OER Digest - July 8th, 2021
From Cailyn Nagle (PIRG) | Volume 133 | July 8, 2021
THE OER DIGEST
Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders
OER ACCESSIBILITY EVALUATION RUBRIC: Affordable Learning Georgia released a rubric to help faculty, librarians, course designers, and other open education stakeholders to evaluate the accessibility of the open materials they are using or creating. The rubric contains three sections- open access, digital access, and pedagogical access. Individuals using the rubric will also have the option to share their results openly allowing other educators to benefit from their results. Affordable Learning Georgia also has resources available for those who want to make their materials more accessible.NEW ASL OER: Citrus College announced the creation of two new American Sign Language collections created by faculty member Christopher Pinto. These new resources supplement courses for ASL 101 and ASL 102 and are currently available on OER Commons and Merlot and will soon be available with LibraText. OPEN EDUCATION AWARD: Nominations are currently open for the OE Global Open Education Award for Excellence. These awards celebrate outstanding contributions from the open education community, with categories for leadership, educators, students, best OER, best open tool, and more. This year, OE Global is adding a category recognizing excellent open infrastructure contributions. Nominations will close July 16th.
OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities
APPLY NOW: Moorpark College in California is looking for a new associate librarian focusing on OER and ZTC. Applications close July 11th. Learn more and apply here. REGISTER NOW: Registration for LibraFest closes this Friday July 9th. This three day workshop runs from July 19th-23rd. Learn more and register here.REGISTER NOW: The Midwestern Higher Education Compact is offering the workshop Creating More Consistency in Cost Savings and ROI Metrics to Build the Case for OER. The workshop takes place August 18th at 1pm CST. Learn more and register here. APPLY NOW: University of Idaho is looking for an E-Resources and Open Straties Librarian. This is a tenure track position. Learn more and apply here. PEER REVIEW REQUEST: The Open RN Project is looking for 20 individuals to participate in a peer review process for an asynchronous course. Selected participants will receive a small honorarium. Interested participants should apply by July 23rd. Learn more and apply here.
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impactedFROM PENNSYLVANIA: Affordable Learning Pennsylvania announced their first round of grant recipients for projects creating, adopting, or adapting open educational resources.Thirty initiatives were awarded funds this round representing twenty three campuses across the state. Over $100,000 were distributed throughout the state with some support coming from CARES Act funding. “It’s gratifying for libraries to be part of a permanent solution for more affordable learning,” said Susan Banks, Acting Deputy Secretary and State Librarian for the Office of Commonwealth Libraries. Read More >> FROM CALIFORNIA: The San Mateo Community College District has moved towards tuition free college with the aim of reducing all costs of attending towards zero. Building on existing state programs, San Mateo plans to invest over $6 million to reach their goals and expand access to their institutions. The investment will also expand the existing zero-textbook-cost degree programs. Read More >>FROM NEW YORK: Starting fall term, York University will be teaching all Psych 102 courses using open/zero cost materials. The department voted to make the switch to open not only to save students money but also to improve retention and student educational success. Supported by funds from a CUNY OER grant, this switch is likely to save students tens of thousands of dollars. Read More >>FROM NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina State University launched the Open Knowledge Center (OKC) in late June. The six member staff will offer expertise to faculty and students on copyright, licensing, publishing, and open education. The center builds on the department previously called the Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center. “We can help undergraduate students, particularly, think through the different issues about how to own their own information,” said Scott Bailey, digital research and scholarship librarian. “How they get it out there in an open and accessible manner and participate in the sort of open, scholarly discourses that are available.” The OKC, among other programs, will run the OPEN Incubator project, which will provide support to members from concept to creation of open research. Read More >>
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource
From Oregon State University comes a new textbook on the history and human relationships with plants from the neolithic to industrialization, History and Science of Cultivated Plants by Dr. Sushma Naithani. Using examples of key plants, this book explores how humans have shaped the plants around us and how those plants have impacted our lives through time.
WEIGH IN
Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider
Great to Share >>
- What if Classrooms were Rooted in Care? | The Good Men Project
- Letter to the Editor: UC Should Implement Open-Source Textbook Program | The Daily Californian
Interesting to Consider >>
- OER and Teaching through the Rear-view Mirror | Inside Higher Ed
- Global Resilient OER: Building open resources that cross legal boundaries with the Code of Best Practice in Fair Use for OER | OER and Beyond
Have suggestions for the next edition? Let us know at oerdigest@gmail.com, or tweet us @OERdigest.
The OER Digest is a public newsletter distributed to a broad group of stakeholders across the higher education community. Subscribe here.