[Open-education] OER Digest - November 8, 2019

Fri Nov 8 18:03:48 UTC 2019

VOLUME 93

>From Mo Nyamweya and Hailey Babb (SPARC) | Volume 93 | November 8th, 2019

With updates from #OpenEd19

THE OER DIGEST

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

LIVE FROM #OPENED19: This year we are pleased to bring you our annual video
edition <https://youtu.be/Ld9kkrb5yo4> filmed last week at the Open
Education Conference in Phoenix, AZ. As the original organizer of the
conference is stepping down <https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/6153>,
there are many conversations ahead about what might be next. Share your
thoughts here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeTIqQD5AFuGY3xykCSpFiSiTrWnnsU_FLZIfJBO7382lfntA/viewform>.
Watch the video for updates from speakers and community members, and be
sure to stay through the end for blOERpers!

DIFFERENTIATED OER: Tailor-ED <https://www.tailor-ed.com/>, a San
Francisco-based provider of a platform of open educational resources for
math subjects that allows educators to group and assign work to students
based on indicators like proficiency, now offers K-8 math and is being used
by more than 1,500 schools worldwide, with 70 schools paying for
subscriptions. CEO and co-founder Maayan Yavne says she wants to add
English language arts materials next and continue to build partnerships
with content publishers.

NEW Z DEGREE: Kwantlen Polytechnic University has launched a full
bachelor’s of arts degree in general studies
<https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/kwantlen-saves-students-big-with-zero-textbook-cost-degree>
with no textbook costs. According to KPU, the course is the first of its
kind in North America. The four-year 120 credit degree is the seventh
offered at the university and is expected to save students just over $5,000
during their four years of study. An estimated 27,500 students in ZTC (zero
textbook costs) courses have saved more than $3.1 million combined since
the spring 2018 semester.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

SAVE THE DATE: New America is hosting an event on LGBTQ-inclusive teaching
on November 19 in Washington, DC. Click
<https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/events/supporting-lgbtq-inclusive-teaching/>
for more info.

SAVE THE DATE: The fourth annual Northeast OER Summit
<https://neoer.umasscreate.net/> is taking place on May 28th-29th, 2020 at
the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA.

HIRING NOW: University of Alaska Anchorage is hiring an Open Educational
Resources Librarian. Click here
<https://careers.alaska.edu/en-us/job/513881/open-educational-resources-oer-librarian>
to read more about the position and apply.

REGISTER NOW: Registration
<https://summit.creativecommons.org/register2020/> for the 2020 Creative
Commons Summit (May 14th-16th, 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal) is now open.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM MANITOBA: This month, University of Manitoba Students’ Union hosted an
open educational resources fair to give students and faculty the chance to
see some materials directly. UMSU is working closely with the Manitoba Open
Textbook Initiative <https://openedmb.ca/> of Campus Manitoba — a
consortium of publicly funded colleges and universities that works to
expand access to post-secondary programs — to spread awareness of OER
through the university’s students, faculty and administration. “I think
it’s the next frontier in education in terms of something that’s innovative
and really, really helps improve student performance and student
affordability,” said Student Union President Jakob Sanderson. Read more >>
<http://www.themanitoban.com/2019/11/umsu-showcases-open-educational-resources/38497/>

FROM WASHINGTON: Christine Curtis, a senior instructor in the Washington
State University Murrow College of Communication, developed materials to
supplement an open textbook for her public speaking course. Funded by an
Affordable Learning Grant, Curtis’ investment is paying off for students -
they’d previously been paying $100 or more for Top Hat access. “I think to
go this route you definitely have to be student-centered to be successful,”
Curtis said. “I do it because I recognize the financial hardships of my
students. I really like working with them and if I can make that process a
little bit easier, then I’ve been successful.” Read more >>
<https://news.wsu.edu/2019/10/30/faculty-make-affordable-learning-grants/>

FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA: Camosun College recently received $32,250 from
BCcampus in order to establish the Open Education Demonstration Initiative
<https://www.library.umass.edu/oer/open-education-initiative/>. The college
received the money in the form of an Institutional Sustainability Grant
from BCcampus and will use it to redevelop 10 courses with open textbooks
through a committee of up to 10 faculty members, librarians, curriculum
developers, and other specialists. “I feel like a lot more students will
have access to educational material, much more than they currently do,
because sometimes the bookstore runs out of textbooks, or sometimes we just
can’t purchase because they’re really expensive,” said Camosun College
Student Society (CCSS) external executive Fillette Umulisa. Read more >>
<https://www.nexusnewspaper.com/2019/10/23/camosun-to-establish-open-education-initiative-with-grant-money/>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

As part of a broader affordability effort, NYU Law professors Barton Beebe,
Jeanne Fromer, and Christopher Jon Sprigman have chosen to make the
textbooks they authored—“Trademark Law: An Open-Source Casebook”
<https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/trademark-law-an-open-source-casebook-version-6-0>
and “Copyright Law: Cases and Materials”
<http://www.copyrightbook.org/>—available
to all students for free.

WEIGH IN

Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider

Great to Share >>

How Creative Commons works, and why it enables access to knowledge
<https://theconversation.com/how-creative-commons-works-and-why-it-enables-access-to-knowledge-125895>
| The Conversation

Textbooks could be free if universities rewarded professors for writing them
<https://phys.org/news/2019-11-textbooks-free-universities-rewarded-professors.html>
| Phys Org

Interesting to Consider >>

Open Education… Is Closed
<https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/11/06/david-wiley-steps-down-and-adjourns-open-education-conference?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4bb10f1ecf-InsideDigitalLearning_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4bb10f1ecf-228783545&mc_cid=4bb10f1ecf&mc_eid=ae9697b0b8>
| Inside Higher Ed

Alternative Textbook Providers on the Rise
<https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/11/04/window-opportunity-alternative-textbook-providers?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4bb10f1ecf-InsideDigitalLearning_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4bb10f1ecf-228783545&mc_cid=4bb10f1ecf&mc_eid=ae9697b0b8>
| Inside Higher Ed

Textbook piracy: When free isn’t free
<https://columbiachronicle.com/textbook-piracy-when-free-isnt-free> | The
Columbia Chronicle

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/20191108/98b823f2/attachment-0001.html>