A Thumbs Up to Open Up for Delivering Free, Curriculum-Scale OER
The Journal
JULY 11, 2017
Finally, OER is coming of age!
2016 Education OER 
On the Relationship Between Adopting OER and Improving Student Outcomes
Iterating Toward Openness
AUGUST 31, 2022
This article started out with my being bothered by the fact that ‘OER adoption reliably saves students money but does not reliably improve their outcomes.’ ’ For many years OER advocates have told faculty, “When you adopt OER your students save money and get the same or better outcomes!”
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38 Community Colleges Share What It Takes to Launch an OER Degree Program
Edsurge
JUNE 22, 2017
And that’s been the driver behind nonprofit Achieving the Dream ’s (ATD) OER Degree Initiative , where 38 U.S. community colleges are creating full degree programs that utilize open educational resources (OER) from start to finish.
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Maha, the Path to OER-Enabled Pedagogy, and Technological Determinism
Iterating Toward Openness
JANUARY 24, 2019
Among other things, the post discusses her role in my decision to abandon the phrase “open pedagogy” and adopt the phrase “OER-enabled pedagogy.” Notes on Open Pedagogy (2016), a response to some writing by Mary Burgess and Amanda Coolidge. the open web, open educational resources, etc.).
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ISTE Highlights: Tips for Effective Blended Learning
Teacher Reboot Camp
JUNE 27, 2016
The panelists discussed current models of blended learning and provided visual examples of what these models looked like in various schools, classroom structure, open education resources (OER), learning management systems (LMS), creating flipped videos, flipped instruction , workflow, and challenges. bqsRbgHGng.
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219 OER is Growing at Religious Colleges, But Raises Unique Challenges
Edsurge
OCTOBER 24, 2018
One popular draw to open educational resources is that these openly-licensed learning materials can—and are often encouraged to—be tailored for a particular professor or course. Communications librarian Kristen Hoffman oversees much of the OER work at Seattle Pacific University, a Christian university in Washington.
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OERwashing: Beyond the Elephant Test
Doug Levin
MAY 16, 2016
Doug Levin (@douglevin) May 3, 2016. What I do want to comment on (in greater than 140 characters) is the practice of ‘openwashing:’ what it is, why I believe not being able to go beyond a pro-OER elephant test for organizations and service providers is untenable in practice, and some thoughts on what we can do about it.
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OER-based Degrees: Momentum
Iterating Toward Openness
JUNE 28, 2016
Creating and sharing OER did not harm their ability to succeed in accomplishing their core missions – the education of their students. And there are many reasons to believe that their efforts in creating and sharing OER actually advanced their core missions. 18) for the creation of OER-based degrees (see SEC.
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Do We Need a National Open Education Strategy?
Iterating Toward Openness
FEBRUARY 5, 2024
tl;dr – In order to be relevant today and in the future, a national open education strategy must (1) know exactly what it is trying to accomplish and (2) deeply integrate generative AI. WICHE is convening a series of conversations this week and next titled, “ Do We Need a National Open Education Strategy?
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Free Textbooks Are Not Always Free: New Study Analyzes OER’s Costs to Colleges
Edsurge
OCTOBER 18, 2018
When professors shift to assigning Open Educational Resources instead of publisher-produced textbooks, the move typically saves students money (and it can be a significant amount). A report released last week gives perhaps the most detailed accounting of the pricetag to colleges looking to make signiciant moves to OER.
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Lumen Scores $3.75M — and OER Gets a Foot in the Traditional Publishing Door
Edsurge
APRIL 20, 2017
Open Educational Resources (OER) have yet to cozy up with the more orthodox academics and pushy print publishers of the world. The most recent example occurred this week, when OER company Lumen Learning announced a partnership with one of the country’s largest textbook distributors, Follet Corporation.
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99 Heard, Overheard and Announced at ISTE 2016
Edsurge
JUNE 29, 2016
It brings together K-12 educators, companies, reporters, university professors, and students to talk about product announcements, implementation strategies and edtech trends. Matty Fox (@what2foxsay) June 28, 2016. The ISTE conference isn’t the biggest edtech conference in the world by sheer luck. Full EdSurge coverage on Google here.)
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How an OER Rookie Dove Deep Into a Zero-Cost Textbook Degree Program
Edsurge
MARCH 28, 2018
But it wasn’t until her current gig, serving as an instructor for a course on water supply and demand in California, that she got her feet wet with open educational resources. Coming from educational publishing, there was a strict division between writing and editing and graphic-design work,” says Anagnoson. Now it’s my job.”
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106 Amazon Launches 'Inspire,' a Free Education Resource Search Platform for Educators
Edsurge
JUNE 27, 2016
Back in February, an EdWeek Market brief reported that Amazon Education was starting to beta-test a new platform with educators, helping teachers navigate the jungles of open educational resources (or OERs, for short). The search capabilities of Amazon Inspire. In support of Amazon’s commitment to the U.S.
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113 Amazon’s Education Hub, Amazon Inspire, Has Quietly Restored ‘Sharing’ Function
Edsurge
JANUARY 11, 2018
Amazon has quietly re-opened a previously-controversial sharing feature that allows allow anyone to add to its directory of online educational materials, a platform called Amazon Inspire. Inspire was launched with great fanfare in 2016, touted as a hub for educators to exchange lesson plans and other open education resources.
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Where Are All the Faculty in the Open Education Movement?
Edsurge
MAY 16, 2018
Open educational resources (OER) are gaining increasing popularity. And as an active member in what advocates define as the “open education movement,” I frequently hear about the growing dissatisfaction of textbook costs and pedagogical concerns among faculty about outdated course materials.
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The 5 Strategies States Should Pursue Now to Make the Most of Future EdTech Investments in ESSA
Doug Levin
FEBRUARY 2, 2016
It’s now time to get down to brass tacks and figure out how the implementation of the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) can best be leveraged by state and local officials to improve educational outcomes for children and youth. These also speak to implicit expectations for technology availability. Offering online learning?
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OPEN UP RESOURCES RELEASES ITS FIRST FREE OER CURRICULUM
eSchool News
AUGUST 24, 2017
The curriculum, which has been published as an Open Educational Resource under Creative Commons license CC BY, is available in both digital and print formats at im.openupresources.org. During the 2016–17 school year, 175 teachers across six school districts helped fine-tune the curriculum as part of a yearlong beta release.
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Open Educational Practice: Unleashing the Potential of OER
Edsurge
AUGUST 9, 2016
It’s been a good year for open educational resources (OER). made commitments this year to establish entire degree programs based solely on OER. Governor Jerry Brown set aside $5 million for OER degree programs in California community colleges. Department of Education.
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A Thinking Person’s Guide to EdTech News (2017 Week 16 Edition)
Doug Levin
APRIL 23, 2017
Among them, I’ve updated my site to include a dedicated FAQ on open educational resources (OER). The FAQ is a collaboration of many involved with the movement and includes an OER infographic , suitable for downloading and re-sharing. My thanks to EdSurge for highlighting its availability. What then of the students?
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From Static to Interactive and From Open to Free: Consequences Both Intended and Unintended
Iterating Toward Openness
MAY 8, 2019
The most recent issue of IRRODL included an article titled Effectiveness of OER Use in First-Year Higher Education Students’ Mathematical Course Performance: A Case Study , by Juan I. This was justified by the fact that there is a lack of empirical evidence to support expanding the use of OER. When Grimaldi et al.
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Of Progress, Problems, and Partnerships
Iterating Toward Openness
APRIL 17, 2017
In 2012 Kim Thanos and I founded Lumen Learning because, through our Gates-funded work on the Kaleidoscope Project, we had seen first-hand how hard it was for faculty to replace publisher materials with OER. It seemed like lots of people wanted to publish and share their own OER, but no one wanted to use anyone else’s.
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Nationwide OER Degree Program Launches Today
Iterating Toward Openness
JUNE 14, 2016
In case you didn’t see it elsewhere, I’m republishing the press release from Achieving the Dream about the incredibly exciting OER Degrees work that launched today. Achieving the Dream Launches Major National Initiative to Help 38 Community Colleges in 13 States Develop New Degree Programs Using Open Educational Resources.
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60 A Thinking Person’s Guide to EdTech News (2017 Week 16 Edition)
Doug Levin
APRIL 23, 2017
Among them, I’ve updated my site to include a dedicated FAQ on open educational resources (OER). The FAQ is a collaboration of many involved with the movement and includes an OER infographic , suitable for downloading and re-sharing. My thanks to EdSurge for highlighting its availability. What then of the students?
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150 What Happened to Amazon Inspire, the Tech Giant’s Education Marketplace?
Edsurge
JUNE 26, 2017
Last summer the world’s largest online retailer launched Amazon Inspire, touting it as a hub for educators to exchange lesson plans and other Open Education Resources. Some wonder when it will be open to the wider education community (and what the company’s broader education strategy is). Department of Education.
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Wiley to Acquire Knewton’s Assets, Marking an End to an Expensive Startup Journey
Edsurge
MAY 6, 2019
In that context, that non-disclosure may be revealing for how far Knewton, which has been one of the most well-funded education technology companies, has fallen short of financial expectations. Wiley, once a major publisher of higher-education materials, has seen its education publishing business shrink over the years.
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156 Are K-12 Curriculum Tools a Smart Investment? What Investors and Our Data Say
Edsurge
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
In conversations with edtech investors, some reported that the K-12 market has seen an influx of instructional content, particularly in the form of open educational resources (OERs). OERs are openly-licensed educational materials that can be downloaded, modified and shared with others to help support student learning.
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101 Using Tech to Support Literacy Across 13.8 Billion Years of History
Edsurge
OCTOBER 30, 2017
Using OER is hard. Over sandwiches and iced tea, we talked about the challenges of OER. Working across so many disparate texts, it would be nearly impossible for a teacher to create anything like this when using OER. The 2016-17 assessment results show strong growth over the year among high school students. Source: BHP.
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6 Edtech New Year’s Resolutions
Tom Murray
JANUARY 12, 2016
With the new year now upon us, listed below are six edtech resolutions for 2016. In America ,” former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan often says, “ your zip code or your socioeconomic status should never determine the quality of your education. Commit to Ensuring Equity in Access and Opportunity.
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University of Georgia Kicks Fresh Courseware Pilot Into Gear
Edsurge
JULY 5, 2016
Open educational resources (OER) have saved students at the University of Georgia (UGA) nearly $2 million in textbook costs alone over the past three years. Rather than roll out a broad campaign to promote OER on campus, the center is focused on working with individual faculty members who teach large enrollment courses, Watson says.
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TCC Takes Z-Degrees to the Next Level With Adaptive Learning
Edsurge
JUNE 24, 2016
Now benefits like those cost reductions and higher student success rates are prompting the school to roll out more Z-degrees programs and extend its partnership with Lumen Learning by piloting next-generation adaptive OER courseware. But Tidewater doesn’t have plans for total conversion to OER, despite the benefits.
OPINION: Three misunderstandings about open resources
The Hechinger Report
MARCH 6, 2017
Our nine districts have been considering free or low-cost open educational resources alongside traditional options. All of our districts are members the members of the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools, an 86-district coalition recognized for innovation and leadership in education.
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MAD about Mattering: A New Global Collaborative App Project #steam
The CoolCatTeacher
JANUARY 21, 2016
A toolkit for teachers will be made available at the end of the 2015-2016 school year as an OER (open education resources), allowing other teachers across the world to follow this method of quad engineering. “So appsthatmatter.
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150 Open Up Resources Takes A Digital Leap Through Kiddom Partnership
Edsurge
NOVEMBER 1, 2019
She first discovered Open Up Resources in 2016 and rolled out its K-8 English curriculum for the 215 students at her school in the fall of the following year. We want educators to see how it connects with students and see the impact that curriculum makes on learning outcomes,” she adds.
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97 Inspiring Math Excellence in the Classroom with Po-Shen Loh
The CoolCatTeacher
JULY 26, 2017
This means that you can write your own textbooks, share them, or use them as you would any other OER or open education resource. As an educator, he led Carnegie Mellon University’s Putnam team to its first-ever #1 rank among all North American universities. What makes Expii unique?
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245 A Thinking Person’s Guide to EdTech News (2017 Week 33 Edition)
Doug Levin
AUGUST 20, 2017
In the absence of the weekly news round-ups, I took the time away to do some further writing and analysis: Everything’s Bigger in Texas…Including (Maybe) the Data Breaches , which details the ham-handed way in which the Texas Association of School Boards has communicated about their breach of personal information about Texas educators.
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150 What Would Dewey Do? Quotes…Ideas…Resources for Genuine Learning
21st Century Educational Technology and Learning
JUNE 23, 2016
I have often wondered what John Dewey would do in today’s educational setting with our vast amount of knowledge from research and our rapid growth of technology. I thought I would examine a few Dewey Quotes and see wonderful possibilities for the 21st-century education might surface through reflection. What Would Dewey Do?
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Cash Awards Honor Faculty and Institutions for Innovative Use of Digital Tools
Edsurge
JULY 3, 2017
The awards recognize educators’ and institutions’ innovative use of digital courseware to improve outcomes for students, especially underrepresented ones. The awards recognize educators’ and institutions’ innovative use of digital courseware to improve outcomes for students, especially underrepresented ones. 2016 Institutional Awards.
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106 Self-Paced E-Learning Market Evaporating, Report Finds
Marketplace K-12
AUGUST 30, 2016
The report defines self-paced courseware as being accessed on a desktop or laptop and spanning the K-12, higher education, corporate training, and privately marketed software (such as that produced by language-learning company Rosetta Stone) sectors. market is the trend toward open and free educational resources, or OER.
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70 Pearson, an Investor in Knewton, Is ‘Phasing Out’ Partnership on Adaptive Products
Edsurge
MAY 12, 2017
“The notion that adaptive technology is the reason why one school should choose one company’s content over OER (open educational resources) or other options” has become a staple of many publisher’s marketing claims, says Trace Urdan, an education market analyst. He was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in Education in 2014.
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95 Storms over liberal education: notes on the 2016 AAC&U conference
Bryan Alexander
JANUARY 24, 2016
Last week I participated in the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) 2016 conference. It was a powerful gathering of campus leaders and practitioners, organized around a common focus on liberal education. Consensus was: next steps, the future of tech and liberal education. Preconference workshop.
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Looking Back on Three Years of the ConnectED Initiative: Did It Deliver?
Edsurge
DECEMBER 19, 2016
But as Betsy Corcoran outlined in her July 2014 article , some companies had yet to deliver on their promise of clearly outlining how educators could apply for those products and services. “If And to provide more digital content beyond OERs, the government launched the Open eBooks app back in February 2016.
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Students Collaborate on Supporting Bee Populations with Digital Tools
edWeb.net
FEBRUARY 7, 2018
Each year, K-12 schools and districts that have leveraged technology to dramatically improve the educational experiences and achievements of their students are honored through SETDA’s Student Voices program. She is passionate about leveraging technology’s promise to improve education. You can learn more about Operation Bee here.
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Amazon Inspire’s relaunch
NeverEndingSearch
JULY 28, 2017
Offering a familiar, filtered Amazon search/shopping interface, Inspire allows educators to discover, download, curate and share Open Educational Resources (OER). We’re working to build a thriving community of educators on the Amazon Inspire Beta, and are eager to have you as a part of it. Why the delay? International.
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