OPEN EDUCATION WEEK (11-15 MARCH) 2013
Open Education Week 2013 (http://www.openeducationweek.org/) emphasizes the importance of open content and open educational resources (OER). OER are freely accessible, openly formatted and openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, education, assessment and research purposes. An increasingly important OER are open textbooks and their potential to decrease the total cost of education. OER was a term originally coined by UNESCO in 2002.
For more information about OER visit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources)
CELEBRATE OPEN EDUCATION WEEK
This year Open Education Week will emphasize open textbooks. Open Textbooks can help to greatly reduce the costs of education by promoting the use of books that are licensed openly and can be revised, reused, redistributed, and remixed by instructors. Open Textbooks are available freely in digital format and at a low cost in paper format. Many of these books utilize Creative Commons licenses (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/)
To celebrate Open Education Week students have agreed to wear open textbook shirts and share with colleagues and friends the concept of Open Textbooks and Open Educational Resources. More information about Open Textbooks is available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_textbook
The College of Education and Human Development through the creation of the Open Textbook Catalog has promoted the review of open textbooks in the hope that some of open textbooks may be adopted by faculty across the university, Minnesota, and the United States. Open Textbooks can save every student hundreds of dollars a semester and can save millions of dollars to students nationwide. Various states have noticed that potential of Open Textbooks in impacting education. Just in California alone, 50 open textbooks are currently being developed in the most common undergraduate courses. Other organizations such as Saylor.org are also encouraging and creation of Open Textbooks (http://www.saylor.org/otc/)
By increasing awareness to the Open Textbook Catalog (http://open.umn.edu) we hope that more faculty members become aware of this valuable resource and contribute to the review of Open Textbooks. Currently various universities across the United States and in Canada are utilizing the Open Textbook Catalog which will increasingly include more resources and detailed reviews of different textbooks. For more information about the cost saving impact of open textbooks visit http://www.studentpirgs.org/campaigns/sp/make-textbooks-affordable
OPEN EDUCATION WEEK AWARENESS RAISING MATERIALS
You will find Open Education Week outreach information, including possible scenarios where you could bring up the topic of open access, and basic talking points to introduce the topic, at http://z.umn.edu/oeweekideas
