OER Digest – April 24, 2025

Michael Basmajian (PIRG) | Volume 190 | April 24, 2025

THE OER DIGEST
Your monthly newsletter for open education updates, opportunities, and reminders

OPEN CONNECTIONS
Conferences, jobs, and other OER-related opportunities

WEBINAR: SPARC has announced a second round of their Open Access 101 series which deepens the conversation around key topics related to open access, including visibility and impact, problematizing “predatory” publishing, and authors rights. Session 1: Open Access, Visibility, and Research Impact: An Introduction is on April 30th, 2025. Session 2: Problematizing “Predatory” Publishing is on May 14th, 2025. And Session 3: Who Owns Scholarly Work? Copyright and Open Access is on June 4th, 2025. Recordings of each session will be made available afterward.

WEBINAR: MIT OpenCourseWare’s Collaborations Program invites you to attend two upcoming webinars featuring authors from MIT Open Learning’s AI + Open Education Initiative: Professional Education and the Judicious Use of AI on April 30th at 2:00 PM ET, and AI Literacies and Evaluation on May 12th at 11:00 AM ET. Both webinars will feature discussions on how AI might accelerate responsive open education practices, potential inequalities from AI applications, and the future of open education in an AI-shaped ecosystem.

STUDENT FELLOWSHIP OPENING: The Michelson 20MM Foundation is looking for student leaders to apply to their undergraduate fellowship program. 20MM is a small family foundation in Los Angeles, CA, challenging social inequalities and injustices within higher education like Textbook Affordability. The Michelson 20MM Student Fellows Program is a paid opportunity for students to build their skills as advocates and empower them to tackle issues across higher education that directly impact students. The deadline to apply is May 6, 2025.

JOB OPENING: The Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Libraries are seeking candidates for an Open Education and Scholarly Communications Librarian, a tenure-track faculty position based in Allendale, Michigan. The Open Education and Scholarly Communications Librarian leads the University Libraries’ support for open access publishing, open educational resources (OER), affordable course materials, and related initiatives. Application review begins on May 5, 2025

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), in collaboration with ISKME, is launching the Institute on Open Education (IOE), a reenvisioning of AAC&U’s Institute on Open Educational Resources for the current moment in higher education. This online institute is designed to accelerate the work of teams from campuses or state systems seeking to actualize an ambitious strategy to provide access to high-quality educational opportunities through the affordances of open education. Applications must be received by June 20, 2025.

HYBRID SUMMIT: The Indiana Affordable Learning Summit Planning Committee invites you to register for an upcoming free Affordable Learning Summit. This summit will be a one-day convening of library workers, faculty, instructional designers, students, and affiliates. The event will be held in-person and virtually on Thursday, May 29, 2025 10 AM to 3 PM at the Prindle Institute of DePauw University and on Zoom. The theme of this year’s summit is Opening up faculty/instructor-library collaboration: equipping educators with what they need for OER.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Quick snapshots of those making change on the ground level, and those impacted

FROM MASSACHUSETTS: The UMass Dartmouth chapter of MASSPIRG Students is hosting an “OER Oscars” event on campus next week to recognize and celebrate faculty members who have made significant contributions to the adoption and implementation of OER. This event serves as a platform for students to express their gratitude towards professors who have integrated OER into their courses, thereby alleviating the financial burden of expensive textbooks. By organizing this ceremony, MASSPIRG plans to acknowledge the efforts of faculty and also raises awareness about the importance of OER in promoting affordable education.​ Read More >>

FROM COLORADO: Dr. Kim Paxton University of Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus recently earned an OER Champion Award from the CU System's Office of Academic Affairs, recognizing her commitment to educational accessibility. When Paxton discovered that the required textbooks would cost her nursing students nearly $425 for just one semester, she decided to find a better solution. "I couldn't ethically do that to a student," Paxton says. Instead, she wrote her own textbook on health promotion and prevention, and made it available to students at no cost. “I’ve seen a 98% improvement in understanding,” Paxton says. “I can see how students are using this information from the book’s chapters and applying it to a real patient situation. It’s exciting to see.” Read More >>

FROM FLORIDA: At Rollins College outside of Orlando, FL, the university library offers two grants to support faculty in adopting OER: the OER Explore Grant to help faculty evaluate alternatives to high-cost textbooks, and the OER Implement Grant, which provides library support to replace a textbook with an OER. So far, Rollins faculty have saved students $19,778 across multiple disciplines through OER initiatives. The Business department has led the way, with all marketing courses now using free textbooks. “When Rollins students were asked how they would spend money saved from not buying textbooks, they listed essentials like food, medicine, rent, and even mental health care,” said the Olin Library Discussion post on MyRollins. Read More >>

HOT OFF THE PRESS
Each edition, we highlight an interesting, new, openly-licensed resource

The University of Wisconsin-Superior recently published three new open educational resources:

Macro Practice for Community and Organizational Change by Lynn Goerdt provides knowledge and skills for professionals actively engaged in change making, including social workers, educators, policy makers, health professionals, and environmental scientists. This textbook is the result of Goerdt's extensive experience both working and teaching in the field of macro community and organizational change.

People and Music: An Appreciation and History by J. Richard Freese serves as an introduction to the history of Western music from the Middle Ages through today: trends, innovations, people, and worthwhile music examples. It also includes samples of music from around the world and popular music and discusses how they have impacted Western music.

Nurturing Potential: An Equity-Minded Approach to Functional Behavioral Assessment by Amanda Zbacnik & Staci Gilpin guides readers through each step in the functional behavioral assessment and interventions process and continues to center and consider how student identity impacts educational journey.

WEIGH IN
Great reads to repost or share and interesting discussions to consider

We should re-examine Inclusive Access textbooks on Grounds | The Cavalier Daily

OEWeek25: One for the Record Books! | Open Education Global

Bare Necessities | Good Times Santa Cruz

Have suggestions for the next edition? Let us know at oerdigest@gmail.com. 

The OER Digest is a public newsletter distributed to a broad group of stakeholders across the higher education community. Subscribe here.