[Open-education] OER Digest – January 9, 2020

[OER Digest]

VOLUME 97



>From Bilan Jama and Torrey Feldman (CCUSA)  | Volume 97 | January 9, 2020


THE OER DIGEST

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

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

OPEN OREGON STUDY: Open Oregon Educational Resources has released a new
draft <https://openoregon.org/four-years-and-falling/> on the cost of
course materials for transfer degrees in Oregon. Over the four years that
Oregon has invested statewide funding in textbook affordability, community
colleges across the state have succeeded in reducing the cost of course
materials for transfer degrees. Commercial textbook prices are dropping in
response to market pressures, but the cost of course materials for transfer
degrees in Oregon is falling much more steeply, highlighting the impact of
faculty and staff efforts to redesign courses around no-cost and low-cost
materials. A key finding of the study is that 112,462 students in the 10
highest-enrolled courses statewide saved over $1M compared to materials
costs in 2017.

NONCOMMERCIAL LICENSE: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reaffirmed
Creative Commons’ interpretation
<https://creativecommons.org/2020/01/07/u-s-appellate-court-enforces-ccs-interpretation-of-noncommercial/>
of activities that are permissible under the NonCommercial (NC) licenses,
which allow bona fide noncommercial reusers to hire out the making of
copies of NC-licensed content, even to profit-making businesses such as
Office Depot and FedEx Office. An excerpt of the decision states, “under
the License, a non-commercial licensee may hire a third-party contractor
including those working for commercial gain, to help implement the License
at the direction of the licensee and in furtherance of the licensee’s own
licensed rights. The License extends to all employees of the schools and
school districts and shelters Office Depot’s commercial copying of Eureka
Math on their behalf.”

NEW YEAR, NEW BILLS: With the start of the new year comes the start of state
legislative sessions
<https://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/2020-state-legislative-session-calendar.aspx>.
As always, the OER Digest will bring you coverage of major updates in state
OER policy throughout the spring. For more frequent updates, you can also
check out SPARC’s State Policy Tracker
<https://sparcopen.org/our-work/state-policy-tracking/> and newly-released 2020
State Policy Playbook
<https://sparcopen.org/our-work/oer-state-policy-playbook/>.

NEW AUTHOR: Hello! I’m Torrey Feldman, and I’m excited to be joining the
OER Digest team as a Dean’s Fellow with Creative Commons USA. I am a 3L at
American University Washington College of Law, and I have teamed up with
CCUSA to work toward understanding the licensing of creative materials.
I’m personally not on twitter, but you can follow along with my work at
@cc_unitedstates <https://twitter.com/cc_unitedstates?lang=en>.


OPEN CONNECTIONS

Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

APPLY NOW: Alamo Colleges District is hiring an OER Librarian. Check out
the job description and apply here
<https://alamo.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?site=2&id=6266> by
Sunday, January 26, 2020 to be considered.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: York University Libraries is seeking an experienced
leader for the Associate Dean, Research & Open Scholarship position
<http://webapps.yorku.ca/academichiringviewer/specialads/Associate_Dean_Research_Open%20Scholarship_York_University_Libraries.pdf>.
Deadline has been extended to January 31, 2020.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Penn State is hiring a Learning Design and Open Education
Engagement Librarian. Click here
<https://www.techcareers.com/jobs/search?id=997989969&aff=16AE119E-722C-4962-8098-083243C4FF3F&rgv=3&mlp=1>
to read more about the position and apply.

REGISTER NOW: Registration
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/az-regional-oer-conference-connections-to-grow-and-sustain-open-education-tickets-62121531172>
is now open for the 2020 Arizona Regional OER Conference on February 28-29,
2020 in Mesa, Arizona. The deadline to register is February 25, 2020.

REGISTER NOW: Registration
<https://epayment.ndus.nodak.edu/C22800_ustores/web/classic/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=9733&SIN>
for the Open Education Conference sponsored by the North Dakota University
System is now open. The deadline to register is Tuesday, February 25th,
2020.

REGISTER NOW: Registration <https://openedss.uark.edu/registration.php> is
now open for the Open Education Southern Symposium (#OESS2020) on July 16 &
17, 2020 at  North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. The deadline
to register is May 16, 2020 as a student and June 16, 2020 for standard
registration. The 2018 OESS sold out, so we encourage you to register early.


STORIES FROM THE FIELD

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

FROM CANADA: For the past five years, the Government of Saskatchewan has
given grants to the universities of Regina and Saskatchewan as well as Sask
Polytechnic to develop open education resources. Nilgun Onder of the
University of Regina said because the textbooks are open, they can also be
used by others.“That’s the beauty of these open education resources: They
can be revised to better suit an instructor’s teaching and also the needs
of their students,” Onder said. Read More>>>
<https://www.ckom.com/2020/01/07/open-source-program-to-save-u-of-r-students-1-5m/>

FROM HAWAII: A program at the University of Hawaii's community colleges has
saved students more than $3.4 million on textbooks since 2015. The UH Open
Educational Resources initiative allows colleges to share and use
information to teach for little to no cost. “Rather than relying on a
textbook that was written by someone elsewhere and having examples that may
not necessarily relate directly to our students, a faculty member could
maybe swap out the examples, make it more related to what their experiences
are,” said Wayne Oshiro, Lewis Community College head librarian. Within
that program is a “TXT0” designation in the course catalogue, which shows
class sections that require no payment from students. Read More>>>
<https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/free-textbook-program-saves-hawaii-community-college-students-millions>


HOT OFF THE PRESS

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

Virginia Tech Publishing has released “Electromagnetics, Volume 2
<https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/93253>” by Steven W. Ellingson.
It is a 216-page peer-reviewed open textbook designed for electrical
engineering students in the third year of a bachelor of science degree
program. The textbook is intended to follow “Electromagnetics, Volume 1
<https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/84164>” as the primary textbook
for the second semester of a two-semester undergraduate engineering
electromagnetics sequence.


WEIGH IN

Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider



Great to Share >>

How UO libraries plan to continue growing in a digital world
<https://www.dailyemerald.com/news/how-uo-libraries-plan-to-continue-growing-in-a-digital/article_c29f8eea-31b1-11ea-bd70-1b3a05d02c35.html>
| Daily Emerald

Ruszkowski: In Our 21st Century World, It’s Time to Invest in 21st Century
Teaching Materials — & Train Educators to Use Them
<https://www.the74million.org/article/ruszkowski-in-our-21st-century-world-its-time-to-invest-in-21st-century-teaching-materials-train-educators-to-use-them/>
| The 74

Interesting to Consider >>

Free Textbooks for Law Students
<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/03/free-law-textbooks-raise-q>
| Inside Higher Ed

How community colleges are supporting low-income black, Latino students
<https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20200103/how-community-colleges-are-supporting-low-income-black-latino-students>
| Daily Herald

Is there a way to make learning materials, textbooks more affordable for
students? <https://www.newmarkettoday.ca/around-ontario/beyond-local-is-> |
NewmarketToday


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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