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Course Affordability & Open Educational Resources

Recent News

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Higher Ed, Lower Costs

April 30, 2024 09:03 AM
Dr. Royce Kimmons of the Instructional Psychology and Technology department is working hard to help students reduce their course materials costs. His work is reported in the Spring 2024 issue of Y Magazine.
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UC and Elsevier Reach Agreement in 10-year Deal

March 16, 2021 12:39 PM
On 16 March 2021 the University of California reached a 10-year deal with Elsevier to publish UC-authored journal articles openly. You can read the entire story at: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-news-uc-secures-landmark-open-access-deal-world-s-largest-scientific-publisher.
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New Faculty Watch Report (2020) Published

February 25, 2021 09:03 AM
The Faculty Watch report provides faculty perceptions and behaviors to allow you to effectively understand the evolution of course content. The report explores the course materials selection process, tracks faculty usage of materials, and analyzes faculty attitudes toward the college store.
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John Hilton, III--OER Advocate, User, and Researcher

October 29, 2020 01:40 PM
Dr. John Hilton, III is no stranger to Open Educational Materials. He has researched, used and developed open materials for years with his colleagues in the Open Ed Group (https://openedgroup.org/). His research touches on the efficacy of OER as well as important considerations in using open resources.
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Royce Kimmons--OER Advocate in Educational Technology

October 29, 2020 01:33 PM
Dr. Royce Kimmons uses and produces Open Educational Materials for his courses taught in the McKay School of Education. He has developed and published multiple textbooks and other course materials, many of which can be found on an open publishing platform he created at https://edtechbooks.org/.
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Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources

October 23, 2020 02:20 PM
This is a great resource for understanding the use of OER within the context of Fair Use. It is a list of links to webinars by employees of the American University Washington College of Law.
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The Impact of OER Initiatives on Faculty Selection of Classroom Materials

August 13, 2020 02:48 PM
The adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) is on the rise, driven in part by increasing awareness of OER. But while faculty and institutions have shown increasing awareness and acceptance of OER, many remain unfamiliar with what they are, or how to utilize them.
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McGraw Hill and Cengage Merger Stopped

July 01, 2020 03:38 PM
Early 2019 saw two large textbook publishers (McGraw Hill and Cengage) proposed a merger causing push-back from academics worldwide. Thanks for the efforts of many, including SPARC, the merger was called off in early May 2020.
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A Looming Challenge for OER

March 20, 2020 09:37 AM
Results of a new survey by Bay View Analytics (formerly Babson) sheds new light on the status of OER and affordability. Issues related to faculty awareness, inclusive access, and adoptions are addressed.
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CSU / Elsevier ScienceDirect Renewal Supports the Future of Research in California

March 09, 2020 02:59 PM
California State University has renewed their licence with Elsevier ScienceDirect reducing cost and increasing access across all campuses.
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AUTOMATIC TEXTBOOK BILLING An offer students can’t refuse?

February 28, 2020 11:32 AM
Attending college in America is one of the largest expenses someone will have in their lifetime. For more than 30 years, textbook publishers have added to that financial burden by driving up textbook costs through a variety of tactics. The latest effort is to automatically charge students for textbooks on their tuition bill.
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Elsevier Exit

February 26, 2020 01:13 PM
Q&A with Florida State University about their Big Deal Cancellation(s)
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Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain

February 26, 2020 07:53 AM
The launch of a new open access platform ushers in a new era of accessibility for the Institution
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Association for Computing Machinery signs new open-access agreements with four leading universities

January 24, 2020 09:21 AM
New ACM open publishing model promises to accelerate ACM's transition to full open access
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Some Praise and the Criticism of the UNESCO OER Recommendations

January 08, 2020 03:17 PM
After first lauding the UNESCO OER Recommendations, agreed upon by the 40th Congress, David Wiley explores the deeper and more disappointing meaning of the message. Somewhere between the release of the public version of the OER Recommendation and the version voted upon by the Congress wording was changed which muddied the waters of meaning.
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Congress to Renew $7 Million Open Textbook Pilot!

December 17, 2019 02:01 PM
A bipartisan budget agreement reached in the U.S. Congress will renew and strengthen the federal Open Textbook Pilot Grant Program with $7 million in funding for Fiscal Year 2020—a $2 million increase over previous years. Supported by advocates of higher education affordability, the renewal of this program for a third year is a resounding endorsement of the positive benefits that open textbooks can achieve for students. The funding is included in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, part of a $1.37 trillion budget package that Congress is expected to approve this week.
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Bookstores oppose Cengage/McGraw-Hill merger

December 04, 2019 09:55 AM
The National Association of College Stores (NACS) has come out in opposition to the proposed merger of Cengage and McGraw-Hill. The story in Inside Higher Ed explains their position.
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Intergovernmental Expert Meeting adopts revised Draft Recommendation on Open Educational Resources

December 03, 2019 12:40 PM
At the 40th session of the 2019 UNESCO General Conference An important step forward: Intergovernmental Expert Meeting adopts revised Draft Recommendation on Open Educational Resources by consensus – submission to UNESCO’s General Conference in November 2019. Full Article
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