The high cost of textbooks has become a serious obstacle to the …
The high cost of textbooks has become a serious obstacle to the affordability of a college education. The textbook market is rigged so that publishers can generate huge profits and engage in bad practices at students’ expense. Fortunately, we have solutions to this problem, most notably in the form of “open textbooks”—high-quality books that are available online for free or for a very low cost in print. With solutions like these, we can break the publishers’ stranglehold on the market and help make higher education more accessible to everyone. These changes won’t happen on their own—students will need to work for them. This toolkit provides the resources that student governments and state student associations need in order to bring open textbooks to their campuses and save students money
The following is a list of OER Keyholders from Northeast Lakeview College. …
The following is a list of OER Keyholders from Northeast Lakeview College. They were recognized for their efforts in supporting open educational resources (OER) at Alamo Colleges District.
This is the Nursing and Allied Health Resources wiki, a collaborative project …
This is the Nursing and Allied Health Resources wiki, a collaborative project by members of the Nursing and Allied Health Resource Section of the Medical Library Association. Use the left-hand navigation to browse the content. The content includes resources for nurses and other health
As open education resources (OER) advocates and individuals engaged in supporting the …
As open education resources (OER) advocates and individuals engaged in supporting the curation and creation of OER, the document collaborators came together on the common interest in curating and creating best practices or standards for OER review and approval.
While this group is dependent on volunteers the expected next review will be by July 2023. Throughout this time any comments, errors, or other communication on standards and rubric can be directed to rsauls@flvc.org. This is a final draft released on August 9, 2021 in a call for national feedback and input on implementation or potential use of this documentation.
The rising cost of higher education is about more than tuition—expensive textbooks …
The rising cost of higher education is about more than tuition—expensive textbooks and course materials remain a looming barrier to college affordability and access. Open educational resources (OER) are a solution to high-cost materials and state legislators are starting to take notice.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely available materials that can be downloaded, edited and shared to better serve all students. OER include all kinds of content such as textbooks, lesson plans, assignments, games, and other educational materials, and can include printed materials, not just digital.
Nearly half of all states have considered OER legislation in past years, and it has increasingly become a go-to strategy for legislators seeking to make college education more affordable and effective. States can catalyze and support action at institutions by providing resources, incentives, and policy frameworks.
This playbook provides a set of ideas that state legislators can consider to harness the power of OER to reduce college costs for students. Recommendations can be combined or pursued independently, and while not every recommendation is right for every state, each one offers a potential pathway to benefit students.
Check out SPARC’s OER State Policy Tracker to see existing state policy and stay up to date on current legislation: https://sparcopen.org/our-work/state-policy-tracking/
Open educational resources (OER) are textbooks and other course materials that are …
Open educational resources (OER) are textbooks and other course materials that are free for people everywhere to use and repurpose. States and institutions are leveraging OER to expand access to flexible, digital learning materials that reduce costs for students by millions each year.
Open Educational Resources (OER) provide equal access to resources at no cost …
Open Educational Resources (OER) provide equal access to resources at no cost to students. This toolkit provides information and tools to help faculty and library staff across all publicly funded colleges in Ontario to understand, engage with, and sustain OER in their work and practice.
OERigin Stories is a series of interviews with women of color working …
OERigin Stories is a series of interviews with women of color working in Open Education. I interviewed six individuals in the Open Movement (faculty, librarians, policy makers) and asked them to share their experience with Open Education. Because I believe Black, Indigenous, Asian, Hispanic, and other women from traditionally marginalized communities have rarely been given an opportunity to share their experiences in the Open Movement, OERigin Stories focuses exclusively on women of color in OER.
This is a complete contemporary translation of Plato's Euthyphro. While the dialogue …
This is a complete contemporary translation of Plato's Euthyphro. While the dialogue is made famous by the Euthyphro dilemma, the text offers a rich picture of the difference between relying on one's prior knowledge (like Euthyphro) and remaining open to inquiry (like Socrates).
This is an excellent contemporary translation of the first book of Plato's …
This is an excellent contemporary translation of the first book of Plato's Republic. It introduces the dialogue's central question ("What is justice?") and portrays Socrates as embodying the ignorance for which he is known while refuting the definitions proffered by his interlocutors. Since many philosophers think that this book was originally a standalone dialogue that was subsequently connected to the remainder of the text, it is a great option for classes to read (more or less) a full dialogue that features multiple interlocutors. Woods' translation has the further advantage of not Latinizing Plato's Greek, which may make pronunciation less intimidating for students who are challenged by the interlocutor's names.
This open-access textbook is for those who want to write exemplary social …
This open-access textbook is for those who want to write exemplary social research. It provides an extensive outline of each step of the research process: outlining practical tools for conceptualizing its beginnings, generating proposals, getting ethics approval, relaxing from the stresses of research, writing academically, conducting a literature review, drafting a methods section, collecting the right data, formulating the findings, and sharing the results. Woven throughout each chapter are testimonies of other students who have likewise persevered through the research process, relating their obstacles, solutions, and motivations to each stage of the research process to illuminate not only the technical goals of research, but also the emotional maturity that research entails.
The increasing concentration of scholarly communications, courseware publishing, and data analytics into …
The increasing concentration of scholarly communications, courseware publishing, and data analytics into the hands of fewer commercial vendors continues to raise concerns, particularly in the absence of evidence that publishers have any interest in mind other than their short-term revenue and profit growth. The focus on protecting revenues even in the face of deep academic budget cuts, the relentless lobbying to protect “inclusive access” practices that limit student choice, and the reluctance to abandon practices that disadvantage researchers point to the conclusion that the academic community can protect its values only by increasing control of its own content and infrastructure.
The past year has seen more deals that led to more concentration, loss of diversity, and ultimately to the academic community’s lessening control over its own destiny. However, there are also positive signs: a large merger failed, Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) was launched as a concerted effort to build a community-owned infrastructure, and some legislative progress was made. Much remains to be done, but the opportunity to tip the scales in favor of the interests of the knowledge community is significant and must be pursued.
This 2021 Update to the SPARC Landscape Analysis further explores these trends. Supplementing observations first published in the SPARC 2019 Roadmap for Action, this document suggests organizational changes in academic institutions to both (1) manage increasing strategic and ethical challenges and (2) deploy tools and analyze data to better understand the needs and protect the interests of individuals and communities. The recommendations underscore the need for the academic community to take control of its own content and infrastructure both to best serve its own interests and to protect and further its values of equity, inclusiveness, and academic freedom.
No restrictions on your remixing, redistributing, or making derivative works. Give credit to the author, as required.
Your remixing, redistributing, or making derivatives works comes with some restrictions, including how it is shared.
Your redistributing comes with some restrictions. Do not remix or make derivative works.
Most restrictive license type. Prohibits most uses, sharing, and any changes.
Copyrighted materials, available under Fair Use and the TEACH Act for US-based educators, or other custom arrangements. Go to the resource provider to see their individual restrictions.
