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/

Open Educational Resources (OER): Free the Textbook - FLITE Research Guides

OER Textbooks (Open Access Textbook Collections) Your subject librarian may be able to help you find open access texts beyond those found in these collections.

https://ferris.libguides.com/research/free-the-textbook/oer-textbooks

7 Questions with Lumen Learning Founders Kim Thanos and David Wiley - Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

Digital courseware provider Lumen Learning recently announced a Gates Foundation-funded initiative to create and implement equitable course materials for gateway courses, with the goal of eliminating race and income as predictors of student success. The company is partnering with minority-serving institutions to co-design and pilot the courseware, starting with a reinvention of Introduction to Statistics. We sat down with Lumen founders Kim Thanos and David Wiley to find out more about their work. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.  

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2023/01/05/7-questions-with-lumen-learning-founders-kim-thanos-and-david-wiley.aspx

Open access publishing deal for low-, middle-income countries - Munyaradzi Makoni and Wagdy Sawahel, University World News

Academics based in 70 low- and middle-income countries, including those in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, will be able to have their primary research published Gold Open Access by Nature – at no cost – thus enabling their scientific work to be permanently and freely available online for anyone to read. Academics in the regions that are set to benefit from the announcement have welcomed the development, but some have also raised questions about the longer-term impact on the development of the publishing industries in low- and medium-income countries and diversity in the industry.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230118190925833

Coordinating Board Awards Tarleton Grant to Support Student Success - J Horleton, Tarleton State News

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://theflashtoday.com/2023/01/20/coordinating-board-awards-tarleton-grant-to-support-student-success/

NEMCC named an Apple Distinguished School for second term in a row - New Albany Gazette

Northeast focused its efforts on its technology initiative for its second Apple Distinguished School honor including lowering the cost of textbooks for students, saving students over $7 million, increased student success, increased student satisfaction and positive pandemic enrollment trends. "Many years ago, we started on this journey with iPads and to partner with Apple," said Northeast vice president of instruction Dr. Michelle Baragona. "We also started a process of bringing in Open Educational Resources for our students and the purpose of that was to make college relevant, equitable and affordable and that's what we've been able to do with our Apple Distinguished School recognition." Through its use of Open Educational Resources (OER), Northeast has been able to save its students more than $7 million through not only faculty grants but the Mississippi Z-degree program.

https://www.djournal.com/new-albany/nemcc-named-an-apple-distinguished-school-for-second-term-in-a-row/article_d643fb8e-d318-585d-807c-3cbc57cc90a6.html

Librarians receive international award for excellence in open education - Penn State University

Two Penn State University Libraries employees received Open Education (OE) Global’s 2022 Open Education Award for Excellence in Open Pedagogy. Christina Riehman-Murphy, open and affordable educational resources librarian and Sally W. Kalin Librarian for Learning Innovations, and Bryan McGeary, learning design and open education engagement librarian, received the award for their Open Pedagogy Project Roadmap. Open pedagogy is a reflective, high-impact practice that engages with students as creators of knowledge, rather than solely consumers of it, by leveraging situated, renewable assignments that emphasize collaboration, authentic audiences, and student agency.

https://www.psu.edu/news/academics/story/librarians-receive-international-award-excellence-open-education/

University of Sheffield Commits to ‘Open Access’ for Research and Scholarship - Mirage

The University of Sheffield has affirmed its commitment to an open research and scholarship culture, by approving new policies that will ensure its research is accessible to as many people as possible, and encouraging the use and creation of open educational resources throughout its teaching programmes. The University’s aspiration is to embrace an open research culture, which is fundamental in order for its research to be of maximum benefit to society, and to enable students to engage effectively with educational resources.  This aspiration is a vital pillar of University’s Vision and governs how the University’s distinctive and innovative research will continue to drive intellectual advances and address global challenges.

https://www.miragenews.com/university-of-sheffield-commits-to-open-access-930008/

Everyday Instructional Design: A Practical Resource for Educators and Instructional Designers - Rob Power, PressBooks

Everyday Instructional Design works through the online course or module development process, exploring the rationale and pragmatics of all of the steps involved with determining what needs to be developed, creating design plans, developing a prototype, pilot testing with a “live” student audience, reflecting on feedback, and determining how we can tweak our designs to create the best possible online teaching and learning experience.  

Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial

https://pressbooks.pub/everydayid/

Open Educational Resources (OER) - EDUCAUSE

Explore this resource site—a collection of all EDUCAUSE resources related to open educational resources (OER) in higher education.  

https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-learning/open-educational-resources-oer

7 Things You Should Know About Open Education: Practices - EDUCAUSE

Building on open educational resources (OER), open educational practices seek to fully use the potential inherent in OER to support learning and to help students both contribute to knowledge and construct their own learning pathways. Such open practices provide the architecture and philosophical underpinning for fulfilling the promise of using OER to expand collaborative, inclusive, accessible, and active learning and related pedagogy. Open educational practices also give agency to students by giving them more control over the structure, content, and outcomes of their learning and by creating opportunities for them to create learning materials. This publication is one in a three-part series designed to provide a point of departure for conversations about all aspects of open education.

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2018/7/7-things-you-should-know-about-open-education-practices