OER Digest - June 13th, 2019
From Ethan Senack and Bilan Jama (Creative Commons USA) | Volume 83 | June 13th, 2019
THE OER DIGEST
Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders
STATE LEGISLATION: Lawmakers in Connecticut introduced budget bill HB 7424 with an amendment that would establish the Connecticut OER Coordinating Council to identify high-impact courses for OER and create competitive OER grants. SB 117 in Louisiana was signed into law, which would require public institutions to conspicuously highlight courses using low-cost or OER course materials. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 2653, which requires the state board to contract with a high-quality open educational resource repository. The Governor of Oregon signed a HB 2213 requiring institutions to establish textbook affordability plans incorporating OER.UNVEILING GOOPEN.US: The GoOpen Network recently launched a new website for their campaign around K12 OER, and a Twitter account to match. The site features stories, updates, and opportunities for collaboration, as well as groups and discussion forums for members to share best practices and troubleshoot challenges.UNESCO: Last month, UNESCO member state representatives moved their 2019 UNESCO OER Recommendation toward a full vote at the next general conference in November. The recommendation advocates for global investment in five areas supporting OER: capacity building, developing supportive policy, ensure inclusive and equitable access to quality OER, sustainability models for OER, and international cooperation.LUMEN + SUNY: The State University of New York and Lumen Learning announced a multiyear partnership around college affordability and student success through the use of OER. The partnership will focus on building out Luman’s catalog of courses and developing supplemental materials for open books. Also part of the deal, SUNY will cover the access fee for all students to participate in Lumen’s platform.DOWN SOUTH: The Alabama Commission on Higher Education voted to increase funding for the state’s need-based financial aid program, prioritizing lower textbook costs for students. They aim to conduct workshops focused on educating faculty members on the use of OER and expect their OER grant to reach 18,000 students with savings over $2 million this year.NEW AUTHOR: Hello! I’m Bilan Jama, and I’m a new team member at Creative Commons USA. My job will primarily focus on supporting OER policy and CC license adoption in K-12 communities, including supporting the #GoOpen network. I am a former teacher who is passionate about all students having access to equitable resources. You can find me @blnjama.
OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities
REGISTER: Virtual College of Texas is hosting the Open Education Texas convening August 7-8 in Austin, Texas. Register here.REGISTER: Registration has opened up for #OpenEd19, taking place October 30 - November 1 in Phoenix, AZ.SAVE THE DATE: Save the date for the #GoOpen National Convening: Leading with Pedagogy taking place November 7-8, 2019 in Washington, DC. Contact info@goopen.us for additional information.SUBMIT: U.S. PIRG is working to build a list of inclusive access programs, so that the community can better track, analyze, and respond to these proposed deals between publishers and colleges. Add your institution to the tracker here.
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted
FROM IOWA: “The University of Iowa Libraries has awarded 15 grants for Open Educational Resource (OER) projects for the 2019-2020 academic year. OpenHawks is a campus-wide grant program that funds faculty efforts to replace current textbooks with OERs for enhanced student success.” The recipients include Ted Neal, who will be working with his education students to write a new textbook Earth and Space Science. Read More >FROM COLORADO: “During the Morning Charge, Congressman Joe Neguse also pledged his continued support of OER. Earlier this year, he introduced the Affordable College Textbook Act in an effort to expand the use of free, open access textbooks on college campuses. “I view this room, and all the folks who are gathered here today, as our team, as Colorado’s team!” he said, just before encouraging everyone listening to reach out to him and other policymakers with more ideas. “You would be surprised at how likely it is that your idea may very well end up in a piece of legislation.” Read More >
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we’ll highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource
We’ve previously featured the open textbook “Blueprint for Success in College & Career”, but it now has an interesting new chapter on Cultural Competency, contributed by the Stanford University EPIC (Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum) Global Studies Fellowship. The chapter discusses practical ways to value differences in culture and appreciate identity throughout the learning process.
WEIGH IN
Interesting Discussions and Strategic Reads to Repost or Share
Great to Share >>
- OER Testimonials and Resources | Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology
Interesting to Consider >>
- Follett Launches New Course Materials Program | Yahoo! Finance
- Impact: a new tool from the Ontario Open Library | eCampus Ontario
- Libraries Announce 2019 Open Education Initiative Grant Recipients | UMass Amherst
- With partnership, Morgan State is bringing open content platform to campus | Morgan State
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. You can join the open Google Group or check out the distribution list here.