Language Learning by Bookworm started to outperform the
statewide average after 3 years. From their release: “The upward trajectory
of scores was consistent across not only multiple cohorts, but also
multiple demographic groups within those cohorts.”

IMPORTANT INFO: A new white paper
<https://www.csuci.edu/tli/openci/openci-white-paper.pdf> from CSU Channel
Islands finds that, while textbook prices are a significant burden on all
students, they are disproportionately harmful to marginalized students.
Researchers collected 700 survey responses, and compared responses between
a variety of demographic.s

CCs IN THE NEWS: A host of community colleges made the news this week, as
they increasingly invest in open education. Grand Rapids Community College
<https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/03/grcc-students-saved-33-million-using-free-textbooks-from-openstax.html>
announced student savings of $3.3 million over the last two years. Blue
Mountain Community College
<https://www.eastoregonian.com/news/local/bmcc-goes-off-book-to-save-students-million/article_4de71900-4149-11e9-8120-bf1648811fbd.html>
announced over $1 million in student savings, thanks to OER. Mt. Hood
Community College
<http://www.advocate-online.net/mhcc-moves-toward-affordable-textbooks/> in
Oregon, Nicholls State University and Fletcher Technical Community College
<https://www.houmatoday.com/news/20190308/local-colleges-receive-state-grants-for-textbook-program>
in Louisiana, and East Central College
<http://www.emissourian.com/local_news/education/free-textbooks-pilot-program-to-be-offered-at-ecc-this/article_97af27bc-41da-11e9-9c7e-3b4ab975c50d.html>
in Missouri all had articles reflecting on their OER this week.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

PROPOSALS: The call for proposals for the annual OpenEd Conference in
Phoenix, AZ, is now open. You can submit a session here
<https://openedconference.org/2019/call-for-proposals/>, due by April 19th.

REGISTER: The 3rd International GoOpen Summit will be held in San Diego
this year, on April 16th. Registration is live here
<https://sdcoe.k12oms.org/eventdetail.php?gid=900&id=163367>.

REGISTER: You can register for the Northeast OER Summit here
<https://neoer.umasscreate.net/conferences/2019-2/>, on May 22nd-23rd in
Amherst, MA.

PARTICIPATE: The third iteration of the Open Learning MOOC is launching
next month. You can find out more from the folks at OpenVA here.
<http://openlearninghub.net/>

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM MARYLAND: “The state’s OER repository now has more than 200 new
resources that were developed by the educators alongside content
specialists and coordinators. The resources were vetted for copyright,
accessibility, privacy and evaluation concerns and approved for entry into
the repository once they met certain specifications.” Read More >
<https://edscoop.com/video/maryland-educators-turn-to-self-created-oer-after-workshops/>

FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Third-year science student Julia Chai is running to
be a senator-at-large on a platform of accessibility of open educational
resources (OERs) and improving student engagement with Senate. She
emphasized the importance of OERs in terms of equity, citing the additional
costs that students pay for textbooks and other educational
resources.“[The] additional financial burden not only causes stress on
students, but also brings upon a barrier and [...] an inequity of students
who are able to afford and have that full accessibility to education,” Chai
said.” Read More >
<https://www.ubyssey.ca/news/candidate-profile-julia-chai-senate/>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Rebus Community recently published the sixth video in their YouTube series
“Making Open Textbooks.” So far, the videos have covered making and
building a team, project scoping, content creation, and edition. Check it
out here.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oubn2NtHrDo&list=PL_HCuxp85e37zYGEJGvwmzVP29A3_3rAd>

WEIGH IN

Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share

Great to Share >>

7 tips for navigating the shift to open educational resources | EdScoop

https://edscoop.com/7-tips-for-navigating-the-shift-to-open-educational-resources/

Interesting to Consider >>

Open-access chemistry textbooks gain popularity | Chemical and Engineering
News

https://cen.acs.org/education/undergraduate-education/Open-access-chemistry-textbooks-gain/97/i11?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cen_latestnews+%28Chemical+%26+Engineering+News%3A+Latest+News%29

$2.5M grant from US Dept of Ed funds 21st-century, open-resource learning
project | ASU Now

https://asunow.asu.edu/20190313-25m-grant-us-department-education-funds-21st-century-open-resource-learning-project

Are online textbooks a force for good? | The Inquirer

https://www.dvcinquirer.com/af/2019/03/08/are-online-textbooks-a-force-for-good/

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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