Transform to Open Science - Zenado

Transform to OPen Science (TOPS) is a $40 million, 5-year mission, led by NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Open-Source Science initiative.  Within the TOPS mission, NASA is designating 2023 as the Year Of Open Science, a community initiative to spark change and inspire open science engagement through events and activities that will accelerate adoption of open science practices. TOPS is only the starting point; the science community needs agencies and organizations to make a long-term commitment to support building an inclusive open science community over the next decade.

https://zenodo.org/communities/tops/?page=1&size=20

Opensciency - A core open science curriculum by and for the research community - Zenodo

Opensciency is core open science curriculum material, drafted to introduce those beginning their open science journey to important definitions, tools, and resources; and provide for participants at all levels recommended practices. The material is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license and is structured into five modules:

Ethos of Open Science

Open Tools and Resources

Open Data

Open Software

Open Results

https://zenodo.org/record/7662732#.Y_ZxHz1MEd5

PBLWorks Receives a $2.5 million Grant from the One8 Foundation

The Buck Institute for Education (dba PBLWorks), a national provider of professional development for high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL), today announces that it has received $2.5 million from the One8 Foundation. The One8 Foundation is supporting the development of supplemental Open Educational Resource (OER) Project Based Learning units for mathematics in grades 6–8. The project will focus on building and testing the PBL units in collaboration with teachers and students in Massachusetts. Once fully developed, these supplemental PBL mathematics units will be open educational resources available to teachers throughout the United States.

https://www.prweb.com/releases/2023/02/prweb19154553.htm

Oklahoma U Libraries offers alternative textbook options amid rising costs - Caleb Wortz, OU Daily

OU Libraries’ Alternative Textbook Grant is encouraging faculty to offer Open Educational Resources instead of textbooks amid rising prices. An OU Libraries’ press release described Open Educational Resources as any learning, teaching or research materials that are public domain or have an open license. The resources have saved OU students millions of dollars, according to the release. “We want to save students money, but we offer a grant program to recognize that there is a labor that goes into switching from commercial textbooks to Open Educational Resources,” Morgan Briles, OU Open Educational Resource librarian, said.

https://www.oudaily.com/news/ou-libraries-offers-alternative-textbook-options-amid-rising-costs/article_45af46f2-ad62-11ed-a5f4-d31808394bbc.html

TAKE AWAY FRIDAY: FEBRUARY IS LOVE A&OER MONTH - Southeast Missouri State University

Students notoriously don’t read the text unless absolutely necessary. In this session, a panel of faculty with experience in reworking their instructional materials discusses their process, successes, defeats and drill down into what it is that get students to read for class and increase their engagement.

https://semo.edu/events/2023/02-february/february-is-love-aoer-month

Cochise College receives grant to reduce cost of books for students - Summer Hom, AZ PM

Cochise College has been awarded a $165,534.84 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund the use of Open Educational Resources for 25 of its courses. Dr. Wendy Ashby, Cochise College’s Instructional Designer, said the goal of applying for the grant to use OERs is to lower, or eliminate the cost of textbooks and other classroom materials for students.

https://news.azpm.org/p/news-articles/2023/2/13/214889-cochise-college-receives-grant-to-reduce-cost-of-books-for-students/

Celebrate Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2023 - Erin Nevius, ACRL Insider

February 20-24 is 2023’s Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week. Commissioned by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is “is an annual celebration of the important doctrines of fair use and fair dealing. It is designed to highlight and promote the opportunities presented by fair use and fair dealing, celebrate successful stories, and explain these doctrines.” While fair use and fair dealing is employed daily by students, faculty, librarians, journalists, and all users of copyrighted material, Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is a chance to explore the doctrines and the opportunities they allow. ACRL has a number of resources to help you participate.

https://acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/celebrate-fair-use-fair-dealing-week-2023/

The Humanities as a Resource in Delivering Public Administration Courses - Lois Warner, PA Times

Over the past two decades, open educational resources (OER) unfolded as a great idea for reducing educational material costs toward making education more accessible. The use of OER is now in the mainstream at different levels of education, and although many related institutions produce substantial online databases comprising the full range of OER, there is a dearth of field-specific OER collections. Public administration (PA) educators face the challenge of selecting and organizing adequate and appropriate OER resources for course content and in planning and executing learning activities. In this article, I share examples of how the humanities provide opportunities for doing so, from genres in the fields of architecture, visual arts and literary arts.

https://patimes.org/the-humanities-as-a-resource-in-delivering-public-administration-courses/

University of Arkansas Call for Proposals: Paid Course Materials Conversion Program

Faculty are encouraged to join the growing campus community of Open Educational Resource users by applying to the Course Materials Conversion Program, a partnership between University of Arkansas Libraries and Global Campus. Through this program, faculty have the option each semester to apply for compensation to reduce the cost of textbooks for their students. The Spring 2023 Call for Proposals is now open, with applications due March 3.  Successful applicants can receive $3,000 for adopting Open Educational Resources, $4,500 for adapting them or $7,500 for creating their own.

https://news.uark.edu/articles/63280/call-for-proposals-paid-course-materials-conversion-program

The New Humanitarian puts the bulk of its articles under Creative Commons licence - Jacob Granger, Journalism

The New Humanitarian (TNH) is to make most of its articles free to republish under the Creative Commons licence. Visitors to the website will see a "republish this article" link at the top of certain stories from 2023 onwards, which can be republished under certain guidelines. The link provides an HTML version of the article's content and an embeddable tracking pixel which must both be used. "Ultimately it’s a mission-driven decision, not a commercial one," explains Isabelle Roughol, director of audience and revenue development, TNH, in an email to Journalism.co.uk.

https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/new-humanitarian-creative-commons/s2/a1007234/

Barton Community College reaches a $500,000 savings milestone with reduced or eliminated textbook costs - Great Bend Tribune

As Barton Community College welcomed the start of 2023, it also welcomed a significant milestone in its efforts to help students save additional dollars. In total, students who have enrolled in classes with no-cost or low-cost course materials have saved over $500,000. These courses are known in higher education as Open Educational Resources (OER).

 Director of Innovation and Compliance Lee Miller has spearheaded the OER initiative since its inception in 2019. 

https://www.gbtribune.com/news/local-news/barton-community-college-reaches-500000-savings-milestone-reduced-or-eliminated-textbook-costs/

UW Libraries Names Alternative Textbook Grant Recipients for Spring Semester - University of Wyoming

University of Wyoming Libraries recently awarded alternative textbook grants to six faculty members to implement open educational resources (OER) in their classes this spring. The open textbooks resulting from the grants are projected to save UW students more than $26,000 per semester. “Every semester, we see the impact that the alternative textbook grants have on cost savings for our undergraduate and graduate students,” says Cass Kvenild, associate dean of UW Libraries. “The use of OER has been shown to positively impact student success and allows our faculty greater flexibility in course design and instruction. UW Libraries is committed to providing students and faculty with the resources and services they need to succeed. This grant opportunity is just one of the ways we are working to achieve that goal.

https://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2023/02/uw-libraries-names-alternative-textbook-grant-recipients-for-spring-semester.html

Open Educational Resources Grant and Support Program Now Open for 2024/2025 Courses - Western University (Canada)

Western instructors, you can apply now for one or more of your 2024-25 courses. The OER Grant and Support Program offers in-kind supports and up to $25,000 in instructor funding to integrate OER into teaching. The program is a partnership between Western Libraries, the Instructional Technology Resource Centre, Centre for Teaching and Learning, and Western Research’s Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team. OER are educational materials — such as textbooks, videos, and test banks — that are openly licensed and freely available for anyone to use. OER can be tailored to the unique structure and context of a course. They can also reduce student financial barriers by removing the need to buy commercial materials.

https://teaching.uwo.ca/news/2023/oer2024-2025.html

NAU commits $10M grant to implement initiatives focused on success of Indigenous students - SHONDIIN SILVERSMITH, Arizona Mirror

Through this initiative, NAU will work with faculty and national experts to develop Indigenous Peoples’ Open Educational Resources (OER). According to NAU, the OER materials focused on Indigenous peoples will be developed and create a repository for faculty to use in courses across the country.  “It’s a unique way of including indigenous knowledge throughout the entire curriculum of NAU,” Chischilly said.

https://www.azmirror.com/2023/02/03/nau-commits-10m-grant-to-implement-initiatives-focused-on-success-of-indigenous-students/

Student senate pushes for OER expansion - Jack Lee, the Battalion

On Nov. 2, 2022, the Texas A&M Student Senate passed a bill advocating for A&M to provide more free textbooks to students, especially in large introductory courses. Now, as the Texas state legislature kicks into session, the student government is taking the next step and lobbying state legislators to support Open Educational Resources, or OER. Legislative Relations Commission member Allen Zhang, one of the initial authors of the bill, said he introduced the bill because he feels textbooks are unaffordable. “As a student who has many classes that require me to purchase textbooks, some of them [over $100], I think it’s an enormous cost,” Zhang said. “I believe there are lots of free resources we could be using instead.”

https://www.thebatt.com/news/student-senate-pushes-for-oer-expansion/article_bbdd3858-a406-11ed-8ff1-93da753e135a.html

Free research materials at a click - University of Konstanz

Are you looking for free learning materials or texts because you want to expand your knowledge in your spare time? Are you a journalist or researcher who would like to dive deeper into a topic and therefore need access to the original data? Or are you a doctoral researcher about to write your first paper and are searching for authentic examples of the peer review process?  Then you should definitely browse through the University of Konstanz’s new Open Science Spotlight. The OSS showcases open access (OA) publications, open research data, software and open educational resources published by the university’s researchers and lecturers, thus making it easy for everyone to explore the university's research.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/978392

Promoting Access to Diverse Learning Opportunities through Open Resources, Equity, and Accessibility - Andrea Bearman, Faculty Focus

There is an inherent connection between equity, accessibility, and open educational resources (OER). OER have the potential to offer more equitable and accessible learning experiences because they can be tailored to meet the needs of the students, including learning outcome alignment, accessible formatting, diverse learning materials, and diverse assessments

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/promoting-access-to-diverse-learning-opportunities-through-open-resources-equity-and-accessibility/

Open Educational Resources (OER) Librarian University of California Santa Cruz

Position title: Open Educational Resources (OER) Librarian

Salary range: Commensurate with qualifications and experience. A reasonable estimate for this position is $60,116 - $92,074.

https://main.hercjobs.org/jobs/18110368/open-educational-resources-oer-librarian

University Of Massachusetts Amherst Scholars Win 2023 Merlot Classics Award - Iednewsdesk, India News Diary

College of Education faculty Bob Maloy, senior lecturer II; Torrey Trust, associate professor of teacher education and curriculum studies; Allison Butler, senior lecturer of communications; and education doctoral student Chenyang Xu are the recipients of a 2023 MERLOT Classics Award. Their open educational resource (OER) textbook “Critical Media Literacy and Civic Learning” was honored by the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) initiative. Through the lens of media literacy, the authors’ text introduces students to key topics related to government and civic life in the United States. 

https://indiaeducationdiary.in/university-of-massachusetts-amherst-scholars-win-2023-merlot-classics-award/

Clemson Libraries receives $1.2 million to develop free textbooks for advanced manufacturing classes - Clemson University

The Collaborative Development of Robotics Education and Advanced Manufacturing Open Educational Resources (Co-DREAM OER) project received $760,000 last year to develop three openly licensed textbooks and other digital educational materials on robotics ­— one at the technical college level, one at the bachelor’s degree level and one at the graduate education level. The latest round of funding will allow for the development of six more textbooks in the areas of advanced manufacturing and mechatronics, subjects that were chosen because they support the growing advanced manufacturing industry in South Carolina and other parts of the country.

https://news.clemson.edu/clemson-libraries-receives-1-2-million-to-develop-free-textbooks-for-advanced-manufacturing-classes/#BetterSharing

Coordinating Board awards Tarleton grant to support student success - Tarleton State University

Tarleton State University has received a $172,139 Student Success Acceleration Implementation Grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund to develop or expand initiatives that positively impact workforce transitions. Tarleton’s grant program, “Developing University Infrastructure to Increase the Use of Open Educational Resources and Affordable Course Materials,” ties into the university’s strategic plan to have at least 90 percent of core curriculum lecture/lab courses utilize open educational resources by 2025.

https://www.yourstephenvilletx.com/2023/01/25/coordinating-board-awards-tarleton-grant-to-support-student-success/

Northern Arizona University Secures $10M to Advance Indigenous Students’ Success - Native News Online Staff, Yahoo

Indigenous Peoples Open Educational Resources (OER) development: NAU’s faculty and national experts will lead the development of a catalog of Indigenous Peoples-focused courses in a wide range of disciplines that will be accessible to universities and students throughout the country.

https://www.yahoo.com/now/northern-arizona-university-secures-10m-225042518.html

Cochise College awarded grant to reduce college textbook costs - Herald/Review

A $165,534.84 grant from the U.S. Department of Education was awarded to Cochise College to facilitate Open Educational Resources. "This is a great opportunity to make higher education more accessible and affordable for students," said Dr. Wendy Ashby, instructional designer at the college's Faculty Support Center. OER are teaching, learning, research and classroom materials that are free for students to access and use with few or no restrictions. "Generally speaking, this means working with Creative Commons licensing," said Ashby.

https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/cochise_county/cochise-college-awarded-grant-to-reduce-college-textbook-costs/article_04426214-9c08-11ed-8a1c-5bfcaa6681b7.html

AICTE's study material to be accessible overseas, Council adopts Creative Common Licences - Dev Discourse

The All India Council for Technical Education has adopted the Creative Commons Licence which will help make its study material easily accessible for both Indian as well as overseas students. A Creative Commons License is one of several public copyright licenses that enables free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted ''work''. It is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that he/she has created. The license has been adopted in alignment with the UNESCO resolution of November 25, 2019 (Paris, France), on Open Educational Resources (OER).

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/education/2329072-aictes-study-material-to-be-accessible-overseas-council-adopts-creative-common-licences

Bay Area Universities Receive Grants For Educational Resources - Victorial Hsieh, Bay City News

Four Bay Area universities have received $1.5 million grants from the U.S. Department of Education to lead and support a three-year initiative to increase access to open educational resources, according to a release from St. Mary's College. Open educational resources (OER) are low-cost teaching and learning materials without barriers and permission for open use according to the release. OER has the potential to save at least 6,000 students more than $500,000 within its first year of adoption.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-Universities-Receive-Grants-For-17735201.php

AI, Instructional Design, and OER - David Wiley, Open Content

Large Language Models (LLMs), and particularly the recent demo of ChatGPT, seem to have put the fear of God into everyone from middle school English teachers to the CEO of Google. The potential partnership between OpenAI (the makers of ChatGPT) and Microsoft may even present the first substantive challenge to Google’s search monopoly we’ve ever seen – and that’s saying something. While most of the dialog around AI and education seems to be focused on assessment, I think the implications for instructional designers are critically important, too. And, because you’ve got to play the hits, let’s look at what their impact will be on OER as well.  (ed note: Wiley cites rulings that indicate that output from such AI as ChatGPT cannot be copyrighted because "a work must be created by a human" in order to be copyrighted.)

https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/7129

OPEN TEXTBOOKS AND OER - Oregon State University

By adopting or adapting existing open educational resources, you can save your students money and contribute to the growing movement of more accessible and affordable education. Thousands of titles are available to you from around the world and right here at Oregon State University. Find these and links to those at other institutions below:

https://open.oregonstate.edu/textbooks/

What are OER and how do they differ from Open Access, Library-Licensed and Affordable Course Content? - University of Mary Washington

OER are freely and publicly available teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. For example, instructors may download the material, tailor it to one’s course, save a copy locally to share with one’s students and share it back out with attribution. OER can include textbooks, course materials and full courses, modules, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.  An open source (or open) textbook is a textbook which is OER. Open access refers to teaching, learning and research materials that are available free online for anyone to use as is, but they may not be revised, remixed, or redistributed. This terminology is typically used for scholarly works (journals, books, etc.), but can also refer to other class materials.  Examples of OA materials include government documents, articles from open access journals, reports from think tanks.

https://provost.umw.edu/oer/what-are-oer/