#GoOpen

Exploring OER with the Open Textbook Network

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Faculty at GVSU… are YOU:

  • CONCERNED about the impact of high textbook costs on students?

  • INTERESTED in finding course materials that you can freely revise and adapt?

  • CURIOUS why people keep talking about Open Educational Resources (OER) at conferences, workshops, and campus events?

On October 22, the University Libraries are hosting two visitors from the Open Textbook Network, a national consortium of academic institutions advancing the use of OER, for a full day of workshops and meetings.

Guest presenters Marilyn Billings (University of Massachusetts – Amherst) and Meggie Mapes (University of Kansas) are passionate, successful advocates for OER, and are presenting a badge-eligible workshop for any interested faculty instructors.

Open Opportunities: Exploring OER with the Open Textbook Network is a two-hour workshop focused on discovering and evaluating OER for potential use in a course. This badge-eligible session is specifically designed to provide an introduction to OER and kick-start attendee’s exploration of high-quality open textbooks.

Open Opportunities Workshop

TIME: 1:00 – 3:00 PM
DATE: October 22
LOCATION: LIB 030.

Access full details and registration in Sprout.

If you have any questions about this professional development opportunity or OER in general, please feel free to contact Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator, ruenm@gvsu.edu.

GVSU participates in Michigan #GoOpen Initiative

On Wednesday, January 11, Matt Ruen from University Libraries and Eric Kunnen from eLearning attended a Michigan #GoOpen Initiative Community Meeting in Lansing at the Department of Education.

In short, the Michigan #GoOpen initiative is about collaborating P-20 to provide equitable access to high-quality open educational resources to transform learning.  The community meeting provided an opportunity for K12, HigherEd institutions, and the Department of Education to begin discussing how the state can align resources to advance open education resources (OER).

Throughout the day, a variety of national and state initiatives were highlighted such as the National Education Technology Plan which includes elements of OER in a goal to provide opportunity for all students to be successful through effective use of technology.

The National Education Technology Plan provides a vision of transformational learning experiences powered by technology that can shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps.

The US Department of Education’s established a #GoOpen campaign to create an organized movement around OER and their definition is:

#GoOpen campaign encourages states, school districts and educators to use openly licensed educational materials to transform teaching and learning.

Regarding the national #GoOpen campaign, there are 4 Michigan school districts that are part of the USA Department of Education Office of Educational Technology’s #GoOpen Launch program:

  • Dryden Community Schools, MI
  • Marlette Community Schools, MI
  • Marysville Public Schools, MI
  • Mona Shores Public Schools, MI
  • Wayland Union Schools, MI

These school districts, along with the state’s Top 10 in 10 vision for “putting Michigan on the map as a premier education state”, has brought together the Michigan Department of Education, Library of Michigan, Open Michigan (U of M), GVSU, Lansing Community College, Michigan Colleges Online, and many other K-12 educational organizations in the establishment of a state organized #GoOpen Initiative.

The State of Michigan’s #GoOpen definition is:

#GoOpen Michigan is a community where educators and learners can access freely licensed, high-quality digital resources to enable equitable transformative learning experiences [for P-20].

Stay tuned for more news about this initiative and you can learn more about using #OER and the services/support/resources available to faculty through the GVSU open education resources initiative web site.