OER Digest - May 21st, 2020
From Bilan Jama (CC USA) | Volume 106 | May 21st, 2020
THE OER DIGEST
Your bi-weekly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders
COVID-19: This edition, we’re highlighting some relevant upcoming webinars:
- The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law and Creative Commons USA are hosting a series of webinars on best practices in fair use, divided into two tracks. The next webinar “Working towards Antiracism and Culturally Responsive Teaching in Open Education” will be held tomorrow, May 22nd at 12 PM EST. Click here to register.
- New America is hosting a webinar on Thursday, June 4 from 3-4:30 PM EST on leveraging OER to meet student and institutional needs. Presenters will cover available resources and repositories of OER, how to identify high-quality resources, how to build institutional teams to support OER usage, and best practices for using OER in online or hybrid course environments. Click here to register and find more information.
MERGER CANCELLED: College textbook publishers McGraw-Hill and Cengage called off their proposed merger this month in response to antitrust concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies. The companies cited hefty divestitures as the reason for abandoning the deal, as they would have had to sell off too many overlapping products to satisfy antitrust enforcers. From the beginning, the proposed merger was criticized by a wide range of higher ed stakeholders because it would further consolidate the textbook market, leaving students with fewer choices and higher prices.UNESCO ON OER: In response to the COVID pandemic, UNESCO has urged member countries to promote learning and knowledge sharing through OER worldwide by encouraging the implementation of the OER Recommendation that Member States adopted last November. “The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a paradigm shift on how learners of all ages, worldwide, can access learning. It is therefore more than ever essential that the global community comes together now to foster universal access to information and knowledge through OER,” reads the call, co-signed by Moez Chakchouk and Stefania Giannini, Assistant Directors-General for Communication and Information, and for Education at UNESCO, respectively. SUPPORTING REMOTE LEARNING: Public schools in Virginia will receive $238.6 million in federal funding under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Recovery and Economic Security (CARES) Act. While every state is getting support for K-12 and higher education under this most recent stimulus bill, Virginia is one of the first to announce how they will spend it Potential initiatives include the expansion of the GoOpenVA openly licensed education resource platform to support online instruction and resources related to academic content missed this spring due to the closure of schools. “The CARES Act funding will enable our schools to move forward with initiatives to address gaps and inequities that have been brought into clear focus as a result of COVID-19,” said Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane. Read more>>
OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: The Open Publishing Fest is taking place on May 18-29 and is inviting members of the education community to propose a session. Proposals will be considered on a rolling basis up to and throughout the fest. REGISTER NOW: Registration is now open for this year’s Open Textbook Network Summit (#OTNSummit2020), which will be held virtually across two weeks, each Monday through Thursday between June 15-25. Many of the events will be open to audiences everywhere, regardless of OTN membership. Click here to register and find more information here. Registration will close on June 1.JOB OPPORTUNITY: Open Up Resources has an opening for a Curriculum Ingestion Associate. Learn more and apply for the position here.
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted
FROM MICHIGAN: At Western Michigan University, six Open Textbook Grant recipients successfully adopted and used an open textbook in their spring courses, saving 798 students over $184,000 in textbooks costs. The grants were awarded in December 2019 by the University Libraries, and provided support and incentive to instructors interested in adopting open textbooks. In a follow-up survey, 69% of student participants reported that they felt their class performance was better because they had access to a free textbook. Read more>>FROM ONTARIO: A three-year pilot at McMaster University will provide funding to create or customize open textbooks. The program has allotted $16,000 CDN for each academic year, and also offers an honorarium for instructors to peer review an existing open textbook. “Whether it’s creating an open textbook from scratch or adding or customizing interactive elements and information to an existing open textbook, OER offers instructors the ability to tailor online educational materials to suit their specific course needs,” explains Olga Perkovic, McMaster University Library’s research and advanced studies librarian. Read more>>FROM TEXAS: Five Tarleton State University faculty members were recently awarded grant funding to develop OER materials to reduce textbook costs for students. Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Karen Murray, provided $10,000 to encourage faculty to adopt or create OER materials to be used in teaching core courses starting in fall 2020. “I really do appreciate that Tarleton has begun using OER in some of their classes,” one student said. “It really reduces the stress of buying textbooks for those who can’t afford it.” The grants are expected to impact more than 1,000 Tarleton students and save them just under $150,000 during the first year of implementation. Read more>>
HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource
Plague Diaries: Firsthand Accounts of Epidemics, 430 B.C. to A.D. 1918, authored by Ryan Johnson, David Ulrich and Tina Ulrich was just released. This is a small collection of public domain excerpts from first hand accounts of epidemics throughout history.
WEIGH IN
Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider
Great to Share >>
Challenge met: Geography department transitions to remote teaching and learning | Penn State News
Online Teaching Materials Replace Textbooks in More UH College of Education Classes | University of Houston
Interesting to Consider >>
Are Colleges Ready for a Different Kind of Teaching This Fall? | The Chronicle of Higher Education
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.