OER

01
Jul
2015

Learn about free textbooks from OpenStax College!

OSC Vertical LogoThe Faculty Mentoring Program, Outreach College, and OpenStax Collection,
Rice University present:

OpenStax College Webinar on Open Educational Resources (OER)
Friday, July 10, 2015
12 noon to 1:15 p.m.
Kuykendall 106 Events Room

Note:  Librarians at Kapiolani (contact Sunny Pai), Leeward (contact Junie Hayashi), and Honolulu Community Colleges (contact Carol Hasegawa)  are holding simultaneous  satellite events at their campuses.

Join us for a special webinar event by Nicole Finkbeiner, Associate Director of Institutional Relations, OpenStax College, in Kuykendall 106 Events Room.    Outreach College’s Open Educational Resources Librarian Sara Rutter will facilitate a discussion after the webinar.

This is a wonderful opportunity to meet faculty who share your interest in using open textbooks to help
students afford higher education. Learn about free textbooks and resources developed and peer-reviewed by educators.

Please register online at
www.fmp.hawaii.edu/OnlineReg.html.

Posted by Sara Rutter in OER
03
Jun
2015

OpenStax announces new open textbooks for university courses

New books!
OpenStax College published the full versions of four new books within the last week!  All of these are peer-written, peer-reviewed, and went through a rigorous editorial process.
The books are online completely free (no passwords or registration required) in .pdf and web view format. Print copies (approximately 10% of students purchase print) are sold basically at cost ($29-$53 depending on the number of pages) and will be available in July for Fall.
When you go to the pages, please also note the “More Resources” tab, which directs faculty to the additional resources to support each book. We will be adding a variety of resources for each title over the summer.
Chemistry
By far, our most requested book!
PreCalculus
Algebra and Trigonometry
College Algebra
American Society for Microbiology partnership with OpenStax College
Rice University-based publisher OpenStax College and the American Society for Microbiology Press announced they are teaming up to produce Microbiology, a new introductory-level textbook due for release in spring 2016 that will be free online and low-cost in print.
Content leads/Reviewer recruiting
OpenStax College hires content leads and reviews to peer-write and review our textbooks. They are also put through a rigorous editorial process prior to publication. To ensure we are meeting the standard scope and sequence of courses, we recruit qualified faculty from a wide variety of institutions. Below are our current needs and the contact information for each.
1.       University Physics
·         Chapter Revisers to work with the College Physics manuscript and help shape it into an appropriate calculus-based chapter. Candidates must have recent experience teaching the intro calculus-based course and familiarity with market leading textbooks to be considered for this important role.
·         Contact: Don Whelan, Assistant Editor, dwhelan@wordsandnumbers.com
2.       Astronomy
·         Chapter Revisers
·         Chapter Reviewers
·         Contact: Amanda Prestowitz, Editor, aprestowitz@wordsandnumbers.com
3.       Prealgebra and Elementary Algebra
·         Exercise/Assessment writers (Elementary Alg)
·         Accuracy Checkers (Prealgebra)
·        Solutions Manual Writers (Prealgebra)
·         Sheri Mutreja, Project Coordinator, SMutreja@wordsandnumbers.com
Nicole Finkbeiner
Associate Director, Institutional RelationsRice University
Center for Digital Learning and Scholarship
OpenStax College • OpenStaxCollege.org
Connexions • cnx.org
RDLS • rdls.rice.edu

Posted by Sara Rutter in OER, Zero Textbook Cost
11
May
2015

The Case for Open Educational Resources and Open Policies

This refers to a webinar that took place April 28, 2015. An announcement was posted on this site on April 16, The Learning, Business, and Moral Case for Open Educational Resources and Open Policies.

The Internet, increasingly affordable computing and bandwidth, open licensing, open access journals and open educational resources (OER) provide the foundation for a world in which a higher education can be a basic human right. Governments and foundations are supporting this shift with a move to open policies: requiring public access to publicly (and foundation) funded resources. Dr. Cable Green, Director of Global Learning at Creative Commons, provides an overview of open licensing and OER, and discusses specific examples where institution, provinces / states, nations and foundations have moved the default on funding from “closed” to “open.” He also explores new OER projects that are pushing open education further into the mainstream.

View the video or use the link under the video window to download the video file. You can download the accompanying slide deck by clicking here.

Both the recording and the slides are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Posted by Sunny Pai in OER
06
May
2015

Kim Thanos wants to take down the textbook industry–Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Chronicle of Higher Education profiles Kim Thanos, Chief Executive of Lumen Learning.  She notes that faculty who  adopt open-access materials put class materials into students’ hands on the first day of class, and calls this  “a social-justice issue.”

Lumen Learning, in Portland, OR, was  founded in 2012 with David Wiley, (Wiley is one of the foremost advocates of Open Educational Resources). Lumen Learning  works with faculty to create courses with open  digital content.  Currently there are 60+ courses in Lumen Learning’s catalog.

Check out the article at http://chronicle.com/article/Kim-Thanos-Wants-to-Take-Down/229383/ .  

To learn more about Lumen Learning go to http://lumenlearning.com/

 

Posted by Sara Rutter in OER, Open Education
05
May
2015

OER@UH, a Forum at Kapiolani Community College

On May 4, Kapiolani Community College’s Faculty Senate and Student Congress sponsored a forum on Open Educational Resources at UH.  We covered some of the basic concepts of OER and had a lively discussion about concerns and ways to support implementation at UH.  Here is the slideshow, which you may wish to download to get the links to work: OER-talk-forum-May4.

Posted by Sunny Pai in Kapiolani, OER
30
Apr
2015

OER Evidence Report 2013-2014

Screen Shot 2015-04-30 at 1.10.38 PM OER Research Hub examines 11 hypotheses about OER using survey data, interviews, and focus groups.  Slides that provide a summary of the latest report are on Slideshare,
OER Research Findings . The full report (36 pp) is here

Posted by Sara Rutter in OER
16
Apr
2015

The Learning, Business, and Moral Case for Open Educational Resources and Open Policies

Inside Higher Education and Creative Commons are hosting a webinar presentation by Cable Green giving an overview of a changing policy landscape regarding OER.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 8:00:00 AM HST – 9:00:00 AM HST
The Internet, increasingly affordable computing and bandwidth, open licensing, open access journals and open educational resources (OER) provide the foundation for a world in which a higher education can be a basic human right. Governments and foundations are supporting this shift with a move to open policies: requiring public access to publicly (and foundation) funded resources.Dr. Cable Green, Director of Global Learning at Creative Commons, will provide an overview of open licensing and OER, and discuss specific examples where institution, provinces / states, nations and foundations have moved the default on funding from “closed” to “open.” He will also explore new OER projects that are pushing open education further into the mainstream.

Posted by Sunny Pai in Creative Commons, OER
13
Apr
2015

NSF will require grantees to make published results freely available within 12 months

More research publications will be made freely available to the public as the National Science Foundation adopts a policy similar to that of the National Institutes of Health. See a report from Science, at http://go.hawaii.edu/gS . Students will have free access to current research at no cost. Instructors will have fewer hurdles in incorporating research publications into their reading lists.

Posted by Sara Rutter in OER, Open Access, Open Education
01
Apr
2015

Students and textbook expenditures

An interesting post at e-literate by Phil Hill analyzes data showing increased costs of textbooks but relatively level spending by students–in short, students are choosing to forgo purchasing required textbooks.

Posted by Sara Rutter in OER