Open Educational Resources - Open University of Sri Lanka

Welcome to our collection of Open Educational Resources (OER) from the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). Open Educational Resources (OER) are web based materials offered freely and openly for use and reuse in teaching, learning and research. These resources have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use to reproduce by others. OER provides an alternative way of learning to mitigate the rising costs of education. while providing opportunities for learners who might not otherwise be able to afford or access learning materials.
https://www.ou.ac.lk/open-educational-resources/

UNC students weigh affordability of textbooks, access codes in survey - Sara Raha, Daily Tar Heel

On June 8, U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), released a report on the impacts of textbook prices on college students. The report is based on a national survey conducted in fall 2019 of nearly 4,000 students from 83 institutions, including UNC, and is the second edition following a 2014 report on the same issue. The survey received 121 responses from UNC students.
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2020/06/textbook-affordability-0611

Sustaining online teaching, learning during and after pandemic - Tan Sri Anuwar Ali, New Strait Times

University students are thus exposed to a newer paradigm. They are in an advantageous position to utilize Open Educational Resources (OERs) that are already in the public domain and thus guiding them in their courses and subjects that are of interest to them.
https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2020/07/606930/sustaining-online-teaching-learning-during-and-after-pandemic

UMass Amherst Libraries Announce Chapter Publication in Rebus Community's ‘Open Pedagogy Approaches’

Lisa Di Valentino, law and public policy librarian; Sarah Hutton, head of student success and engagement; and Paul Musgrave, assistant professor of political science; have co-authored a chapter, “Sharing the End of the World: Students’ Perceptions of Their Self-Efficacy in the Creation of Open Access Digital Learning Objects,” as a part of the Rebus Community's “Open Pedagogy Approaches,” released at the end of June 2020.
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/umass-amherst-libraries-announce-chapter

Survey finds K-12 educators rate open educational resources as equal to offerings from commercial publishers

Research shows a strong relationship between educators' perceptions of the effectiveness of professional development on a curriculum and the quality of that curriculum
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-finds-k-12-educators-rate-open-educational-resources-as-equal-to-offerings-from-commercial-publishers-301090519.html

Free, open digital resource in U.S. history improves access, promotes viewpoint diversity - David Bobb, Education Dive

Whatever a school's learning environment is at the start of the new school year, a curriculum that is expensive, inflexible, or hard to navigate won't get used. Just ask a teacher about how they use their instructional tools in the time of COVID-19. You'll learn a lot about entrepreneurship.  Teachers' entrepreneurial ways long precede the coronavirus. As Newsela reported in October 2019, administrators in social studies said that teachers used their prescribed textbook half the time. In that same national survey, however, teachers revealed that they use the assigned textbook only one-fifth of the time.
https://www.educationdive.com/spons/free-open-digital-resource-in-us-history-improves-access-promotes-viewp/581072/

Cost, Convenience Drive Shift to Digital Textbooks - Ed Brennan, UMass Lowell

Encouraging faculty to use e-books is the latest in a series of steps UML is taking to help students save money and keep them in school. The effort includes a new textbook ordering system that launched last year. The move is part of a national trend. According to an annual survey of college students by the National Association of College Stores, students spent an average of $413 on textbooks and course materials in the 2019-20 academic year, which is a 41 percent drop from 2007-08.

https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2020/digital-textbooks-save-students-money.aspx

Milestones: Affordable Learning Georgia Reaches 1 Million Downloads of Open Educational Resources

Affordable Learning Georgia has surpassed 1 million downloads of full-text open educational resources — more than half of which occurred in the past year. The materials are housed inside GALILEO Open Learning Materials, the University System of Georgia’s home for open educational resources (OER). The milestone comes just four years since the hub became available.
https://www.infodocket.com/2020/07/07/milestones-affordable-learning-georgia-reaches-1-million-downloads-of-open-educational-resources/

THE COLLEGE COURSE MATERIALS MARKET IS BROKEN - US PIRG

A new study from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund, titled Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: 2nd Edition, is based on a survey conducted across 83 college campuses. It shows that despite the supposedly lower cost of digital access codes versus hard-copy textbooks, staggering numbers of students still struggle to afford basic class materials. If the coronavirus (COVID-19) forces colleges to conduct the fall semester remotely, and access codes become even more common, the financial burden will worsen.
https://uspirg.org/news/usp/college-course-materials-market-broken

Lumen Learning, a Proponent of OER, Makes First Acquisition to Offer Faculty Coaching - Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge

Lumen Learning, a company that sells low-cost OER textbooks and courseware, plans to start offering professional development services for faculty that can be bundled with its titles. In other words, some of its textbooks are now sold with coaching on how to teach with OER more effectively.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-06-16-lumen-learning-a-proponent-of-oer-makes-first-acquisition-to-offer-faculty-coaching

Open textbooks, in more ways than one: Save money and increase educational diversity with high-quality, up-to-date, learning options - BEN KALLOS and CLAYTON BANKS, Daily News

More commonly known as “open educational resources” (OER), open textbooks are free for educators to use, customize to their students’ needs and backgrounds and share with others. Open textbooks are freely available from nonprofit groups like CK12, OER Commons and OpenStax, and many are peer-reviewed and vetted for quality.

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-open-textbooks-in-more-ways-than-one-20200629-xiusf76onzcy5hm7f4e6q47ape-story.html

‘Better Every Semester’: How Faculty Use Open Educational Resources to Improve Courses - Rebecca Koenig, EdSurge

The new manual, Hardy says, has been a success. Students love it because it’s free, while Hardy is pleased that its labs about bacteria, plants, fungi and animals now proceed in the order she prefers. Best of all, she says, “it’s super adaptable.” If she wants to add or change anything along the way, she can.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-06-18-better-every-semester-how-faculty-use-open-educational-resources-to-improve-courses

U Kentucky Libraries Issues OER Grants 5 Years Running - Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

For the fifth year running, the University of Kentucky Libraries has issued grants to faculty to develop open educational resources for their courses, as a replacement for the commercial textbooks they traditionally use. So far, according to the institution, the grants have saved nearly 9,000 students about $1.14 million in curriculum expenses, about $129 per student per course.
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/07/06/u-kentucky-libraries-issues-oer-grants-5-years-running.aspx

Examining the Usefulness of Quality Scores for Generating Learning Object Recommendations in Repositories of Open Educational Resources - Applied Sciences

Open educational resources (OER) can contribute to democratize education by providing effective learning experiences with lower costs. Nevertheless, the massive amount of resources currently available in OER repositories makes it difficult for teachers and learners to find relevant and high‑quality content, which is hindering OER use and adoption.
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/13/4638

“Teaching with OER During Pandemics and Beyond” - Gary Price, Infodocket

Using a broad research base and anecdotes from personal experience, the authors make the case that OER improves student access to learning materials and improves the learning experience in both PK-12 and higher education contexts.
https://www.infodocket.com/2020/07/01/journal-article-teaching-with-oer-during-pandemics-and-beyond/

Community College Expecting 5x Payback with OER in First Semester - Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

An $36,000 open educational resources initiative at HACC, a community college in central Pennsylvania, is expected to benefit 2,300 students in the first semester. That's about 13 percent of the total student population. The collective savings will be about $196,000 in textbook costs, more than five times the initial investment. Those savings will be doubled for instructors who use OER for a second semester.
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/06/30/community-college-expecting-5x-payback-with-oer-in-first-semester.aspx?admgarea=news

U Iowa Libraries award faculty OpenHawks grants

The University of Iowa Libraries has awarded 12 grants for Open Educational Resource (OER) projects for the 2020-2021 academic year. OpenHawks is a campus-wide grant program that funds faculty efforts to replace current textbooks with OERs for enhanced student success.
https://now.uiowa.edu/2020/06/ui-libraries-award-faculty-openhawks-grants

OPINION Open textbooks, in more ways than one - BEN KALLOS and CLAYTON BANKS, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Open textbooks meet the moment in another big way. As we recover from the first wave of coronavirus and do our best to prepare for a likely second wave, we need to be ready for continued remote learning. While open educational resources exist in print, they are most commonly disseminated in digital formats.
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-open-textbooks-in-more-ways-than-one-20200629-xiusf76onzcy5hm7f4e6q47ape-story.html

TCC Humanities Department Receives National Endowment for the Humanities Grant - Tacoma Commjnity College

According to press release sent out by NEH today, the CARES Act Economic Stabilization grants will support essential operations at cultural organizations across the country. TCC plans to use the $174,812 it will receive to compensate up to 50 humanities faculty through the conversion of courses to an online format and the adoption of open educational resources (OER).
https://thesubtimes.com/2020/06/23/tcc-humanities-department-receives-national-endowment-for-the-humanities-grant/

What if education were engaging for every student? - Richard Barianiuk Big Think

OpenStax reimagined textbooks and saved students $1 billion. Now is a moment to reimagine even more. How can education help students learn more, better, and faster?
https://bigthink.com/Charles-Koch-Foundation/openstax-textbooks-education-innovation

Goodwin University receives OER support - Harford Courant

Goodwin University has been awarded a grant of $9,000 from the Connecticut Open Educational Resources Council, a statewide body charged with developing a plan for resources to benefit college students throughout Connecticut. The funds will support redesigning eight existing Goodwin academic courses to afford greater access to students of limited financial means through the use of OER materials.
https://www.courant.com/community/east-hartford/hc-eh-0702-communitynews-20200626-ejbr2w2jpzhdrg22som4pdxvmi-story.html