[Open-education] OER Digest – October 17, 2019

[OER Digest]

>From Bilan Jama | Volume 92 | October 22nd, 2019


THE OER DIGEST

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

COLORADO OER ANNUAL REPORT: A new report titled “Colorado Rises:
Transforming Educational Practices through Open Educational Resources
<https://highered.colorado.gov/Publications/Reports/Legislative/OER/OER_Report_2019_Final.pdf>”
highlights the need for wide-scale implementation of open educational
resources (OER). In the first year of implementation, Colorado students are
saving $3.4 million thanks to OER developed through the statewide grant
program. The OER Council and CDHE also had this to share: “What’s clear is
OER saves students money, but this investment matters beyond the financial
benefit. OER and open education practices help educators redesign
approaches to teaching through innovative methods, ultimately supporting
the transformation of education for the future of learning. The work
inspired by the OER legislation is important to educators and Coloradans
everywhere.”

OER INVESTMENT: More than $45,000 was saved
<https://news.psu.edu/story/592435/2019/10/11/academics/initiative-saves-penn-state-abington-students-more-45000-textbooks>
at Penn State Abington this semester after seven faculty members redesigned
courses to eliminate the need for textbook purchases while maintaining the
integrity of the coursework. Funded by a Chancellor's Grant, they adopted
free course materials, revised their syllabi, and made changes to teaching
practices. Zach McLaughlin-Alcock, lecturer in mathematics, called the
experience a major win. “I was able to find and integrate two open access
textbooks and an open access computerized homework tool," he said. "We were
able to connect curated problem-solving videos from other mathematics
instructors on YouTube to supplement specific ideas and chapters.”

OPEN FOR WHOM? Next week is international Open Access Week
<http://www.openaccessweek.org/>, a community-driven week of action focused
on opening up access to research. This year’s theme is Open for Whom?
Equity in Open Knowledge
<http://www.openaccessweek.org/profiles/blogs/theme-of-2019-international-open-access-week-to-be-open-for-whom->,
which is intended to provoke conversations about how to ensure emerging
open systems for research address inequities in the current system, not
replicate or reinforce them. Check out openaccessweek.org
<http://www.openaccessweek.org/> for a list of events happening around the
world and join the conversation on twitter at #OAweek
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/oaweek>.

OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

REGISTER NOW: Registration <https://goopen.us/national-goopen-summit/> for
the National #GoOpen Summit: Leading with Pedagogy is open. The Practitioner
registration
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-goopen-summit-leading-with-pedagogy-registration-70825700577>
deadline is October 18th and each district, state or education service
agency is invited to bring up to three (3) team members. The conference is
being held on November 7-8, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

REGISTER: San Jose State University is hosting a free Open Access
Conference on October 21, 2019. Further information can be found here
<https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/oa-un-conference/>.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Hostos Community College in Bronx, NY is seeking a
part-time Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Access (OA) Librarian
to join their staff. Click here <https://g.co/kgs/61p6bz> to read more
about the position.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Penn State is hiring a Learning Design and Open Education
Engagement Librarian. Click here
<https://www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/details.cfm?JobCode=177098331&utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic>
to read more about the position and apply.

SEE YOU IN PHOENIX: The Digest Team will be at #OpenEd19 in two weeks
filming our annual video edition. Stop by the SPARC table to pick up some
OER Digest swag.


STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM ARKANSAS: Three openly licensed textbooks written by University of
Arkansas faculty are now available in the Open Textbook Library, in
addition to the institutional repository. All three faculty members were
awarded OER Course Materials Conversion Program funding from the libraries
and UA’s Global Campus to help them complete these textbooks. Said Elaine
Thorton, the Open Education and Distance Learning librarian: ". One of the
goals of the open education community is to share resources as broadly as
possible. Having the textbooks listed in the Open Textbook Library takes
sharing to another level by making our authors' work visible to a larger
population of educators and students." Read more >>
<https://news.uark.edu/articles/50312/textbooks-by-university-of-arkansas-faculty-added-to-open-textbook-library>

FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE: Across the Community College System of New Hampshire,
OER teams have been working together to develop “no or low-cost” courses,
sharing best practices along the way through the system OER team known as
CCSNH Open. This fall, Nashua Community College launched its first
“textbook-free” Open Educational Resource class with English 101, one of
the most commonly enrolled courses. This change has impacted 21 percent of
the NCC student body and brought the cost for the English 101 textbook from
$118.25 to $0. Read more >>
<http://indepthnh.org/2019/10/10/textbook-free-course-now-at-nashua-community-college-more-in-the-fall/>

FROM TEXAS: Houston Community College System (HCCS) is partnering with OER
provider panOpen to increase the use of open educational resources across
its nine campuses. HCCS has been implementing OER since 2017 when it
launched a pilot Z-Degree program offering OER-based associate degrees in
business administration and general studies. In the last two years, HCCS
OER initiatives have saved students more than $2.5 million. Through the
panOpen collaboration, students enrolled in Z-Degree programs will be able
to access their courseware on the panOpen platform for free, and those
taking non-Z-Degree courses will pay a nominal fee.  Read more >>
<https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/09/17/houston-cc-system-expands-oer-use-across-all-campuses.aspx?admgarea=news>

HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

OpenStax just released guidelines
<https://openstax.org/blog/new-resource-k12-users-our-ap-biology-book> to
help K-12 educators align between the OpenStax AP Biology textbook and the
College Board’s newly revised Course and Exam Description for AP Biology.
The document itself incorporates as much content as possible from The
College Board’s Course and Exam Description so that an instructor can
easily use this document for planning with OpenStax content.

WEIGH IN

Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider



Great to Share >>


The Case Against Course Costs
<https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2019/10/equity-the-case-against-course-costs>
| The Duke Chronicle


Interesting to Consider >>

For This Campus, Choosing Textbooks Has Gotten a Lot More Complicated
<https://www.chronicle.com/article/For-This-Campus-Choosing/247311> | The
Chronicle of Higher Education

Open Educational Resources: Should Knowledge Be Free?
<https://blogs.yu.edu/news/open-educational-resources-should-knowledge-be-free/>
| YU News

Op-ed: Textbook prices impose a heavy burden on students
<https://huntnewsnu.com/59891/editorial/op-ed-textbook-prices-impose-a-heavy-burden-on-students/>
| The Huntington News

Grants Fund Higher Ed Projects Using Technology for Public Good
<https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/10/08/grants-fund-higher-ed-projects-using-technology-for-public-good.aspx?admgarea=news>
| Campus Technology

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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